James Schramko here. What do you do when you have a situation of a slightly less than ideal, that you have to decide whether you say yes or no?
And this happens a lot, if we’re a service provider. We will have the opportunity to work with a probably subpar customer from time to time. Certainly, when you’re starting out, if you need money then you might be tempted to go with the deal even if it’s not the best customer. There will be lots of other examples like this. Maybe you’re working in a job that you don’t absolutely love. You’re just doing it as a means to an end.
Now, one of my mentors used to teach me this expression and I quite liked it. And it was in relation to the topic of compromise and his preference was, he would rather have an empty property than a bad tenant. And I really like this philosophy because by his reckoning if you take the bad tenant, they’re going to be a slow payer on the rent, they’re possibly going to damage your property, they’re going to tie you up with all sorts of stress and concern and expenses to chase them up and to resolve the situation, versus having a drama-free scenario where the property is empty.
So, of course, the key to this is to not be dependent on the income from that property. So, if you have a service or an agency, don’t be dependent on any one customer for your business to survive. Have the ability to say no to a bad customer.
If you’re working in a job that you don’t absolutely love (like I did in the last job that I ever had), start building your own business so that you have a better option. It’s up to you. You’re responsible for creating a scenario where you have less compromise. Ideally, no compromise. Imagine, if you’re only doing the things you absolutely love.
So, as soon as possible, try out this phrase that “an empty property is better than a bad tenant” and you’ll find life is so much less dramatic. It’s not putting a strain on your adrenal gland. You might actually enjoy yourself a little bit. Life is pretty good without that drama.
I’m James Schramko. I hope you’ve enjoyed this. I welcome your comments. By all means, make a comment, share this video, send me an email if you like. I’m open for discussion. I love to hear from what you’d like me to talk about on videos like this.
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