I keep hearing the same thing at syndication events:
“My goal is to get to 1,000 doors.” “I want to control $100 million in assets.” “I’m trying to raise $10 million this year.”
Here’s my question: Why?
Not why those are impressive numbers – they obviously are. But why are those YOUR goals?
Did you sit down and figure out that 1,000 doors is exactly what you need to live the life you want? Or did you just hear someone else say it at a conference and think, “That sounds good”?
Most people are chasing someone else’s definition of success.
They’re working 80-hour weeks to hit numbers that have nothing to do with what they actually want out of life.
I’ve seen syndicators stress themselves out trying to do multiple large deals when focusing on smaller deals would give them everything they’re actually trying to achieve.
I’ve watched people sacrifice their health, their relationships, and their sanity chasing goals that sounded impressive but weren’t connected to any real purpose.
Here’s what I wish more people would ask themselves:
What would a typical Tuesday look like in your ideal life?
Not a vacation day or special occasion – just a regular Tuesday when everything is exactly how you want it.
Where would you wake up? What would you do first? How would you spend your time? Who would be around you? What would you NOT have to worry about?
But dig deeper on your answers: If you said a giant house, a pool, fancy cars… are you just repeating what OTHER people want? Or trying to achieve what OTHER people think equals success?
It’s like wanting abs because they’re a status symbol versus wanting to feel good and be able to use your body to do the things you enjoy. Do YOU really care about the giant house? Or do you just want to feel secure and comfortable?
If you had to choose between travel and a huge house, which would you prefer? Why?
Think about what really matters to YOU, not what it would take to impress other people (real or imaginary).
Too many people waste their time and energy chasing symbols they think will impress others, without considering life they really want.
Here’s what often happens when you don’t think this through:
You work 80-hour weeks to hit $100 million in assets, then have a heart attack at 50.
You build a “successful” business that requires constant travel, missing your kids’ entire childhood.
You achieve the financial freedom you thought you wanted, but you’re so burned out you can’t enjoy it.
You get the respect of industry peers while your marriage falls apart.
You think you’re building generational wealth for your kids, but by the time you achieve it, you have no relationship with them because you were never around when they were growing up.
Here’s a practical exercise that might help:
Write down three people whose lives you genuinely admire – not their bank accounts, but their actual day-to-day lives. What specifically do you admire about how they live? How do they spend their time? What kind of relationships do they have?
Then write down three people who seem “successful” by industry standards but whose lives you wouldn’t want. What about their daily reality would you want to avoid? What did they sacrifice to get those impressive numbers?
Ask yourself: Is your dream to have a half day each week where you can work through advanced math for fun? Do you actually want a giant house? Why? What would having it give you that you don’t have now?
As the book “Lean & Strong” puts it: “Goals become destructive when they’re about symbols we think will make us look good to others.”
Focus on your values – health, family, freedom, responsibility, connectedness, strength – not just status symbols like getting abs, owning 1,000 doors, or driving a luxury car.
Now ask yourself: Which group is your current business plan moving you toward?
Maybe you don’t need 1,000 doors. Maybe 200 doors generating the right cash flow would give you everything you want and more.
Maybe instead of acquiring deal after deal, you’d be happier focusing on a few really good properties that don’t require much attention.
Maybe your definition of success looks nothing like what everyone else is chasing.
The most successful people I know aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest portfolios.
They’re the ones who figured out what success meant to them personally, then built a business that delivers that specific outcome.
Some of them work 20 hours a week and travel six months a year. Some of them focus on their local market and are home for dinner every night. Some of them built exactly the lifestyle they wanted, then stopped growing.
And they’re all more satisfied than the people killing themselves to hit arbitrary numbers.
I know a marketer worth 9 figures who thought if he got a certain exotic sports car, he’d be happy. He got it and wasn’t happy, so he thought he wanted a different expensive car. He repeated this pattern and now has giant garages full of exotic sports cars, an enormous wine cellar, huge house – all the symbols of success.
But he still isn’t happy. He told me recently he booked a therapist’s entire calendar for the month so he can have therapy whenever he wants to try to figure out why he has “success” but he’s not happy.
He spent decades pursuing dreams everyone else had set for him – things he didn’t actually care about.
Your business should serve your life, not consume it.
If you’re not clear on what you actually want, you’ll end up building someone else’s version of success – and wondering why it doesn’t feel as good as you thought it would.
So before you set your next big goal – or continue pursuing your current ones – ask yourself: Is this what I actually want, or just what I think I’m supposed to want?
The answer might change everything about how you approach your business.
What does success actually look like for you personally? Not what sounds impressive, but what would actually make you happy and fulfilled? Hit reply and tell me – sometimes just writing it out helps clarify what you’re really working toward.