You VS. You

Originally sent exclusively to The Letter subscribers on July 13th. Want to be the first to get my personal newsletter in your inbox every Monday at 7am? Subscribe for free here.

I think the overwhelming battle we all have with our own mind is what separates those who make it in life from those who really make it.

I'm not talking about simply getting by or settling for mediocre success.

I'm talking about proper success. A life where people genuinely love and respect you, where you've made a positive impact, and where you've built serious wealth too.

It's just you versus your brain every single day.

Tough times, moments of uncertainty, and those "Oh no... how am I going to get through this?" moments produce something incredibly valuable: character.

Character gives you the ability to have awkward conversations, deal with rejection, understand how the world really works, and develop perhaps the greatest skill of all: resourcefulness.

As we say regularly, it's not your lack of resources that holds you back. It's your lack of resourcefulness.

There are opportunities and blessings hidden in every situation.

The funding falls through? Good.

That's an opportunity to learn, adapt and come back with an even better deal next time.

Let me tell you a true story.

I was buying a commercial property that I really wanted. The sellers were putting me under pressure because they wanted a quick sale.

The trouble was I'd just emptied the coffers buying business number 647 of the week. I jest, but you get the idea. I simply needed a little more time to get the deal done.

It was a corker in a fantastic location. It would make a brilliant day nursery, generate hundreds of thousands of pounds in additional profit and produce £300,000 a year of guaranteed rental income (it had a portfolio of commercial property with it).

Long story short, they weren't happy with the pace. A big shot came along and offered £250,000 more than me.

Game over.

Deal lost.

Or so I thought.

This week they came back to me.

The big shot turned out to be all talk.

"Would you still like to buy it?"

Absolutely.

Only this time, I secured a very healthy discount, not because I wanted to do them over, but because I could secure a bridge mortgage limiting my cash in to zero. They want speed. Speed comes with discounts.

I've learnt to discipline my disappointment.

That discipline, combined with the experience of countless deals that have gone wrong before, earned me a £350,000 discount on this puppy.

Not bad for a little patience and practising the art of being nice when someone tells you where to go.

When they rejected my offer 6 months ago, I simply replied:

"If the big shot lets you down, come back to me. And by the way, congratulations. I genuinely wish you and your family every success for the future."

One of my favourite strategies is to kill people with kindness.

Not because it's a tactic, but because I genuinely believe it's the best way to live.

Something similar happened recently with the sale of one of our assets. It would have generated around £1 million for us, but the deal collapsed.

I was angry for about two days. Longer than I should have been.

Then I sent the seller a message wishing him well.

I genuinely liked him. Circumstances killed the deal, not personalities.

I only want to work with good people.

In both of these situations, they were good people.

Some years you win. Some years you build character.

I've come to realise that the longer you stay in the game, the luckier you become.

If you lose today, you may eventually realise you never really lost at all. You simply hadn't won yet.

I don't want to get too philosophical, but every struggle and every scar has eventually led me to something better. It just rarely feels like it at the time.

The longer you stick at it, the more you develop what feels like the ability to predict the future. Not because of some mystical power.

Simply because history has an incredible habit of repeating itself. You get to choose who you spend your time with. You get to choose how hard you work. Most importantly, you, and only you, get to choose how you think.

The greater your thinking, the greater your life.

And the greater your ability to do good in the world.

I've had one of the toughest nine-month periods of my life, and I'm genuinely grateful that I've been able to come through it. If I could leave you with just one thought from those nine months, it would be this:

If you have negative people around you, remove them. Remove them quickly. That might mean colleagues.

It might even mean people you love.

Life is simply too short to spend it surrounded by people who constantly drain your energy.

Right, I'm off to lift some weights... (been a great exercise week for me, 5 times in 8 days) 

I rang my local gym and asked if they could teach me to do the splits.

They said, "How flexible are you?"

I said, "I can't do Tuesdays or Thursdays."

Until next week.

To your continued success.

James

P.S. Want to grow your business in 2027? Come to Business Masterclass and learn how.