This episode examines the mindset shift from pursuing aggressive 4X growth targets to accepting intelligent delays as protection, using Ray Dalio’s “pain plus reflection equals progress” framework to navigate the pivot.
Key Takeaways:
- God’s Delays Aren’t Denials Stepping back from unlimited growth ambitions (3X in 2024, targeting 4X in 2025) to focus on survival and sustainability isn’t rejection but intelligent self-protection requiring patience with continued inspired action.
- Arbitrary Goals Can Become Dangerous Goals set three to four weeks prior became obsolete as market dynamics shifted daily, demonstrating that metrics often serve ego rather than genuine business health in volatile environments.
- Pain Without Reflection is Wasted The 2021-2022 net worth destruction through poor macro awareness now informs current defensive posture, with systematic reflection converting past losses into sustainable decision-making frameworks.
Tune in to hear how accepting delayed ambition while maintaining disciplined action creates the foundation for long-term success over short-term metrics.
(Podcast transcript below)
Hi, it’s Chris Duff over at Serious Land Capital, Vacant Land Funding Partner. Happy Easter if you celebrate. Just got back from a wonderful family celebration at my parents’ house. My brother and his longer-term girlfriend were visiting from Denver and they were all enjoying the presence of our two and a half year old.
very well behaved and so independent and just kind of fun. Yeah, my wife and I see her every day so it’s, we’re a little bit more jaded here and there but as any parent can relate but it’s really fun to see our family members interact with her and her warming up to them so quickly and we did like an Easter bunny.
treat trail in the morning. My brother and I used to grow up with and fond memories of that. So it’s kind of fun passing down that, that tradition there. so, you know, days like this, it’s, it’s nicer when you can kind of step back and just, you know, still enjoy the time with family, a little less engrossment within the technology side and just still understanding that there’s a lot of
issues within the economy and how are we going to figure this out on the business side, et cetera, et cetera, as I talk about routinely, especially recently. So, you know, was thinking about a quote or a route of thinking when I was in Ken Kuhn earlier this year with coach Trevor McGregor and
something that…
Yeah, again, yeah, thinking about more recently, especially in these market shifts here and.
Yeah, so just getting to the quotes here, sorry, was just collecting my thoughts, forgive me, I sort out a late Sunday afternoon, back to business and mindset orientation. Again, Sundays I try to talk a little bit more about mindset. the quotes here, a few different versions of it.
One is, know, God’s rejection is your protection. Or in other words, God’s delays are not, are not denials. Or another similar one is that God doesn’t waste pain. And, you know, know throwing the word God around, like insert whatever, you know, term you want to use, higher being, universe, et cetera. I’m not.
a religious person and not Christian in the sense of that capital G God, but it’s a good stand in for.
You know, having a firm belief that your trials and pain, you know, won’t, you know, won’t, won’t be wasted. and that if you, really understand and, you know, seek to reflect on those myriad issues that can come up, you know, that’s only going to.
uh, yeah, protect you going forward and, uh, you know, understand that it’s not a firm rejection of, um, you know, any result that you’re looking for in the future. just might be delayed, uh, for some, for some period of time. And
You know, I’m taking this into how you actually utilize this because again, you know, some of these quotes here to be careful, you know, like, I just, you know, the secret type beliefs, like, yeah, if you really think hard about, you know, what, what you want, you know, from like God or a universe perspective, like it’s going to deliver to you. I don’t, I don’t believe that.
And I don’t think there’s any evidence behind that. So let me just be clear about that, but it’s more setting yourself up to understand that you can have everything you want and desire if you are patient for it and critically and you take intelligent and inspired action continuously. That is the absolute
trucks here because nothing is done or nothing gets done without continuing to take action. I have that tattooed on my arm, which I’ll do for another podcast here soon. But you know, that’s always kind of the…
you key balance there is like, you can’t necessarily rush the results. Sometimes, you know, we’re, you know, we don’t necessarily get to choose the circumstances that, that were put in or that we’re born into or that we deal with. But, you know, we can all choose to adapt to what those circumstances are and take that again, intelligent and inspired action in order to.
reach those results that we, desire and having the requisite patients to stick with the plan. so I’ve been thinking about that a lot more again recently because, you know, within this market, as I’ve remarked a number of times.
Over the past few weeks, like, yeah, we’re more on the defense. I’m trying to fire sale a lot of our portfolio. we’re not nearly as aggressive in terms of acquisitions the way we’re starting this year. I’m like, man, we’re just on, you know, like a Forex top line multiplier growth trajectory from, you know, like last year to, to this year. And we had already hit, you know, three mill.
top line last year, which was three X the previous year before that. So it’s just like, okay, we’re like really tracking for significant growth and better profit margins, et cetera. Like, let’s just keep this ball rolling and to now have to, you know, intelligently in our opinion, okay, be willing to step back and consider, okay, we need to be really
careful in this market here. We’re not like the numbers are the numbers, right? Like it’s more important to stay in this business, stay in this business profitably for the long term versus continuing to try to reach just for the sake of reaching where your chance of blowing up is considerably higher. And so, you know, then I have to remind myself, you know, all of these metrics and goals sometimes are just arbitrary and
the delay that we might be experiencing in terms of like, you know, unlimited growth and just realizing our ambition and so forth. Like that’s not necessarily a denial that we’re experiencing here. It’s simply a delay. And we think it’s an intelligent, you know, self-induced delay in relation to what we perceive market dynamics to be.
And sometimes yeah, you can also feel like I’m kind of rejected here as well too because now I’m not even reaching What I perceive to be my own goals even you know, three or four weeks ago But you know again, we’re also protecting ourselves For the long-term vision and future of this business. So again God’s rejection is your protection God’s delays are not denials
And God doesn’t waste pain. Again, insert whatever whatever phrasing you want for for God there. It’s just an easy it’s an easy stand in. So that’s been that’s been on my mind a lot over. Over the past few weeks here and. Yeah, I think another one.
that fits into this is that Ray Dalio quote about pain plus reflection equals profits. it’s, it’s, you know, similar, um, similar sentiment and meaning behind that quote as well too. And, know, that’s another one I thought a lot about when I lost millions of dollars in late 2021 through most of 2022, just
train wrecked my net worth. That, you know, there was a ton of pain, ton of reflection. And now, you know, my net worth is not back to what those numbers were prior to losing all of that, but I’m on a way more sustainable, way, way, way more sustainable path and feeling much more secure and strong about the trajectory that I’m on now. And it’s just,
we’re continuing to reap in profits accordingly. So, um, all of that goes to say is that, you know, like the proper mix of, again, patients, um, with, again, I quote, intelligent and inspired action credit to coach T about this, that will get you anything you want in life. Absolutely anything. So,
Just understand that. Understand that no one has their ducks in order right now. I’m contact with some folks with very, very high levels of access politically, financially, and so forth. Everybody is running around with their heads cut off a little bit here, so understand that you’re not the only one. And we’re all trying to navigate.
this economy together and. You know, take in the data as it comes in on a day by day basis so we can continue to take the requisite actions to, you know, initially stabilize if you need to survive and then turn that into thriving within the new set of circumstances. That’s the pathway to follow. And so long as you.
continue to stay focused in that regard, your success will come.
With that, if you are looking for funding, seriousland.capital, looking forward to reviewing more deals tomorrow, after the holiday. Sorry, I was a little bit like backtracking today again, sometimes when I record these in the late afternoon, especially on the weekend, to collect my thoughts a little bit, but yeah, I’m re-ramping up for this coming week, another big week, you’re excited to get into it.
Land daily diligence Facebook group zero cost review of your land deals. We just hit 900 members Earlier this week very excited that our value is continuing to be recognized by the land community and Want to continue to deliver on that and then landpricer.ai for the most simple and accurate way to price land is getting even some more positive feedback about that here over the past few days
I’m excited to deliver on the 2.0 version of that ASAP. Subscribe and share if you haven’t already. Take care. Bye.
