Yin and Yang: Growth Through Resiliency During Covid-19
Now I’ve been observing a lot of anxiety and stress during this pandemic. It’s a virus not to be taken lightly. Many people will die and it will throw us into a lot of uncertainty. These things we know, there’s no changing this. We can personally mediate the spread, but these are largely out of our control.
Saying this, how can we remain rationally optimistic during this time? What are the lessons to be learned? How can we grow?
Eastern philosophy shows us yin and yang, for every certain thing in life, there is an opposite yet interconnected dichotomy. For every bull market, there’s a bear. For peace, there was war. During crisis, there is growth.
Now that we’re being forced to isolate, instead of just seeing the negatives of this uncontrollable situation, how can we find the greater good? How can we grow? As an extroverted person who is uncomfortable with the lack of social connection, how can you explore introversion and the introspection that can come with it?
As someone enjoying the introspection COVID has brought, this brings to mind the topic of margins.
In business, your margins are essentially how efficient your product is at making money. A product with low margins will, generally, not make a successful business unless the scale is massive. Even then, it may seem like the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.
During this time of forced introspection, would it be interesting to reflect on what your personal margins are? Are you spending your time focusing on things that have a good return on the energy used? Is the juice not worth the squeeze on anything in your life? How efficient are you being towards accomplishing your personally selected dream?
This topic, in terms of business, is why a lot of people choose to invest in cash flowing real estate. If your goal in life is to make good money,(Gasp! Talking about monetary success), while not trading massive amounts of your personal time, margins become a very good topic to explore. Particularly in the bay area where you are essentially forced to make good money just to survive. Now, what happens when you finally make that good money and buy that house because you want to raise a family, but now you have no time to raise your kids. A paradox unfolds. You may find that while your salary is high, in reality, your margins are low.
Real estate is a great way to combat this paradox and a good example of something with the potential for ideal margins. After the initial time investment, and delegating the managerial tasks effectively, you have money that is coming in relatively passively. This plays out as such: Initial due diligence = 30 hours; Month 1 = 2.5 hours, Month 2 = 1.25 hours, Month 3 = 0 hours, Month 4 = 0 hours; so on and so forth until interaction with the business entity is required. So, let’s say your rental nets $500 per month. Month one = $14/hour, Month 2 = $200/hour, Month 3 = $333/hour, Month 4 = +$500/hour; so on and so forth until interaction with the business is needed.
Now that your margins are high and time freed up, instead of being bogged down by menial tasks that are essential to survive, you can now explore the new exciting dreams that you naturally gravitate to. You can have more time to spend with your family. More time to pursue your passions. More time to kick back and enjoy life. More time to grow and become the person you’ve always envisioned. With this virus, we’ve all been forced to face our own mortality, so living a life that expresses your own wants, needs, and dreams should be of top priority. Our time is limited, make sure you’re using it wisely.
