Preparation Pays
EB Sledge deployed to the Pacific in February of 1944 expecting to face the most horrific combat in the history of the world. What he didn’t expect was another Marine to be shooting at him shortly after he arrived.
During WWII, Marines didn’t deploy directly to battle. They often arrived at an island in the Pacific called New Caledonia where they received more training before assaulting the beaches of Peleliu and Okinawa.
Sledge, the author of With the Old Breed, arrived on New Caledonia as a private, thinking he was battle-ready. The training he was about to receive would prove otherwise. During routine drilling, a non-commissioned officer named Red ordered Sledge and his comrades into a foxhole. Red wanted to teach the sound of incoming enemy fire. Most importantly, he wanted his men to be able to identify the weapon doing the firing.
“Now when I blow this whistle, get down and stay down until you hear the whistle again,” shouted Red. “If you get up before the signal, you’ll get your head blowed off, and the folks back home will get your insurance.”
Then he began firing Japanese weapons over the foxhole, announcing each type of weapon as he fired. Next, with the help of some other Marines, Red fired all the weapons at the same time for about 15 seconds. The junior Marines hunkered low, taking in the barrage of fire flying inches over their heads and dodging smoldering tracer rounds falling into their foxholes.
Decades later, Sledge reflected, “This was one of the most valuable training exercises we underwent. There were instances later on Peleliu and Okinawa which it prepared me to come through unscathed.”
Most of us don’t need to know the sound of bullets flying overhead. But we can mimic this training technique to prepare for the trials we face in business and life. To function at the highest levels in real-world situations, we must learn the principles in a controlled environment.
While the stakes were much lower, I used a similar technique to increase the odds of success in my real estate business.
In my early 20s, I knew I wanted to own real estate. The common investing advice says to buy your first property as soon as possible. It’s a big hurdle – one that many potential investors never clear – but taking the leap without proper preparation is foolish.
My business partner and I spent two years preparing in three main ways: saving money, listening to podcasts, and reading books. With every paycheck, we were stashing funds so we could pounce when the time was right. On every commute we had an episode of BiggerPockets in our ears. And with every ring of the doorbell, an Amazon box was waiting with a new book on real estate.
We learned how to quickly run numbers on a property. We could look at a Zillow listing and do the math in our heads while most people were still flipping through the pictures. We learned the importance of a network. Then we built a team with a real estate agent, a property manager, a home inspector, and a lawyer. We learned the value of a cash cushion. We vowed to be conservative and succeeded in never taking a distribution in three years.
Nearly all our preparation was thanks to BiggerPockets. Every episode featured a guest with real estate experience. Some talked about financing. Some talked about taxes. Some talked about managing tenants. Some talked about pitfalls and errors. Any time we were in the car, on a train, going for a run, or sitting at a desk, we had BiggerPockets in the background. It was the ambient noise of our lives for years.
Our time spent listening was similar to Sledge’s time in the foxhole on New Caledonia. He was learning the sounds of battle. We were learning the sounds of business.
Knowing what it’s like to be shot at is invaluable preparation for a warrior. Knowing that you’ll face bad tenants and broken pipes is invaluable knowledge for a real estate investor. Having a veteran share that knowledge – whether a veteran of war or a veteran of real estate – is one of the best ways to prepare.
When my partner and I finally bought our first property, we had plenty of pitfalls. But the reason we succeeded when others may have failed was our preparation and mental hardening built through theoretical practice.
When the police kicked down a door and arrested one of our tenants, we didn’t panic. We had money saved to fix the door, and we had a property manager ready to fill the unit.
When a furnace died at a new property, we didn’t fret. We had money saved to buy a new one, and we expected a bum furnace because our home inspector wrote a detailed report before we closed.
When tax prep was too much for us to handle, we didn’t waste any time searching for CPAs. We already had two options - former guests from the BiggerPockets podcast.
Real estate investing and war are not the same. But we can draw useful lessons from Marines’ training tactics and apply them to our own endeavors to increase the odds of success. Preparation and repetition in a controlled environment helps keep Marines alive. They also help investors keep their heads and make money.
EB Sledge lived through the horrors of WWII, partially due to luck and largely due to training. My business partner and I survived three years of running a real estate business. We made a 100% cash on cash return upon exit. Our success was partially luck and largely due to the preparation we put in before we signed our first deal.
We did our research. We thought through scenarios before they happened. And, most importantly, we heeded the warnings of those who came before us.
We can’t thrive under fire or under the stress of daily life if we don’t practice without pressure. Success during crunch time is often determined by the number of reps you put in when it didn’t matter. The greatest among us keep this in mind.
Will you?
