The Five Percenter

     It's been a while since I've posted, so let's get right into this. I’ve been thinking about some of the shit I’ve said this year:

To my co-workers: “It don’t matter. I’ll be outta here before the end of 2018 anyway.”

To Brooklyn Mike: “I can’t wait to retire next year. Between the trading and rental income, I’ll be able to visit NY whenever I want.”

To this blog: “… no matter what, 2018 will be the last year I work a paycheck job.”


     I say a lot about how things are gonna be, but there’s an underlying truth that I seem to forget. It’s about productivity.

     I’ve never gauged success by how much money or expensive material a person has. Having the desire to succeed is one. Having the intelligence to learn from past mistakes is another. But most important in my mind is one's productivity rate (PR). The average human being operates at about 30% PR, meaning the average person accomplishes 30% of what they are universally capable of doing. The more successful a person is, the better the chance is that the person is operating at a higher PR, at least 50% and more. And me? For as long as I could remember, my PR has always been about 5%. Just 5%. And this is how I became a 5 percenter:


The Procrastinator

     It takes an extremely long time for me to complete the simplest tasks. This is the truth because I've written about my procrastination several times on this and my old blog. In the ten years I’ve been in Smalltown, I’ve acquired 4 properties. Anyone with a normal PR could’ve accomplished this feat in about 2 years. Here’s an even better example. I wrote a post about a month ago called No Nonsense, and I remember writing that I wanted to put a search bar on this blog. Remember that? All I’d have to do is go on Google or YouTube and get it done in about 10 minutes. Well, that was on the 12th of November. It’s December 20th and I have yet to do it. It literally takes me months to do 10 minutes of easy work, and that "work" would make this blog so much more effective. Ugh! I think that example sums it all up, right?

Expensive Production

     Whenever I’m productive, it usually means that I’m spending a lot of money. Many times a day of productivity includes a lot of bills being paid. While it would feel good to get those debts cleared, I’d end up annoyed at having to spend so much. I’d say to myself, “For once, I wish I could be productive WITHOUT having to drain my bank account.”  

Dumb as a Rock

     Whenever I try to be productive by doing tasks on my own, it can take forever because I'm an idiot who rarely thinks things through. This month, Edward of Property 2 called to complain about the knob at the back entrance door being tough to turn. I went over there, put some WD-40 in the keyhole, and then left it alone without really testing it. The following week, Edward called again with the same issue. I figured that the problem had to be his key, as the downstairs tenant didn’t have an issue. So I made a copy of my key for the place, then went over to test out the key. The knob would not turn. I thought, “Shit, I guess the lock really doesn’t work.” So I went back to Lowes and bought a new lockset. As I was about to cash out, I realized that I had made a copy of the wrong key.

     So I made a copy of the correct key and tested it out successfully, but the lock was still stiff. Before taking the step of actually replacing the lock, I opened up the lockset and sprayed WD-40 all over the insides. Sure enough, that did the trick. Instead of applying WD-40 correctly the first time, a three-minute job ended up taking 5 and a half hours. This has been my problem for a very long time, that it takes me forever to do a simple job because of my thoughtlessness. Whenever I think about being productive by doing a repair on my own, memories of past failures make me hesitant.

False Hope

     You know, I used to watch a lot of those drug addiction shows back when I had a TV. I remember one episode where a guy on heroin described why he doesn’t get clean. He said something like:

     “I can get clean anytime I want. No, really! It’s not like I can’t quit using the shit. The problem is I can’t stay off it. You know how much energy it takes to quit, only to fall back into my old habits a week or two later? Repeat that cycle over and over again for about 22 years, and you’ll understand why I can’t stop.” 

     This is the same with me. When I make the decision to be productive, it takes a lot to break my routine and do work. But after a few days, I’d get lazy and go back to laying in bed doing nothing. So when I think about being more productive, thoughts come into my head that say, “Why bother trying to build up that amount of energy if I’m just gonna go back to my old ways?” It seriously takes a ton of mental will to break a routine, so it's extremely annoying when all of that mental power dissipates in a matter of days. That’s some disheartening shit, man, and it's another reason why addicts stays addicts.

Pebble In The Road

     Of all the reasons why I'm a worthless 5 percenter, this one is probably the most frustrating. Once I set my mind to do something, it takes very little to derail my motivation. Remember when I did Beachbody Insanity, and I had a small injury that forced me to stop for a month? I never went back to finish it. Or what about DDP Yoga? Back in August of 2014, I was in the midst of a great run of weekly workouts when I injured my left hand. After that, I completely stopped and never finished the course. Or how about this year with the gym. I was going there on a regular basis until I hurt my left shoulder. But the rest of my body was just fine, so why didn't I go to the gym for everything else? Squats? Ab machines? Leg machines? Dumbbells for my good arm??

     Forget workouts for a moment. What about the stock market? All it takes is someone annoying me in the morning, and it prevents me from trading the entire day. My concentration strength is extremely low, so everything I do, no matter how successful I get, is at risk of failing at the first sign of trouble.

    
     Those are the reasons why I’m a 5 percenter. And a 5 percenter isn’t gonna comfortably retire in 2018. A 5 percenter can’t trade with $25,000 and turn it into $8,000 a month. It’s just not possible. If I go into 2018 the way I am now, I’ll fall right on my ass and retire with nothing. I’ll come up with some bullshit reason why I failed and then say some dumb shit like, “Oh well, at least I don’t have to work a job anymore.” Fuck that.

     So that’s the bad news. But, as is the new custom with this blog, I don't post a problem without a solution. A few weeks ago, I started a new plan to massively increase my PR. I didn’t want to start it next year like all my fellow New Years losers. I wanted to get into a system that works for me now so that I could go into 2018 already rolling. It seems to be working very well, but I won’t write about it until the end of January. I really need to test it out and give it time to prove that it actually works, and then I’ll post the details.

     I have the desire to succeed, as well as the intelligence to recognize and learn from my past mistakes. The only issue I have now is productivity. Raising my PR from 5% to at least 60% won't happen overnight, but I've gotta start now if I'm serious about tackling 2018's massive challenges.

P.S.: The inspiration for this came from looking at my Round 2 trading results. In 2018, what happens if I can't get a mortgage to buy another property? What happens if I'm denied my line of credit increases? What happens if I don't find the right property? Trading may be my best chance to make my retirement as comfortable as possible, and Round 2 was a small taste of what I can accomplish. If I can trade successfully at 5% PR, imagine how much I can make at 60% PR...