Last week I shot a 97. That was my best round yet. I started playing golf about 3 years ago and am enjoying the challenge. I first took lessons to learn how to hold the club and make contact with the ball, which was surprisingly difficult. I remember accidentally breaking a stick in half was the highlight of my first lesson. Yes, I was swinging hard. I was trying to show off and hit the ball further than a friend. That was embarrassing. Travis took me to one of his favorite courses for my first round of 18 holes. Once again, I thought I had to hit the ball far, so I shot hard. The ball sailed… straight into a house.

It wasn’t long before I started hitting the ball constantly, so I recently took lessons to see if I could hit straight. I was hoping to score under 100 this year, so it was satisfying to hit that goal last week. The instructor in my recent lesson told me over and over again for him to control my club speed and practice my short game. Keeping the ball in play by focusing on hitting it straight, rather than far, and getting better at putting would take several shots off my game. “It won’t look as good as the big drive,” he explained, “but it will win you the round.” That’s why they say, “drive for show and putt for dough.” A long drive looks great, but your money is earned with consistency in the short game.

The same idea is true in baseball. Baseball’s most valuable players have high batting averages and get on base regularly. They don’t look for a home run every time they go to the plate. Home runs are exciting and rewarding and fans love them, but at what cost? Great home run hitters also have high strikeout rates. Focusing on simply making contact with the ball to get on base helps prevent an out, while moving runners around the diamond. This is how the best teams win games. Singles win games.

This is also true in real estate. I have a client in mind who is always looking for a home run. He’s a great guy! He has a big heart and is a lot of fun to be around. He is also a fantastic builder and rehabber. However, the problem I’ve seen is that he’s passing singles, so he can swing for the big one. He wants to make six figures on everyone’s investment, or more by doing new construction projects. He keeps waiting for the perfect deal, or gets himself into trouble by making deals that are too big for him. Either way, he’s not helping his cause. There seems to be a simple solution looking at it from the outside, but he has the mindset that he needs to succeed. A short drive down the fairway or a simple base hit are not exciting enough for this seasoned real estate investor.

I have another client who is just looking for base hits or the easy chip off the trees. He is making deals for profits in the range of $15,000 to $20,000 in Denver. Some would say he’s too skinny, but he’s doing three or four a month! And he recently got lucky and will win over $100,000 on a single pitch in Denver. He understands that luck is behind him and he is happy, but he is not thinking about those days of big wins.

The annual income difference between these two highly capable investors is more than half a million dollars.

Even the best investors I know work to get a simple shot off the tee. They want the easy, sure base hit time after time. Some of them have increased what they consider to be a base hit, but they all started small. It’s a process to work through, but no successful investor that I know of is always trying to hit the home run or the long run over a hurdle. They take them when they show up but are on the lookout for the straight shot down the middle; This is why I would suggest keeping your real estate business simple and growing over time. Don’t make a bad deal, but don’t pass up a good one either. Our office is more than happy to have a conversation with you about your real estate plan or a specific deal to help guide you to success. Consistency is key. Every time I hit my club hard looking for the big drive, I come up short. The easy swing without pressure produces great impulses. Remember… four singles without losing your ass is better than taking a big swing and missing.