What has held up

• How can we help?

  The family question. It came from my father and it is still the first thing I ask in a business conversation. It reframes everything, and it works.

• Create more. Consume less.

  There is no shortage of things to watch, read and buy. There is a permanent shortage of people who make something.

• Keep your word.

  In deals and in life, the whole thing runs on whether people believe you will do what you said. Protect that and most other problems get smaller.

• Less is more.

  Fewer deals, fewer projects, fewer words. Almost everything improves when you subtract.

• Slow is fast.

  Rushing the front end of a deal is how you pay for it on the back end. Careful is quicker than it looks.

• Learn by doing.

  I learned tax liens by studying, then investing, then teaching. That order is not optional. Doing it is what earns the right to explain it.

• Help people multiply what they already have.

  Most people are sitting on more money, knowledge, relationships and opportunity than they realize. The work is helping them see it and use it.

These are presented as principles adopted and practiced, not as original quotations.