The Single Greatest Trait Of Successful Investors

If you cornered me and asked me to come up with one single trait that I have found in common amongst the successful investors I’ve come across... what would that be?

Obviously, there are several important factors underpinning success, but after speaking with Robert a number of years ago, I’ve come to the conclusion that there really is one critical trait that stands above virtually everything else when it comes to creating success in your investing, in wealth creation and in fact in all areas of your life.

You see… Robert came up to me after attending one of my seminars and thanked me. He said he learned a lot and was inspired.

He then shared with me that he’d attended almost all the seminars I’d conducted in Sydney over the previous 10 years.

When I asked him how many properties he owned, he told me he was still getting ready to buy his first investment. He was waiting for everything to be “just right”.

I couldn’t help but explain he’d be much wealthier today if he had bought almost any property when he first considered investing 10 years earlier, even if he had made a terrible mistake in his property selection. Sydney property values had virtually doubled in the previous seven years!

So, what is this characteristic that all successful investors share? It’s that they make decisions and take appropriate action.

In his classic book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill outlined 17 principles that he found to be responsible for the success of the world’s top business leaders of his day. Way back in the 1930s Hill discovered that all the most successful people had the habit of making swift and committed decisions.

This principle, which is just as relevant today as it was almost a century ago, holds the key to determining the level of success you will achieve.

I’ve found that successful investors quickly gather the necessary information, make informed decisions, and then take appropriate action.

They can see the big picture and avoid getting caught up in the details.

And even when they don’t have all the information they need, they believe it is better to make a decision with some information than not to make a decision at all. They then take action and gather the balance of the information as they move on.

Of course, they don’t always make the right choices. However, over time, the number of correct decisions they make far outweighs the incorrect ones, and this propels them to investment success.

It should come as no surprise that others who procrastinate and avoid taking action rarely achieve much success in their lives.

I guess you could say that great investing is about taking action, while average investing is about reacting to the media, the marketplace and the world in general.

So, why is taking action so daunting for many people?

One of the big things that holds back so many potential investors is fear, particularly fear of making an incorrect decision or fear of failure.

The problem is that as human beings we like to feel in control. We like to have choices.

However, when you take action, you’ve made a commitment towards one choice thereby eliminating several other choices that you could have made. So subconsciously we procrastinate, thinking it has left us with options.

The trouble is, we’ve really made a decision to not make a decision. And that decision has its own consequences.

Do you find it easy to make decisions?

Currently the world is riddled with uncertainty and unpredictability. This makes it difficult to be sure of what actions we should take and leads to procrastination.

However, if your life isn’t where you want it to be right now, it’s likely that you are not making the right decisions or taking the appropriate actions to move forward.

How do successful investors manage to take decisive action?

The fact is that successful investors face just as much uncertainty as the rest of us; however, they manage to take action because they have a clear focus. They know exactly where they want to be.

Successful investors follow a plan. They have a property strategy, a finance strategy, a tax and asset protection strategy, a rental growth strategy, and a strategy for living off their property investment.

Every time they need to make an investment decision, they evaluate their actions and the potential consequences in light of their plan and their goals. If the action will move them closer to their goals, they go for it. This makes their investing more predictable, their decisions less emotional, and their results more consistent.

It was no coincidence that once I became clear on my goals, I started associating with other successful investors who were equally clear about every aspect of their property investing. I don’t know who said it… but “to become successful, hang around successful people”.

The interesting thing is that when you start associating with successful people, you begin to change without even realising it — you act, talk, think, and dress like them. You begin to see things in a new, positive light.

Six more master skills of successful property investors

Apart from the ability to take decisive action, I’ve found that successful investors have mastered six other skills that make it easier and faster for them to achieve financial prosperity.

Let’s examine these:

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1. Creating and controlling capital

Successful investors understand the importance of building a substantial asset base, while the majority of investors chase cash flow.

They know how to create and add value to their properties through techniques like renovations and development.

They also add value through their expertise, or through smart negotiations and buying well. And it’s no coincidence that they control as big an asset base as they safely can by leveraging and borrowing against appreciating assets.

2. Transforming capital into passive residual income

Successful investors grow money trees and recognise that cash flow is the fruit.

This means that once they have built a substantial asset base, they transition into the cash flow stage of their investment life by lowering their loan to value ratios and then borrowing against and living off their equity.

Strategic investors follow these four rules of capital:

1. They concentrate it — rather than diversifying, they focus their energy and efforts on their area of expertise. 

2. They don’t risk it — once they’ve built a substantial capital base, the wealthy invest rather than speculate. They are prepared to forgo a “potential” future profit so as not to risk their current assets.

3. They protect it — by owning their assets in the correct structures to safeguard their capital and by maintaining financial buffers. 

4. They value it — professional investors don’t eat away their capital. Instead, they convert their capital into cash flow and live off the fruits of their money tree.

3. They are financially fluent

Smart investors recognise it’s not how much money they make that matters, it’s how hard their money works for them and how much they keep that counts.

So they learn how the finance, tax and legal systems work and how they favour investors who treat their properties like a business.

They understand the language of accounting and know how to read balance sheets and income statements, calculate the Internal Rate of Return on their investments, and assess their various investment options.

4. They understand the importance of building a great team around them

Savvy investors know they can’t do it alone, so they recruit, direct and refine a team of finance, tax, legal and property professionals. They know that if they’re the smartest person in their team, they’re in trouble.

As CEO of their property investment business, the wealthy don’t abdicate control of their money to others. Instead, they set up systems to evaluate the performance of their investments and their advisers.

5. They understand the true importance of money

They recognise that to be truly prosperous, they need more than just money — they need the time to enjoy it, the relationships to share it with, and the sense of purpose and passion with which to direct it. And they understand the importance of contribution to the community, which brings meaning to their lives.

On the other hand, I’ve found that most people who don’t have money spend so much time struggling to make money that they lose out on the quality of life they deserve.

It’s only when you have enough money that you can go about creating real wealth.

6. They have the capacity for growth

Great investors are usually voracious learners.

They know the fastest way to wealth is through consistently investing in their personal development.

They read books, listen to Podcasts and cultivate relationships with mentors who can advise and guide them.

They also network with other positive wealth builders with whom they can mastermind and bounce ideas off.

It is no surprise that the more they grow, the more their wealth grows.

Success is a choice

The reason I’m droning on about all this is that over the years I’ve realised the most important factor in success in property investing (as it is in about everything else in life) is mindset — the way you think.

Sure, knowledge is essential, as is having a proven property investment system and the right network of people around you, but 80% or more of successful property investing is mindset.

I have found that income seldom exceeds personal development. Once in a while income takes a lucky jump, but unless you grow beyond where it is, your income will go back to where you are.

I genuinely believe that if you took all the money in the world and divided it among everyone equally; it would soon be back in the same pockets.

But here’s the good news: You can have more than you’ve got because you can become more than you are.

It’s no coincidence that the other side of the coin reads: Unless you change how you are, you will always have what you’ve got. In order to have more, you need to become more.

I see many beginner investors complain about the market, life, the banks and how hard it all is.

The point I’m trying to make is that unless YOU change, IT won’t change. Amazingly, however, when we throw out our blame list and start becoming more ourselves, the difference is that everything else will begin to change around us.

This means that it doesn’t really matter where you are today; you can be a success at whatever you want, as long as you have a purpose in life and a plan to achieve it. Decide in how many years you want to be financially independent, be realistic and set milestones along the way.

If you truly want to become financially independent, you need to set goals, develop a strategy to achieve them, and then take action.