MHP Podcast The Philosophy of Stoicism and Mobile Home Park Investing

The Mobile Home Park Broker's Tips & Tricks To Investing

In this episode of The MHP Broker’s Tips and Tricks, we define stoicism and explain six ways its practice can yield benefits for the buyers, sellers, operators and brokers of mobile home and RV communities.

As always, this episode is hosted by Maxwell Baker, the co-founder of The MHP Broker, and brought to you by our proprietary Community Price Maximizer. Just use this four-step system which we’ll help you navigate, and we’ll guarantee you a higher price when you sell your mobile home or RV community.

Here Are Some Show Highlights:

• Stoicism in business is a philosophy and a strategy for reacting to events and proactively taking action to gain benefits in multiple ways. (0:43)
• Stoicism can be best understood in terms of the advantages it brings in these six areas. (1:48)
• It calms the monkey brain. This is when emotions run high and a business person is distracted and loses the ability to focus in on one area. This high-energy overthinking will keep you off balance and unable to make progress in any one area. Max found that the practice of stoicism made him more centered and productive. He recommends “Getting Things Done” by David Allen as a great reference to help lead readers to greater focus and organization. (2:16)
• The second advantage through stoicism is the ability to accept failure as a cost of taking action. Max has learned to think of failure by himsef or anyone in his organization as a valuable learning experience and the occasional by-product of moving forward. If the stoic brain can get over the fear of failure, the business person can take calculated risks with significant upside. Don’t fear that “awkward feeling in your gut” when you make a move. (4:09)
• Max’s third stoic advantage can be gained by controlling the ego. An unchecked ego leads to another source of fear, because it can make someone back off from taking action for worry that they’ll look bad in the eyes of others if they fail. Ego can also lead to over-confidence and the cocky belief that the individual knows all they need to know on a subject. It can alienate you from clients and your own people. Stay humble, Max advises. (6:49)
• The fourth stoicism advantage is the ability to stay focuses on growth instead of “more.” Growth-mindedness is a focus on organic accomplishment rather than constantly targeting consumption. By maintaining his own focus of steady and well-rounded growth and achievement rather than “the money thing,” Max has always felt able to make sure his people shared in the success of the company, leading to more joy in his own life. (8:38)
• Max’s fifth platform of success through stoicism in business is simply gratefulness. This is a matter of taking the time and brain space to be appreciative for what you’ve accomplished rather than always chasing more, more, more. Max has learned gratefulness, in part, by reading (and highly recommending) “The Daily Stoic” by Ryan Alexander. Gratefulness makes business people more pleasant and authentic, and others want to deal with those who have those traits. (10:43)
• The final advantage or platform in stoic thinking for Max is a strategic short-term memory. Yes, you want to remember the lessons in failure, but then let the past be the past. Too much concentration on your business failures or personal shortcomings can leave you paralyzed and unable to move forward for fear of repeating those past mistakes. Max learned to keep his focus more on the here and now. This gives him the courage to pursue deals that he might have misplayed at some point in the past. (12:04)

Max thinks that stoicism in business in general and the mobile home business in particular is a fascinating topic. He’d love to talk about it with you. “Just drop us a line at [e-mail] or give me a call at 678-932-0200.”

Power Quotes From Max on This Episode

• “Monkey brain will kill your productivity and energy.” (2:16)
• “Stoicism has really helped me stay in the moment.” (3:14)
• “You’ve got to have that awkward feeling in your gut.” (4:09)
• “Failure is just a speed bump to your success in the future.” (5:20)
• “Ego kills your momentum when it comes to investing…” (6:49)
• “Does getting a bigger company and more cash and more assets make me happier? Actually, it doesn’t.” (8:38)
• “...I really feel that stoicism helped me with that, and I focused more on the growth factor than the money thing.” (9:45)