Investing of a Different Kind

When someone used to bring up investing, my eyes would glaze over. I bet you are probably similar. Your mind instantly takes you to acronyms and decibels. There has never been anything truly exciting to me about the market, the DOW, NASDAQ, and all the crushing numbers. Red days, green days, it didn’t matter to me. Then one day I realized I had been looking at the term Investing wrong for quite some time.

The informal definition of invest is to buy something which will have a usefulness that will repay the cost.

We do this all the time - don’t we?

I know every time I go to the gym, I’m investing in my body and my health, knowing that the forty five minutes that I’m buying from today will be repaid tomorrow or another day down the line.

I know that when I spend time with my little girls even when I’m tired after work, I’m investing in our relationship and the time we spend playing won’t be available one day when they are grown, and I’ll value those memories as priceless.

I know when I invest a thousand dollars back into my business, the company will make a return.

What is happening in our culture right now is too many people are living for today. It is the whole “YOLO” mentality. I think the best summation is the famous video of a man driving his car at 120 miles per hour yelling “YOLO!” only to show up on the evening news as a crash victim. His life was cut too short because he was thinking only about the instant pleasure at his hands rather than making an investment in tomorrow.

Here are some short action points to take with you on your journey to invest:

1)  Invest in your health - This is an action step that I wasn’t taking before I had my heart attack. Sure, I worked out, which is excellent, but I was ignoring what my body needed to fuel it. I didn’t eat healthy. It was easy to have an extra steak or go for the dessert, because I was giving in to instant pleasure instead of investing for tomorrow. Had my heart attack been fatal, my family would have been devastated. Investing for tomorrow in your health protects not only you, but those you love. Exercise, eat right, minimize drinking and smoking, and stay mentally clear.

2)  Invest in your business - This is one that I think most people traditionally think of when it comes to investing, which is how to get a return on your money. I’m going to take it a step further though. Sometimes in business you have to look at a loss leader. Whether it be a new product line or a new employee. There will be times when you do something that does not have an immediate ROI, but it puts you in a different ballpark on the type of opportunities your business can interact with and pursue. I encourage you to take these risks. Investments inherently have risks. In the example above with health, even if you live a perfectly healthy life, you can still die in a car accident. This is not to discourage you from investing, but to encourage you to take calculated risks that are more future focused than immediate return focused, and those are especially important to take in the business world.

3)  Invest in your family - This one is important to me, and I will encourage you to make it a priority as well. Time spent with family is never wasted. As someone who has come close to dying multiple times now, all we have in life at the end of the day are our loved ones. Family doesn’t have to be flesh and blood, it can be brothers in arms or close friends, but you must invest in those relationships. Drop what you are doing and invite a friend you haven’t talked to in a long time out for coffee - you’ll be happy you did after the conversation. Sure, the scheduling takes time out of your already busy schedule, but it is an investment in relationships, and our relationships are a reflection on who we are. Invest in your family, invest in your future!

Lastly, I would add never be too macho to tell people you care about that you love them. I am an Airborne Ranger in a former life, but I always make the effort to tell even my tough-guy, male friends I love them. You can make fun of me if you wish, but I have friends that aren’t here anymore; and though I know they look down on me and smile (mostly laugh), I miss being able to look them in the eyes and tell them how much I truly loved being a part of their lives when I was too arrogant to realize how precious that time really was. Love and positive energy: this is something I believe is truly an Investment.

I hope that these tips on investing were helpful. I’m working on sharing my life experiences so that someone else can avoid some of the pain I’ve picked up along the way, but also pick up some of the highest highs. Stay tuned for more, as well as a podcast.

 As always, if you would like me to come speak to your organization or company, do not hesitate to reach out.