Time is a funny thing. The days are long, but the months and years seem to fly by.
Today marks 19 years since I founded BiggerPockets and it feels like yesterday.
BiggerPockets Homepage from June 11, 2007
Each year that goes by, the business grows and helps impact more and more people’s lives.
And although I stepped down as CEO almost 5 years ago to focus on family, I believe my legacy and vision have lived on as the beating heart and soul of the business.
It is a pretty amazing feeling.
We have so many choices to make in our lives - some easy and others can be incredibly difficult.
But one thing I know is this:
If you don’t take a chance on yourself, you’ll look back in 19 years, 29 years or 59 years and regret it.
Like everyone, in my life I’ve made a lot of choices because of pressure or perceived pressure from friends or family.
When I started building BiggerPockets, the pressure was nonexistent, as it was what we today call a sidehustle - something I did in my free time, nights, weekends, and free periods (I was teaching high school at the time).
But eventually when I quit teaching and announced to my world that I’d be pursuing the business full time, I got instant blowback.
Almost no one believed in me.
Almost no one supported me.
But having the bravery to charge on despite almost complete opposition is what allowed me to build an idea that has lived on for years since I stepped away, and which will live on for many years and hopefully decades to come.
I bring this all up because I know so many people who have shared their ideas and dreams with me. People who want to change jobs or want to move or want to start a business or hobby, but have countless reasons why they shouldn’t in face of few reasons why they should.
Most of the reasons in opposition come from others who don’t understand.
They are opinions of people who never took a chance on themselves or who did and failed.
They are opinions of people who are trying to protect you or who think you have to play it safe to make it in life.
In the last 19 years I’ve learned many things, but one key thing stands out. In order to achieve greatness in anything you have to take chances on yourself.
You have to take risks.
Yes, that is a giant tarantula crawling across my face!
You have to go against the headwinds of pressure from those that don’t get it or who simply don’t believe in you or even worse, who don’t believe in themselves.
The incredible life I get to live every day was only possible because I took a risk. It is only possible because I continued on when almost all hope was lost.
Never lose hope.
Never give up on your dreams.
No one is going to hand a great life to you.
It is yours for the taking, but you will have to work hard for it.
You will have to struggle.
But you already know how to overcome that. You did it the first time you walked or rode a bike or spoke or did anything for the first time.
The challenge for most people is that as time goes on, we forget what doing something for the first time is like and begin to fear it.
Don’t fear it.
Embrace it.
Get out there and try something new.
Even if it is something as small as taking a different path to the store or work.
And once you’ve done that, try something else.
You’ll see that a rich life is one that is lived by taking chances. By trying new things.
So . . . go get after it!
What have you always wanted to do but never had the courage for?