Hobby or Business? By Dick Pexton
Real estate investing is an opportunity which allows everyone, regardless of their education, experience, family background, gender, or age, a credible way to own a home-based business, own their own life, make more money, contribute to others, and grow to be the best person they can possibly be. I must ask this question: Is your pursuit of accumulating wealth through real estate a hobby or a business? I went to my dictionary for help in defining each word.
Hobby: An activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation.
When I apply this definition to my own life, I can safely say that fishing, hiking, boating, and camping are my hobbies. I have never made money at any of these. Real estate is my business, and I have made money in my business. When I let the hobbies consume too much of my time, they restrict the growth of my business. Some fortunate people start out with a hobby that grows into a business. The rest of us need to grow a business that helps us pursue our hobbies.
John Cotton Dana, a highly influential American librarian, said, “Of hobbies there are many, many kinds. For example, money-making. But money-making is not exactly a hobby, for it will scarcely carry a boy along in continuous joy, comfort and pleasure – to say nothing of a full-grown man. Money comes, not because it is ridden as a hobby, but because a real hobby is ridden so cleverly and carefully that it oozes out money on the side!”
Business: The occupation, work, or trade in which a person is engaged. A profit-seeking enterprise or concern.
Lewis E. Pierson, financier, said, “Business is like a man rowing a boat upstream. He has no choice; he must go ahead or he will go back.” In my business career, there have been times when, even though I was rowing downstream, I had to dig the oars deeper and row harder to keep the course.
Back in 1948, I floated the Colorado River with a group of scouts for 109 miles from Hite, Utah to Lee’s Ferry, Arizona. This was before Lake Powell was formed behind the Glen Canyon Dam. We were in a big, World War II Navy surplus life raft. The wind was always blowing up the river and sometimes we would paddle for a long time just to quarter across the river to get out of the wind where, in the shelter of the cliffs, we could make some headway. Many times the wind would blow hard and drive us back across the river and we would have to start over again. One day the wind was blowing down river. We held up everything we had that could catch the wind and that day made about 30 miles with very little effort.
When we work our business as a business we will have similar challenges. When they occur, do not retreat to more comfortable hobbies. As we work through the challenges, we will often feel the wind at our back and our business will gain momentum. Momentum wins in sports and in business.
On the outskirts of a small village lived a very poor man and his young son. There was also a very wise man living in the village. A tradition was that on a certain day each year, any of the people could ask the wise man a question and try to stump him. There were great rewards for the person who could stump him but nobody had ever been successful.
One day the small boy came to his father all excited and said, “Father, I think I have a way to stump the wise man.” His father laughed and said, “The smartest people in the village have tried to stump him for years and no one has ever been successful.” The boy persisted and finally his father asked him how he could do it. The boy said he would get a small bird and hold it in his hands and ask the wise man what he was holding. If the wise man said it was a bird, the boy would ask him if it was dead or if it was alive. If the wise man said it was dead the boy would open up his hands and let the bird fly away. If the wise man said it was alive he would crush it in his hands. The father agreed that this might be a way to stump the wise man.
The great day arrived and many villagers challenged the wise man with profound questions. He quickly answered each of them correctly. Finally, it was the boys turn. The villagers laughed as he came up in front of the wise man. He had the bird in his tiny hands and its feathers were sticking out. He asked the wise man what he had in his hand. The wise man said, “It is a bird.” Then the boy said, “Is it alive or is it dead?” The wise man hesitated and the crowd became silent. They had never seen this happen before. The wise man turned away and thought about the question. Then he faced the little boy and said, “My son, the fate of the bird is in your hands.”
So it is with us. Will we choose real estate investing as a hobby or as a business? Our fate is in our own hands.