This snippet is from one of our previous episodes: 7 Reasons Why Investors Should Think Like Ants.

Yes, we’re serious… this one’s all about what ants can teach us about building a property portfolio 🐜

In this mindset-driven TPC Gold episode, Ben and Bryce get a little creative and explore how thinking like ants can lead to better results in property investing.

Why ants? Because they’re focused. Strategic. Organised. And they take small, consistent actions toward a much bigger goal.

Using this unlikely analogy, the boys unpack 3 big lessons these tiny but mighty creatures can teach us.

Small steps can lead to big results…

Moorr is a free platform designed to help property investors manage money, stay focused, and plan their next move. Create your free account and start taking small steps toward big goals. 

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If You Enjoyed TPC Gold | What Ants Can Teach Us About Property Investing, You Might Also Like:

Transcript

Bryce Holdaway
On the mindset minute theme, I came across a blog where someone had quoted Jim Rohn and four reasons why you should think like ants. I thought, that’s a good one.

Ben Kingsley
Interesting little idea.

Bryce Holdaway
So I floated the idea past you, and you were happy to get on board. And I thought: how can we come up with some reasons why property investors should behave, think, act, and do what ants do? So that’s what today is about.

Ben Kingsley
There we go. Alright. Who would’ve thought we’d make a reference to ants in property investing, money management and finance.

Bryce Holdaway
So today… the seven reasons why property investors should think like ants. So at the end of this let us know what you think. So here we go, we’re gonna do this. So we’ve come up with seven, Ben.

Ben Kingsley
Yes. Let’s have a go. What’s number one mate?

Bryce Holdaway
All right… ants aren’t intimidated by the size of their workload. You have to start there. So the sheer size of the objects that they need to carry. In fact, do you know they can carry up to 50 times their own body weight?

Ben Kingsley
It’s nuts, isn’t it?

Bryce Holdaway
So how do we apply that to property investors? Most of us have big goals when it comes to being financially independent.

Ben Kingsley
We do.

Bryce Holdaway
So if you think about it, if someone wants $2,000 a week passive income or $100,000 a year, a bit over $100,000 a year… they need $2.5 million worth of income-producing assets outside of the family home, returning them, say 4% to get that. Now, outside of the family home, people are thinking: gee whiz, I don’t even have a family home worth that fully paid off, let alone something outside of that fully paid off. So it is for a lot of people a big, hairy, audacious goal. I guess from our perspective, having built hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of plans, there is a method and there is a process and if you have a step-by-step approach to what you do, it actually can achieve these big goals, step-by-step, a little bit of a time. So, think like an ant.

Ben Kingsley
Well, think like an ant and you know, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. I think the same principles apply here. So I really like this point that they just get on with it. But in terms of they aren’t intimidated by the workload and in property investing, the best part of the workload is the intensity early on in terms of the planning, the research, and the execution. And then it’s a bit of set and forget. I mean, the reason why they’re so super active is they’re obviously putting food supply away for the winter that’s coming. But the point we’re making here is, you know, don’t be overwhelmed. Don’t think that “I can’t see that future”. Just sit down and break it down into bite sizes. The same way in which, going back to the sporting analogy, we’re in pre-season. If I walked out and said: This is the workload that we’re gonna get through; you’re gonna run 4,000 kilometres. Everyone’s gonna go: Oh my god. But if they break it down to: okay, today’s session, morning session, we’re gonna do running, sprints, whatever, and then, all of a sudden they’ve departmentalised it and put it into these sort of boxes and then it becomes easier. And that’s the same thing with investing. The boxes you’re talking about are cash flow management. The boxes you’re talking about is then understanding future plans and then looking at what you can affordably borrow and then execute. And then obviously asset selection and making sure that happens. So there you go.

Bryce Holdaway
Mate, I like it. The plane uses most of its fuel while it’s taking off, so property investors use most of their emotional and mental fuel in that first property taking the portfolio off. But you talk to anyone who’s bought multiple properties Ben, and the second one was nowhere near as scary (if they’ve done it right) as the first one, but you gotta get through the first one to get to the second one.

Ben Kingsley
Love it.

Bryce Holdaway
So there you go folks, ants aren’t intimidated by the size of their workload. So property investors shouldn’t be intimidated by the size of the big hairy audacious goals that they set for themselves.

Ben Kingsley
I agree.

Bryce Holdaway
All right. Number two.

Ben Kingsley
Ants value teamwork. Basically, you just need to see them walking in lines and bringing food back and going to get more food. They just basically work together. And a single ant can do only so much, but when they get together… the power of collaboration, the power of teamwork to achieve their big, hairy, audacious goals, they get a lot done, don’t they?

Bryce Holdaway
They do. So obviously the analogy or the reference here is that investors should surround themselves with a team. But if we go back to the Fed Express on Sunday night, when he was feeling down he looks up into the box and there’s the coach and his wife and his entourage there that help him through that. Even though at the end of day he’s the only one who can actually hit that backhand or that forehand to make the winning move. So property investors, you are responsible for your own destiny. If it’s meant to be, it’s up to me. That’s fine, that’s for the motivation and the intent and the movement, but you do need to surround yourself with other people. Ants value teamwork, so property investors should value teamwork as well.

Ben Kingsley
I agree, I mean you can outsource a lot in the investment space. I mean, you’ve got to make a decision in terms of how much knowledge and experience you have compared to the people you want to surround yourself with. So if you’re surrounding yourself with people who have the same or less knowledge than you, the reality is the sum of all of those parts aren’t going to be much better than you by yourself. But if you can surround yourself with people who have greater knowledge, greater understanding, greater experience, and who are collaborating… I mean, if you think about businesses, imagine our business (with) 40 odd staff or whatever, you know, hundreds of years of experience all collaborating, you’d think the sum of all of that would be quite powerful, right? So that’s what you’re sort of doing when you’re saying: okay, I need a team around me. So you’re trying to say to yourself, and it’s an honest assessment, how much of this do I know versus how much do these people know, and can I leverage that? And do I see value in that? And most people should build themselves up with the team. We’ve talked about sports stars before doing it, but in your investment, you will absolutely need to have, in our view, a property investment advisor. You need to have a great buyer’s agent, you obviously need to have a mortgage broker who is investment-savvy, and you need to have an accountant and also a lawyer who’s part of that. Now that’s your minimum team. Then you’ve got property managers, then potentially you’ve got your maintenance team… you’ve got all of these different people. And they’re the networks that you build up when you become a property investor.

Bryce Holdaway
And when you’re young and inexperienced, you lean on those people who’ve got more experience than you. So the ants would be doing the same.

Ben Kingsley
Correct.

Bryce Holdaway
But they’re all heading in the right direction. So number one, ants aren’t intimidated by the size of their workload. And number two, ants value teamwork. For me, number three, ants are organized, Ben. There’s no chaos.

Ben Kingsley
Well… to me sometimes it looks a bit chaotic.

Bryce Holdaway
It looks like chaos, but they’re all heading towards the same goal. So if they’re moving in this direction and everyone else is moving in that direction… not going to work well. But they’re organised going for the same thing. They will be moving in the same direction, so they get all the stakeholders on the same page. So for us to achieve our goals as a portfolio builder, we need to get everyone. So obviously we need to get the spouse or the partner or the person that we’re sharing life agenda with… we have to get them on the same page. Because if we’re not walking in the same direction, that’s where you see people subject to fads or subject to making speculative decisions or making ill thought through decisions, because they’ve got people on opposing teams trying to run the agenda.

Ben Kingsley
If you watch how an ant colony works, they’ve got the outliers who go and look for the food. If they find the food, they then report that back and then they send out the army and they go and collect that food and bring it back. So if I use that similar analogy to the way in which you should be doing it, this is where we sort of say you still need to be holding your team accountable and yourselves accountable. By that I mean go out and do a bit of research. Do a bit of learning about the skills of the people that you may be working with. Encourage yourself to a minimum standard of understanding and then continue to gather more information. So if the husband or the wife is going out and doing some research or reading a new book or doing something like that, and then bringing that back in, and a bit more collaboration and being more organized, that makes sense. And of course, ants have a plan. The plan is pretty simple; they’ve got to get out there and do what they need to do and they need to basically bring all that food back and keep that in store. So that’s how they do it, same thing. We think the best buildings have obviously been built on great foundations. There were plans involved; no different when it comes to investing, no different when it comes to life. Plan the lifestyle design that you want, and then go off and execute on it.

Bryce Holdaway
I think it’s said beautifully mate, so you’ve gotta plan to become what you plan to become Ben. So the ants know exactly what they’re trying to do, and they’ve got everyone on the same page.