It’s not uncommon that we make excuses for ourselves, especially when it comes to our businesses. A contractor may have let us down, or a tenant took advantage of a poorly-written lease, or our partner isn’t doing a job as well as we’d like. Are these problems fully forming because of the other person, or ourselves?

Today we talk to Julia Galef, author of The Scout Mindset and host of the “Rationally Speaking” podcast. Julia is trying to answer a big question: how do we improve our reasoning and our decision making? For her, there is a big difference in mindset. Sometimes we have a scout mindset, which allows us to be more exploratory and see what really is going on. Then we also have a soldier mindset, which is when we’re seeing only our pre-existing beliefs. How do you know if you’re using your scout or soldier mindset? Ask yourself if you’re rationalizing your situation or just making excuses.

This can be hard as business owners and investors because we often are the first to blame someone else for our problems. We even downplay our shortcomings, like when a novice flipper thinks he or she can do the electrical, plumbing, foundation, and flooring work without any prior experience. It’s important for us as people and investors to get honest feedback not only from our clients, tenants, contractors, and partners, but also from ourselves.

In This Episode We Cover

The difference between a scout mindset and a soldier mindset
How to get out of fooling yourself into believing something that isn't true
Jeff Bezos’s “30% Success” story
Implementing feedback in a way that is beneficial for you and those around you
Leaning into confusion and finding the underlying causes
Being a better real estate investor
And So Much More!

Links from the Show

Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/rookie68

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68: Rookie Reply: Stop Making Excuses in Business & How to Develop a “Scout Mindset”