Can’t believe it’s 2024 already. The days have been flying by fast. 2023 was an outstanding year full of new experiences, accomplishments, and lessons learned.
I’m grateful for all the new opportunities as well as the challenges that the year unlocked for me. Along each step, I felt I gained more clarity, self-awareness, and new perspectives that will greatly influence my decisions as I go into 2024.
Since everything happens so fast, I usually don’t get a chance to document it all in one place. This is why I do a yearly recap (2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015), so I can keep a diary for myself to reflect on as I get older.
I have also been told by many friends, family members, and readers that they love my year end recaps, so that is just double motivation for me to write this blog post.
Plus, I think it’s going to be helpful for Solomon as well.
Let’s take a look back at everything that happened this year (caution: it’s very long).
TLDR: I turned 33 years old, visited 8 countries including two bucket list experiences (Egypt and Maldives), passed the milestone of 25 million websites using our software, completed 12 business acquisitions + 4 growth fund investments, started $100k charity lunch for Balkhi Foundation (inspired from Warren Buffett), and overall I’m ending the year in a state of triple 9s.
Personal Highlights
All things happen for a reason, and while I can’t often control the events, I can choose how I react to them. My year end recap will focus primarily on the positives because I believe gratitude is key to happiness, and I have a lot to be grateful for this year.
Solomon is growing up to be an incredibly kind and thoughtful kid. He turned 7 years old this year. At his teachers’ recommendation, we agreed to have him skip yet another grade in school, so he’s in 3rd grade now. I’m always amazed at his level of patience, awareness, and decision-making process. Much of this can be credited to how wonderful of a mother Amanda is. Without her, I am confident that both of us would be completely lost.
We helped Amanda’s parents move closer to us. Previously they were about 1 hour drive away, and now they’re within 5 minutes driving distance. Growing up, I enjoyed sleepover at my grandparents house, and my goal is for Solomon to be able to do the same and spend quality time with both of his grandparents.
As I get older, one of my top priorities is to build as many great family memories as possible through shared experiences because ultimately family is the best gift of life.
We started the New Year at home as I was wrapping few business acquisitions. Later in January, we took a Caribbean cruise trip with Ben Rojas and family. Ben is the president of AIOSEO, and I enjoy spending time with him. Our families hung out together while Ben and I got to do some deep strategic planning for AIOSEO. This led to tremendous results (more on this in the business section).
I highly recommend cruising in January since there are less crowds, and the weather is perfect.
In February, Amanda, Solomon, and I decided to attend the first-ever WordCamp Asia in Bangkok, Thailand. It was our first time in Thailand, and we really enjoyed our time there. The WordPress community in Asia is full of energy, and it was really awesome to meet so many of WPBeginner readers in person. Thank you everyone who came up and said hello. I am pretty sure I took a record number of selfies at a WordCamp.
We also did a small team dinner which Solomon attended. It was really cool to see him do introductions and hold the conversation. I’m getting him involved in the company, and his current role is Chief Mascot Officer. He’s responsible for the ideas behind all our new mascot designs that were created this year.
On our way to Thailand, we did a stop-over in Maldives and stayed in one of those over-water villas that you see on Instagram. This was a bucket-list item for both Amanda and I, and it truly lived up to our expectations. I really enjoyed the quiet time as it allowed me to do a ton of reading and reflection.
The views from our property were absolutely gorgeous. I have never seen water this blue, and I guess we timed our stay perfectly because we pretty much had the whole island to ourselves.
In March, I had our WPBeginner Growth Fund meetup in Orlando. We are definitely out growing the houses as we had to get multiple houses this time.
Later in the month, I flew to Istanbul, Turkey to meet with my Forum group. It was really great spending time with these amazing entrepreneurs & investors. I always learn a lot. Thanks to Mohnish and Guy for inviting me to the group.
We also visited several tourist sites as well as some company headquarters in Turkey. My favorite thing was eating Kunefe every night after dinner at Beyzade Kunefe in Karakoy. I highly recommend that you try this place out.
In April, I flew back to Turkey, except this time I went to Bodrum. My friend David Henzel organized a mini-mastermind. I really enjoyed spending time with this group and geeking out on growth tactics.
We also had some good basketball and tennis fun. The Six Senses Kaplankaya property is beautiful.
In May, I attended the Berkshire meetup in Omaha. It was great to see Warren and Charlie together for the last time. I walked away with a ton of notes from the event. The neat part about Berkshire meeting is that there are many other events happening alongside it.
I was honored to speak at Guy Spier’s event, and I also really enjoyed my conversations with William Green (author of Richer Wiser Happier book) at Mohnish Pabrai’s dinner.
I shared my top 3 lessons in a tweet here:
In June, we flew to Vancouver to go on the Alaska cruise with Blair Williams and family. Blair is the founder of MemberPress (one of my portfolio companies). I really enjoy spending time with Blair, and it was good to have some quality 1:1 time there.
This was Solomon’s first time in Alaska, and he really enjoyed the whale watching and wildlife experiences.
In July, we stayed home for the most part. I booked out a water park and invited all my family as well as local AM team members. Water park with no lines are the best. No photos for obvious reasons.
August was a busy month. I flew to LA to hang out with my friend Eric Siu and Neil Patel. They had their mastermind there, and it was great to hang out with several old friends and make some new ones too.
Later in the month, I flew to Washington D.C. to attend WordCamp US. It was held in the National Harbor, Maryland area. It was a very productive event as I ended up doing a growth fund investment (more on this later).
I also really enjoyed reconnecting with so many WordPress friends, many of whom I have known for over a decade. WordPress community is like a big family.
In September, I visited our alma mater, University of Florida. It was great to do a Q&A session with students. I also took my brother, Zain, to a UF football game. He’s currently a Computer Science student at UF. It was cool to have him experience watching the game from the sidelines.
October was a rough month because I injured my knee during workout, and I had a lot of travel planned.
I went to Chicago for my forum meeting. I am really grateful for this group because they push me to think bigger. This meetup helped me learn more about my blindspots and gave me new perspectives which are definitely going to help me grow further. Thanks Mohnish and MGC for sharing your unique perspectives with me, it helped bring a lot of clarity.
On one of our walks to dinner, I had a great conversation with Guy Spier where he shared with me a creative way to do acquisitions & investments. I was able to use his advice to do a deal later in the year. Thanks Guy for sharing your wisdom.
Later in the month, we flew to Egypt for our behind the scenes tour. This was truly a bucket-list experience as we got private entry to Giza pyramids at 6 a.m (without any crowds), got to see the sunrise on the Sphinx which was truly magical, and we visited numerous archeological sites that are currently closed off to the public.
Egypt’s head of antiquities, Dr. Mostafa Waziri, gave us behind the scenes access and also told us about some of the newest discoveries. We visited the 4400 year old untouched tomb in Saqqara (yup the one on Netflix). This is closed to the public and while we were there, they had made another discovery.
Overall, Egypt was an amazing experience and I highly recommend it. I’ll definitely be going back as there’s just so much to see.
I spent most of November at home since we had several acquisition deals in the works, and I needed time to heal my knee.
Later in December, I took a trip to Pakistan. Typically we only visit Karachi, but this time I decided to show Solomon other parts of Pakistan including Lahore, Islamabad, and the archaeological sites of Taxila.
Our friend Chris joined us on the trip, so we also did bunch of tourist things like the Burns Rd. food street tour in Karachi. I might be biased, but I absolutely love Pakistani food.
We came back to the US before the end of the year because I like spending the New Year Eve at our house.
My knee is still not fully healed, but it’s making good progress. The stem cell + PRP treatment that I got made a huge difference. I need to continue rehabbing it.
As I write this recap, I feel truly blessed to be able to do all that we did this year. I’m grateful for the ability to work from anywhere in the world and having the support system that allows me to maximize my time with family while still growing the business.
Business Highlights
2023 has been an outstanding year full of great accomplishments. We completed 12 business acquisitions + 4 growth fund investments. Basically, we did an average of one acquisition per month which is crazy to say out loud considering we’re still bootstrapped.
I’m extremely proud of how all our teams came together to fight for our customer’s success and build solutions with focused excellence.
I believe that along with every success comes a new set of challenges, and the challenges we faced this year truly tested our limits, more than ever before. At times, it felt like unlocking a new difficulty level in a game. The good thing is that I love games, and I know that we will continue leveling up.
Collectively our software products are now being used by over 25 million websites, and we celebrated the milestone with a NASDAQ billboard in Times Square. The current number of sites is much higher now 😉
Note: The Awesome Motive team is fully distributed (remote) with over 320+ team members in 50 countries. Want to join us, we’re hiring 🙂
We did our company retreat in Mexico this year, and it was really great to hangout with everyone. It’s by far one of my most favorite events of the year.
Since I now have over 40+ companies, I will only share notable highlights from a select few. You can see more details on each product in our Newsroom.
AIOSEO
All in One SEO (aka AIOSEO) is one of the most popular WordPress SEO plugins used by over 3 million websites. This year my team worked really hard to make it by far the best SEO toolkit in the market.
I have been told by many users that they’re switching from Yoast and RankMath to AIOSEO because of the features we’re adding. See the top reasons why users are switching from Yoast to AIOSEO.
This year, we added a powerful Search Statistics feature inside your WordPress dashboard that shows you how your website is performing in Google search. It lets you do keyword rank tracking, see which keywords are winning / losing, and more.
We also added a Content Rankings report that shows you which of your content have started to drop in SEO rankings, so you can quickly update them and re-gain your rankings.
Aside from that, we added the much-requested SEO revisions feature that allows you to keep track of your SEO progress inside WordPress. This also allows you to undo changes with a single click.
The best part is that our team added the integration with Google algorithm updates, so you can see whether your changes are having a positive or negative impact.
At AIOSEO, we’re adding features that other WordPress SEO plugin simply don’t have. That’s because we’re practitioners, and we understand what publishers & eCommerce websites need to grow their SEO rankings.
I highly recommend that you check out AIOSEO if you want to grow your site’s rankings. There’s a free version available as well.
We also created a free SEO Chrome extension to help you do on-page SEO analysis faster.
Last but not least, our AIOSEO team has launched a new SEO trends section where we’re sharing the behind-the-scenes case studies of the fastest growing websites.
WPForms
WPForms is the fastest growing online form builder for WordPress with over 6 million active installs. It’s the #7 most popular plugin in the WordPress.org plugin directory. Here’s a link to the WPForms free version.
This year, we added several powerful features including ability to accept credit card payments for everyone including free users. This was previously a Pro only feature. Aside from that, we also created a new payments dashboard, added coupons feature, and more.
A lot of our users asked for the ability to create Calculators, so we created a brand new Calculations addon in WPForms. Now, you can create advanced lead generation calculators using WPForms. Furthermore, you can use the calculations feature to create more powerful online order forms too.
Aside from that, we added many more powerful features including 1300+ pre-made form templates, lead forms addon, form styles for block editor & elementor, customizable email templates, ConvertKit addon, WPCode integration, and much more.
I truly believe that WPForms is a MUST HAVE plugin for all website owners, and I’m really proud of our team for continuing to raise the bar.
The WPForms team also did their own 2023 Year in Review post which is far more interactive and super cool.
WPBeginner Free Tools
Our WPBeginner team created 6 new free business tools to help you do more with your websites.
- Keyword Generator Tool: It makes keyword research easy by helping you generate 300+ keyword ideas in a click.
- Blog Post Idea Generator: It helps you come up with a year’s worth of content ideas in a second.
- Smart Headline Analyzer: It lets you write irresistible headlines that your users can’t help but click.
- Website SEO Analyzer: It finds critical errors on your site and generates a free SEO report to fix them.
- Keyword Density Checker: It enables you to find the primary keywords on any content to fix over-optimization. Also great for competitor research.
- Email Signature Generator: It helps you design beautiful email signature within minutes.
UserFeedback
We launched a new product called UserFeedback which is a simple tool that makes it easy for you to collect user feedback quickly and easily.
In the past, I was using Hotjar for this functionality, but they kept raising their prices. There’s no reason why anyone should pay $59 per month to collect only 250 responses.
So I had my team build a free WordPress plugin that does just that. Even the Pro version costs only $49 per year!!
Turns out the market really wanted this solution because we have already passed over 200,000+ active installs in 9 months.
If you ever wished there was an easy way to read your website visitors’ minds WITHOUT learning telepathy or using an expensive user survey tool that costs a fortune, then you should try out our UserFeedback plugin.
It’s a perfect compliment to quantitative analytics tools like MonsterInsights because it helps you figure out the WHY behind user’s actions.
You can use it to create a demographic survey, customer satisfaction survey, NPS survey, ask user feedback on your site design or pricing, and so much more.
Other Notable Product Highlights
- WPCode passed over 2 million active installs. It’s truly one of the most powerful and underrated WordPress plugins. We added conversion pixel tracking, access control, new testing mode, and much more. Give the free version a try, and you’ll see why it’s one of the fastest growing WordPress plugin right now.
- WP Charitable is a WordPress donation and fundraising plugin. We completed a full product revamp including a brand new visual campaign builder. I’m really proud of our team, and I highly recommend that you check it out if you’re looking for a fundraising solution without high costs. We have all the awesome features like peer-to-peer fundraising, crowdfunding, full donation management, etc.
- Smash Balloon is the most popular social media feeds plugin for WordPress. This year, our team launched the much-requested TikTok feeds plugin which is also part of our all-access bundle.
- SeedProd is a popular drag & drop WordPress page builder. This year our team added 300+ pre-made website kits & templates. Aside from that, we added deep integrations with WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, so you can create custom eCommerce websites with no-code. See the full 2023 review by our team.
- MonsterInsights is a popular WordPress analytics plugin used by over 3 million websites. This year, our team added eCommerce funnel reports right inside WordPress. I know GA4 is pretty hard to use, and we’re making it easy for WordPress users with our built-in reports.
- MemberPress is the most popular WordPress membership and course solution. This year, our team introduced CoachKit which makes it easy for you to sell coaching programs, track goals & milestones, have unlimited student cohorts, and do 1-on-1 coach messaging right inside WordPress.
- Uncanny Automator is the #1 no-code workflow automation tool for WordPress. It’s basically Zapier for WordPress without the high costs. This year our team passed the milestone of 150+ integrations, and over 75 million automations run. I highly recommend that you give the free version a try.
- FunnelKit is the best marketing automation plugin for WooCommerce. This year, our team released several new features to FunnelKit Automations which basically gives you the power of ActiveCampaign right inside WordPress (without the high costs). Aside from that, we launched the much-requested Side Cart functionality for WooCommerce. If you’re using WooCommerce, then this plugin is a MUST HAVE.
All our product teams have been doing great work, and it’s nearly impossible for me to summarize everything here, so I highly recommend that you check them out individually. Your support means a lot to me.
Note: Want to join me and work on products that are seen by billions of internet users every month? We’re hiring 🙂
Acquisitions & Investments
As I mentioned earlier, this was a record year in terms of business acquisitions for us. We did an average of 1 business acquisition per month with a total of 12 full acquisitions and 4 growth fund investments.
The acquisition market was quite interesting due to a combination of things.
First is the high interest rate environment. This took out the inexperienced buyers who were previously using cheap debt to inflate business valuations. Furthermore, this made operating working capital more expensive for founders who were relying on debt to stay afloat.
Second is slower business growth. Many software businesses saw tremendous growth in the COVID-era, but that was an anomaly. Naturally, the following years had far slower growth, and this can have a negative impact on team morale especially if founders made unsustainable decisions (i.e look at the massive layoffs going on in tech).
Last but not least, uncertainty in the market was very high. We had major banks fail in the US including SVB, First Republic, Signature Bank, etc. These type of news headlines can be incredibly stressful. This led to many founders re-evaluating their long-term options.
I have always operated Awesome Motive with a large margin-of-safety and a long-term outlook. Our disciplined approach and being fully bootstrapped allowed us to step in and acquire several wonderful businesses at fair prices.
Below are few of the deals that I can share.
Duplicator is a leading WordPress backup and migration plugin used by over 1 million websites. We have been recommending the free version on WPBeginner for years, so when the opportunity presented itself, I jumped on it right away. Our team has added tons of new features too. I highly recommend you to check it out.
Thrive Themes offers a suite of WordPress marketing plugins including landing page builder, A/B testing, lead generation, quizzes, selling online courses, and more. A lot of marketing agencies absolutely love our products, and I’m glad to welcome it to the AM family (see the full story).
Envira Gallery is popular WordPress gallery plugin that I helped create in 2014. We sold the business in 2017 to focus our attention on our growth tools like OptinMonster, WPForms, and MonsterInsights. At the time, this was the right decision, but knowing what I know today, selling it was a mistake. I’m glad to welcome it back to the Awesome Motive family. If you’re a photographer, you’d love Envira (see the full story). As part of this deal, we also acquired Imagely (NextGen Gallery), Soliloquy, and Photocrati.
Seahawk Media is a premier WordPress services company that offer a wide range of services, like WordPress development, custom design, WP maintenance, website migration, WordPress support, and white-label services. I invested in Seahawk Media as part of the WPBeginner growth fund because a lot of our users have been asking us for this. Several of our brands are planning to implement white-label Pro Services to better serve our customers.
Over 1,000+ brands, like DreamHost, GoDaddy, and others partner with Seahawk to offer custom WordPress development, website maintenance, and other services for their clients. The best part is that you can white-label these services to expand your profits without hiring additional resources. It’s a great way to build recurring revenue. I highly recommend that you talk with Ryan & Gautam at Seahawk. I shared the full background story here.
HeroThemes is the maker of the best WordPress customer support plugins including Heroic knowledge base and Heroic Inbox plugin. HeroicKB is something that I have recommended on WPBeginner for a long time, and we are actually using HeroicKB to power our documentation on many of our websites. I’m glad to welcome Chris & Richard to the WPBeginner growth fund (see full story).
Wishlist Member and MemberMouse are both well-known WordPress membership plugins for creating and selling online courses. Earlier in the year, I helped facilitate the acquisition of both these businesses to our WPBeginner Growth fund company, CaseProof, which is the parent company behind MemberPress, PrettyLinks, ThirstyAffiliate, Easy Affiliate, etc.
Blair joined the WPBeginner Growth fund in 2018, and I’m really proud of the growth the business has seen since then.
WP101 is a premium WordPress training resource that offers video courses for WordPress. You can also embed 170+ training videos in the WordPress dashboard of your client using the WP101 plugin. It’s a perfect solution for business owners to offer WordPress training videos in their employee onboarding process, and also for WordPress professionals to offer high-quality training videos to their clients. Here’s the full background story.
I have been friends with Shawn Hesketh, the founder of WP101 for a very long time, and I’m honored that he chose us to be the caretaker of his legacy.
WC Vendors is a multi-vendor marketplace plugin for WordPress. It lets you create your own version of Etsy, Ebay, Shutterstock, Airbnb, and other types of marketplaces using WordPress. At WordCamp Asia, I was able to facilitate the acquisition of this business to our WPBeginner Growth fund company, Rymera Web, which is the parent company behind Advanced Coupons (highly recommended), Wholesale Suite, etc.
Josh joined the WPBeginner growth fund in 2019, and I really enjoyed spending time with him & his family in Egypt. It’s quite exciting to see the growth Rymera has seen. This year, we also acquired Visser Labs as part of Rymera too.
Other Investments
Aside from the above, we also did several other acquisitions that I’m not yet ready to share as we haven’t announced them publicly yet. Several of those closed in Q4 of 2023. We will likely be sharing the press releases in January or February.
The numerous investment funds that I’m a part of made their own respective acquisitions. I’m not going to go into details there, but overall I’d say they’re doing fairly ok.
I sold the bank building that I bought in 2017 primarily because I got a pretty good offer. We had way too much empty office space, and the structure was quite old. Not to mention, I haven’t been going to the office since 2020. While our location was excellent, I simply didn’t want to get in a commercial redevelopment project (not worth the hassle).
I was able to buy another smaller office for the local admin team which cost me less than 10% of what I sold the bank building for. The rest of the capital, I’ll invest elsewhere. I’d say it turned out to be a pretty good deal, and now my new office will be completely free considering I’ll just offset the monthly costs with investment returns.
I didn’t buy any other commercial real estate this year. While I saw many deals that came through, I just felt that we had better opportunities in software. I expect better deals to come especially as more folks have to refinance their commercial debt at new rates. I could be wrong though, so let’s see. Either way, no regrets.
Going into 2024, I still sense a lot of worry in the market from my conversations with other entrepreneurs and investors. My plan is the same as before. We will operate with cautious optimism, stay disciplined, and have a large margin-of-safety, so we can protect our team and our customers.
If you’re a founder looking for an exit or an investment, check out my M&A program page to send me a message. This will help you get a fair exit while saving you the broker fees 🙂
$100k Charity Lunch
As Awesome Motive has grown, I have been receiving a lot of requests for consulting, mentorship, podcast interviews, investing guidance, etc. Due to my existing commitments, I have simply said no to most requests, so I can stay fully focused, but at times I really feel bad about saying no.
Furthermore, I also don’t feel right about charging an outrageous speaking or consulting fee to make it worth my time. Several of my friends encouraged me to explore this feeling a bit more and perhaps incorporate non-profit similar to what Warren Buffett did, so I can continue sharing my knowledge while doubling the positive impact.
This was an excellent idea, so I decided to give it a try. From November onward, as we got consulting or speaking requests, we simply directed them to make a donation to the Balkhi Foundation.
One entrepreneur donated $100,000 to the foundation. He will be flying down to have lunch with me and spend sometime together. I’m really looking forward to it.
For 2024, I think it would be cool to do a few virtual coffee sessions as well as more charity lunch / dinner. If you’re interested in that while making a positive impact, you can get in touch with my team from my website’s contact form.
I haven’t decided on the minimum donation amount yet, but I think it needs to be fair.
Few of my friends do a public auction format, and I may consider doing that in the future, but I think it’s far easier to just do it on a case by case basis for now.
Lessons Learned
Like every year, I learned a lot in 2023 through trial and error, reading books, and talking with other entrepreneurs / investors. Below are some of the most important lessons in no particular order.
Big Problems Often ONLY Need Small Solutions
For some reason, we have a tendency to give our problems energy to expand. This leads to a common blindspot where almost no simple solution seems satisfactory because we don’t want to admit that our problem could be solved by something simple. Even though when simple solution is almost always the best.
This year, numerous times I made a point to mentor our leaders on this specific lesson especially as we were onboarding “big acquisitions” which naturally have complexities.
Always search for the simplest solution – don’t let your ego get in the way.
No FOMO is an Ultimate Life Hack
After my podcast interview on My First Million, someone asked me how am I able to stay focused especially when there are so many opportunities coming up.
My answer is to have No FOMO!
In my journey, I have seen many successful people making critical mistakes because they have fear of missing out which I think is similar to the shiny object syndrome.
If you have a friend doing something cool, or you met someone on Twitter (X) / in-person event that’s crushing it in a specific area, then just be happy for them.
The late great Charlie Munger said: “Someone somewhere is going to get rich faster than you, and that’s not a tragedy”.
I recommend having an inner scorecard and be grateful for what you have.
Remember, the grass is greener where you water it.
Remembering Self vs Experiencing Self
This year, one of my friends pointed out a bias that I was operating under that he describes as Remembering self vs Experiencing Self bias.
Basically, when we’re remembering things, we often tend to sugarcoat the experiences. Our remembering self is kinder.
When we’re right in the middle of something, all problems look bigger than they actually are. Our experiencing self is much harsher.
I spent some time reflecting on this perspective, and there are many occassions where I made the wrong decision because of this blindspot, and I’ll definitely be more intentional in the future.
On a related note, I think this applies greatly in coaching & mentoring. If you hire a coach or mentor, ask critical questions about their experiences and specifically how they felt at the time. This will help you get better insights.
Small things often are more important than big things occasionally
This is a universal lesson that applies both in business and in life. But for some reason, our brain has a hard time accepting it.
We attribute big to success / winning, and it leads us to forget the small things.
This year, I made an intentional effort to focus specifically on the frequency of small things.
For example:
Date nights every week is far more important than occassional grand gestures.
Small extended family get togethers on the weekends are better than once a year family reunion.
Small frequent product improvements deliver better results than occassional big features.
Don’t underestimate the power of small things.
Look for Decisions that Remove 100 Different Decisions
As entrepreneurs, we have to make a lot of decisions, and this can be exhausting at times.
Over the years, I have significantly refined my decision making process through a myriad of mental models and frameworks like First Principles, Second Order thinking, Reversible vs. Irreversible decision, etc.
Through practicing first principles + second order thinking mental models, I felt a noticeable improvement in my ability to drill down to the core decisions that help remove 100 different future decisions.
This has been key to scaling for us this year.
Here’s how you can do it yourself:
Do a decision audit – take a look at some key initiatives around your business and what decisions did you have to make. After each decision, how many other subsequent decisions were required. Now work backwards to see which decisions could have been eliminated.
Always Consider the Holding Costs
This is a real estate concept that I think applies in many other areas of our lives, and if we are smart, we can use it to our advantage.
First let me explain the concept and how I benefitted from it this year. In 2022, a real estate developer approached me to buy the bank building that I owned. The price was good, but there were certain closing conditions i.e permits, feasibility studies, etc. This basically is a long process think 12 – 18 months at least. If I sign the contract as-is, I would have asymmetrical downside. Best case is the deal closes and I get the money, but worst case is that I could be tied for a long time under contract while still paying to maintain the property, taxes, insurance, etc.
The good thing was that I had no need to sell, so I proposed to the developer to pay me holding costs which is basically free rent that is non-refundable and non-applicable to the final closing price offer. Now keep in mind that I also had Wells Fargo as a tenant too, so effectively for over a year I collected double rent thanks to holding costs.
While the final closing price was already a good return on my initial investment, the holding costs added extra gravy for return on hassle.
You can use this to negotiate favorable terms in other real estate deals too. As I was buying the other office building, I used it again except this time as a buyer. I used the holding costs in my initial offer to show to the seller that I am being reasonable and fair. My offer was far lower than list price, and it was approved even with the extended closing period and non-refundable terms that I wanted.
When you’re thinking about buying that second home, starting another side-hustle, or chasing another idea, always think about the holding costs and return on hassle.
I feel that smart people in our excitement forget to consider the holding costs. Remember, the most dangerous items in our to-do lists are the ones that look like opportunities but are distractions.
Thinking about the holding costs and return on hassle adds a much needed perspective, so we can continue making logical decisions backed by numbers.
Intellect is a gift, Kindness is a choice
There is a delicate balance between being right and being kind especially when emotions are involved … and emotions are ALWAYS involved.
Whether in business or in life, just choose to be kind. This actually helps you compound goodwill in the long run too.
You will forget the argument because you’ll find something else to be right about the next day … but people will always remember how you made them feel.
You won’t get any smarter by telling someone else how wrong they are, but you probably will learn a few things if you took the time to understand the other side’s perspective.
This will also help you craft a more positive and more thoughtful response that will be much appreciated by the other party.
Last thought on this around happier interactions: don’t debate someone if the outcome can’t be objectively measured.
Very few things are more persuasive than the opinion you desperately want or need to be true. Finding other people’s flaws more than you look for your own improvements is a seductive trap. Just avoid the temptation and choose to be kind.
Gratitude and Happiness Correlation
Several of my friends noticed this year that I was a lot more calm than before, and they asked me what changed.
I don’t think it’s any one specific thing that changed in my life, but I have made a conscious decision to alter my mindset to be in what I call the state of Triple 9’s.
Typically, when you rate something a 9, it means that things are going pretty good.
But relative to what?
The more I have reflected, the more I have come to accept that “how you feel” is relative, and there is a direct correlation between gratitude and happiness.
Yes, we are all dealing with problems and going through things in our personal lives, in business, or with family, but now when I encounter challenges, I stop and take a moment to reflect on all that I’m grateful for. This is a good centering exercise.
Secondly more times than not our situation no matter how bad they seem are not unique. Someone somewhere have already dealt with similar problems, and I just need to find and learn from them.
This mindset has helped me remain calm even in the most unusual circumstances.
The older I get, I just can’t emphasize how powerful practicing gratitude truly is for our mental health.
Other Lessons and Wisdom from 2023
Since this post is getting quite long, I’ll just make a short bullet list. Although unlikely, I may share more about these in details at another time:
- Good advice at the wrong time is bad advice
- Knowing exceptions is often more important than knowing the rules
- “Never expect someone to understand something that their paycheck depends on them not understanding” ~ Upton Sinclair
- “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” ~ Epictetus
- Until we know we are wrong, being wrong feels exactly like being right. This is why it’s important to have strong convictions, loosely held.
- When you think something nice about someone, let them know right then. You may not get the opportunity in the future. Life is too short.
- Talent dysmorphia is real. Some of the worst people think they are the best. Beware of this.
- Thinking with your mouth open is unwise especially when you can think with your mouth close. The latter is far more effective.
- This quote moved me earlier this year: “I am a multidimensional creature living on the earth plane for the purpose of learning in slow motion the consequences of thought”.
- Focus collapses your options in the short-term, but expands them in the long-term.
- Only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches.
- Love the people for who they are and forgive them for who they aren’t. This helps heal relationships.
- Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Things don’t always look from outside what it is.
- The three most important words in investing are Margin of Safety. I remind myself of this on a weekly basis and am thinking I should get a poster made for this and hang it in my home office.
Lastly, I will end with this one because I believe more people need to hear this message.
What lessons have you learnt this year? Or which one of the above resonated with you the most? Let me know by leaving a comment on this post.
Favorite Reads of 2023
These are in no particular order, but I enjoyed them all:
- Roy Thomson of Fleet Street – excellent biography. I am inspired by the persistence and sheer willpower. I also read After I Was Sixty and the Thomson Empire.
- Same as Ever by Morgan Housel – I enjoyed reading the stories here.
- Clear Thinking by Shane Parrish
- Andrew Carnegie – another great biography.
- Excellent Advice for Living – short book full of wisdom and things that you wish you’d known earlier.
- Smart Things I’ve Read Lately – short blog posts with good wisdom.
- Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building – the book is full of relevant resources for growing companies. It was gifted to me, so I skimmed it because it’s a dense book. If you just want to access the workbooks, they’re available for free on Stripe’s website.
- Reframe Your Brain – I love mental reframes, and I enjoyed this book by Scott Adams.
- The Great Depression: A Diary – fascinating first hand account.
- An excellent compilation of quotes on Habits and Human Behavior.
Aside from these, I read various annual letters of private hedge funds and investment companies, so I can better understand the investor mindset at various stages of their journey.
My Goals for 2024
I won’t be listing out product-specific goals since each of them have fairly elaborate roadmaps already.
My personal goals for 2024 are:
- Continue doing monthly trips
- Document more of what I’m learning and turn them into frameworks
- Continue improving my capital allocation skills and staying disciplined
- Be more careful to avoid injuries – 2023 was rough
- Be intentional about nurturing relationships
- Organize more extended family weekend get togethers
I’m truly grateful for a wonderful year that 2023 has been for me and my family. It’s a blessing to be able to do what I love every day.
Here’s to an even more awesome 2024!
In the meantime, enjoy more pics from the year — I took a lot of photos and it was hard to exclude so many good ones from the post 🙂
Thanks for putting this together Syed! This is truly inspiring and loved every bit of it. Cheers and wish you an awesome 2024!
Thank you Thiagu – glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading and happy new year 😀
Thank you very much Syed for the yearly roundup!
I was so much looking forward to this. Been reading since 2015, I always end up taking a few notes – so much wisdom and awesome lessons to learn : )
Please do visit India sometime : )
Wishing you a healthy and happy Life
Happy new year 2024
Thank you Ulhas. Yes India is definitely on my list to visit 🙂
Always look forward to your Year in Review, as they’re always inspiring and consist of lots of lessons to learn (inspired me to write mine recently as well)
You’re doing a fantastic job balancing profession, community, and personal life together.
Here’s to more in the coming months
I appreciate you reading. Drop a link to your year end review here as well 🙂
Here’s the link to my year in review : https://tuhamworld.hashnode.dev/2023-a-year-in-review
Fantastic recap of the year! You are truly an inspiring entrepreneur in every sense of the word and I love your mindset and approach to life. Wishing you a successful 2024 filled with blessings!
Thank you Irfan for the kind words. All the best in 2024 🙂
This is a great and insightful read. It was fun hanging out a few times during this year, always grateful for our time together. Highlight was making our families meet up which was long due. I hope we can continue to do it in the future.
I always admire your discipline. It’s the key for me to achieve my goals. We had several bonding sessions over our long evening walks in Orlando and our discussions at the retreat in Mexico. I’m thankful for your time and advice.
Looking forward to a great year ahead. I have some of your points from this artice saved in my notes for reference. See you soon!
Thank you Waseem. It was great meeting your beautiful family (MA), and I appreciate our friendship. Looking forward to seeing you again in a couple of months.
You have done a good job!
Taking the time out of your busy schedule to document your efforts has placed you on a different level.
There’s a lot I to learn from this recap. Thank you for the write-up.
Thank you Sefa 🙂
Always nice to read your write up!
I was in Jordan and Ghana over the last year. Both amazing and worth adding to your list!!
ian
Thanks Ian. Jordan is definitely in my list.
Always worth reading your content. You’re always a great all-time inspiration.
The post I always look forward to,
truly inspires me
Thank you Tomy