Shawn Dahl's Top 10

    VANCOUVER, BC, January 13, 2021 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Shawn Dahl, one of the key partners in a collection of companies that include Rainwater Development Group and Store Space Self Storage, has recently revealed his top 10 lessons that he has employed in his life to pursue a successful career while living life to the fullest. These lessons range from helping to balance work and life to principles of business, and they apply to nearly any person's life.

Shawn Dahl's Top Ten Career Tips

Whether you are just launching your career or have been following a set path for long time, Shawn Dahl notes that it is always important to assess your position and look at where things could be improved. Shawn has found that these principles have guided his business decisions and offer clarity in all kinds of life choices.

At a recent speaking engagement, the top 10 life tips that Shawn Dahl gave were as follows:

1. Don't partner yourself with poor characters

Throughout your life, there will be many opportunities to advance your business by making strategic partnerships with people who have skills that offset your own. Some of those partnerships will be beneficial for short term while some will be long term - even for the entire life of your business. Partnership skills and alliances are needed to help push the needle forward but choosing good characters who are entirely trustworthy with core values similar to your own is even more important to your happiness and long-term business success.

Decisions are easy when money is flowing, but when the taps run dry, problems emerge and all you will have to count on is character. The biggest joys and the biggest sorrows in your life will be based on who you have chosen to align yourself with. You are better going at it alone than you are to be aligned with the wrong character. If you make a wrong choice, partnerships can be messy and difficult to get out of. Choose wisely.

2. Honesty always wins out

Honesty is not just about not lying; it's about making sure people know the truth. In life, there will be many opportunities to cut corners, oversell your goods and not live up to your agreements. Life is a giant snowball and every customer and partnership interaction you have will leave people with a certain feeling. All of these feelings adhere and will affect you in good and negative ways, snowballing with potentially everlasting ramifications.

I never want to do business with someone just one time, even if I make money. There is far more ease and enjoyment by doing repeat business with people that you already have a trust bond with. Live up to your agreements, treat people well, and strive for repeat business. Some people just can't get ahead in life because of the giant wake of a negative snowball leading the way in front of and behind them.

Apply the premise of the "golden rule" to all your marketing messages, investment opportunities, partnership dealings, and customer acquisition interactions. "How would you want to be treated or informed about this transaction if you were on the other side of the fence?"

When you honestly care about other people and then treat them with an unusual amount of care and respect, then they won't be able to contain themselves from talking about their experience with you to others and you will see people go out of their way to do business with you again when possible. This is the cheapest and most effective marketing you will ever engage in.

3. Protect the egos of others

People tend to have big egos and if you are careful to protect their ego's in spite of your own, you can often get much further ahead. Often when you are in opposition with someone, it becomes less about "the thing" and more about just being right, so people tend to get their backs up just to save face. If a person has wronged us in some way, our natural instincts tell us that we need to strike back and prove that person wrong, but If you really want to move the needle forward, then forgo the need to come out looking like you're on top and start looking for a way to give the other person a safe place to land. You will be surprised at how far this can take you.

4. Sacrifice today to invest tomorrow so you can reap later

Wealth takes work, discipline and sacrifice. Many people want to invest, but do not feel as though they can afford to invest enough, so they continue with their way of life, hoping to someday catch a break so they can invest later. The unfortunate reality is that saving money requires sacrifice. Buying "Assets" that pay you continually (think business, stocks, or real estate) are not as fun as buying "Liabilities" that continually cost you money (think clothes, memberships, boats, and cars). Every time you make a purchase you are not just buying "a thing", you are potentially hooking a hose up to yourself which is either going to drain money away from you and create a continual cost (insurance, maintenance, membership fees, interest expense, etc.) or it could be continually flowing towards you (rental income, interest income, dividends).

One day you will have a lot of these hoses hooked up to you and you get to decide now whether these hoses will be flowing money towards you or draining it away from you. A lot of drain hoses equals stress, debt, and being a slave to your job, whereas more inflowing hoses will lead to freedom, wealth, and earlier retirement if you want to.

Do you want to work for money, or do you want to have money work for you? It's up to you to decide now.

5. You can always give no matter how little you have

No matter how little you have, there is always someone with less. Giving should be part of everyone's life habit. Yes, it takes sacrifice; yes, it's sometimes hard; and yes, it's worth it. Find something or some organization you are passionate about and make a difference in someone else's world. We are designed by God to have purpose in our lives, and part of that purpose involves creating a greater good, leaving a positive impact and loving on others. Focusing your life pursuits entirely on yourself or your family will leave you feeling empty, while pouring into the lives of others, even when it's hard, will give you great joy and that should be our goal.

6. Investing is all about balancing Liquidity, Risk, and Return.

When we think about returns from our investments or even borrowing money (which becomes returns for someone else's investment) Liquidity, Risk and Return all work together, so you're best paying attention to it if you plan to ever invest.

Liquidity: If we are lending or investing money and cannot get access to our investment for 5 years, then we would want a higher return then our bank account would give. This is called Liquidity (or lack of Liquidity) and it has an expected return cost associated with it. Many people who may want you to invest in their business don't understand that the returns they may be offering you are not that great once you realize that your money is potentially illiquid for an indefinite period of time.

Risk: If something is considered riskier, then we will naturally want a higher return potential for that investment. Somebody may be offering a 10% return for their investment, and they may think that is a high expense to them and a good return for you, but when you figure in the real risk of getting your money back, this might actually be very low. What are the chances that something could go wrong, and you might not get your money back? If there is even a 10% change of you not getting your money back, then you will want a higher than 20% return.

Another way to think about it is this: millions of people gladly accept the extremely low return from GIC's because they also know that to park their money in a GIC it is very safe. The longer their money is locked up, the higher the return will be on an incremental basis. As risk goes up and liquidity goes down, so should you also keep demanding higher and higher returns on your investments.

Liquidity, Risk and Return work together like 3 Levers. When you put Liquidity down, it inherently puts Risk higher and Returns need to go up. When Liquidity is high, and money is readily available to take back, then usually your return is lower because that money cannot be used for longer term investments.

Plan for the worst, expect the best and pay attention to your 3 Levers. Set your investment return expectations based on the lowest possible expectations where everything went wrong, and you will win more times than you lose.

7. It is fun receiving a giant payday but staring at money in a bank account will get old

We are all part of this life pursuit trying to achieve "success" and most often success has something to do with money. While we are chasing money or fame or success, we believe we will be happier once we no longer have the stress and pressure of our bills and payments. In reality, a giant payday is exciting at first and then it gets old and, eventually, it will just be ones and zeros in a bank account, doing very little enhance your life. There is no arrival with a fat paycheck no matter how big it is. In fact, if that paycheck is too large, it brings with it its own set of financial and social dilemmas. What you wish for is not all you may think it is.

8. People are fulfilled while they are in forward progression. There is no happy arrival.

When you hit a giant success hurdle or financial mark, this can be exhilarating if it becomes a springboard to your next milestone. But if you actually "arrive" at what you deemed was "the top" and feel that there is no place next to go, then your greatest achievement can also feel like a burst bubble. Eventually we realize that man was not created to ever "arrive". We are happiest when we are in pursuit of something greater than ourselves, whether that is a personal vision, a company vision, or a God given vision.

9. Friendships and family are more important than any financial success

At the end of the day all you have of value are the relationships you have invested into. Family blood runs deep, which typically just gives you lots of opportunities to repeatedly screw up yourself, offer grace to others, and try again. Good relationships are the most stable, reliable, and rewarding experience in life. Think about why you do what you do, and it will come down to this: we create money and financial success for the purpose of giving us more freedom and time. We then hope that this freedom and time will enhance our relationships. Pay attention to when you sacrifice relationship time or work time but know that the ultimate priority should be your relationships. You might be able to benefit your family through financial success, but wealth should not be pursued at the expense of your relationships.

10. Life is a constant struggle for balance, but in order to achieve greatness in anything it requires imbalance for at least a while.

There is a time for balance at a time for imbalance. For the most part, life should be balanced; but, sometimes in short bursts, if you want to move the needle and make a difference, your top priority goal needs to take everything you have. After you achieve it, make sure you get back in balance quickly. Life is about the journey, not the goal... but you still need to be somewhat radical if you want to lead an extraordinary life. In effect, your desire to succeed must be greater than the difficulty, pain, or hard work in front of you.

After a long carrier and several highly successful business's Shawn Dahl attributes much of his success to the prioritization of these ten goals. He stands by the belief that anyone can improve their life as well as those around them by focusing on a few simple things.

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