Falling

Falling into things or deliberately taking steps?

Do you fall into things or are you a bit more deliberate about your life choices? Do you go into things with eyes wide open and are you looking for something to do? Or do you just fall into things then find out that’s what you do and eventually that’s who you are?

The latter is actually a recurring theme in my life and I know so many people who have the same experience.

I fell into doing Spanish at University because someone suggested it might be a good way of getting out of the UK and living in Spain eventually. I had never studied Spanish before.

I fell into living in Valencia because my other half got a job here and it was either here or Madrid. We chose here so at least I had some agency.

I fell into teaching here to begin with. I took my wife to the school for her first day and was offered a post. I had never taught at a school. You learn on the job.

I fell into the real estate business. The first house I rented to someone was helping them out translating back in the day when almost nobody in the Spanish real estate business spoke English, so yeah, I suppose I used my Spanish degree for something. I had never done rentals before. You learn on the job.

Valencia Property was started because I went through the process of buying a house here. It was terrible. A friend wanted to buy. He made me help him do it.

The first house I sold was to that friend who had seen that experience buying and knew what a pain in the a*** it had been. I had never sold a house before. Guess what, you learn on the job.

I fell into having a website. The first one I had was because I happened to know someone who said they could do me a site to extend the reach of the business from friends and family. I spent around ten years paying for that bad decision by having to put up with their “Work”. You learn by bad experiences.

I then decided to be a bit more deliberate in life. This was post the 2008 financial crisis which had essentially wiped us out because the business, the website and life wasn’t agile enough to cope. Agility isn’t a thing that’s well known when you are falling into things. Then again the whole world economy wasn’t agile enough to cope so no real blame there.

I restarted Valencia Property with a clearer path and knowing the mistakes that had been made previously. I changed the website, cleared the decks and effectively started again from scratch.

I started Valencia Remodels because I had been through lots of experiences with builders, they were mostly bad. Clients wanted modernisations. They made me do it. (However I had at least seen the opportunity).

I started Stepping Stone Rentals because our clients (Both those that had bought and those that wanted to buy) needed a rental solution that wasn’t Airbnb. They made me do it (Though this idea had been floating around in the back of my head for a couple of years previously)

The next business I start will be because something else doesn’t work and there is a gap in the market (And then someone makes me do it and I jump on it, maybe reluctantly. It won’t be an accident any more).

There are plenty of needs, plenty of services we could give through the Valencia Property Group but sometimes life demands a bit of a respite. We can’t really do everything we possibly could do and maybe we shouldn’t do everything we could do. There’s something about spreading yourself too thin... but when there’s a need...

Is that how you do things? Do you just fall into it or are you more deliberate? Let me know in the comments.