The power of mindset in driving success

A message from our CEO & Founder, Joseph Chou

I had the privilege of attending the tennis over the summer, and like many, have felt the pride and excitement that comes with seeing the success of our fellow Australians on the world stage. Many of us have been following the headlines of Ash Barty’s historic win at the Australian Open, and her openness in crediting her mindset coach Ben Crowe for her success. To me, this comes as no surprise.

Through my personal experience, those of my acquaintance and peers as well as reading about other successful people in any endeavour – be it tennis, business or investing – having the right mindset plays a very vital role in your achievements. Not just in your ability to be successful, but also to be happy in your pursuit of success and the value you provide to society through your endeavours.

Cultivating the right mindset takes a combination of factors but there are three key elements that I have experienced that can help you start your journey.

Changing your programming

To start cultivating the right mindset, the first thing you need to do is assess the limitations of your own current mindset or way of thinking.

To think of this in another way, I often use the analogy of a robot. A robot will do whatever it is programmed to do. In a funny sense, we’re much the same; our way of thinking, or our programming, is set by our earliest influencers – in most cases, our parents. If our parents think, behave, believe and act in a certain way, we learn to think, believe, behave and act in a certain way. And until we take the time to reflect on this – perhaps because we meet someone else who thinks differently – we’re unlikely to change this way of thinking.

Changing your programming is possible, if you first reflect on where you are at versus where you want to be.

For example, when I first started investing, I encountered a lot of negative thinking. However, my mentor had results to prove it could work, and a roadmap for me to follow. I chose to challenge the thinking around me and follow the results of those who were experienced.

To start cultivating the right mindset, the first thing you need to do is assess the limitations of your own current mindset or way of thinking. To think of this in another way, I often use the analogy of a robot. A robot will do whatever it is programmed to do. In a funny sense, we’re much the same; our way of thinking, or our programming, is set by our earliest influencers – in most cases, our parents. If our parents think, behave, believe and act in a certain way, we learn to think, believe, behave and act in a certain way. And until we take the time to reflect on this – perhaps because we meet someone else who thinks differently – we’re unlikely to change this way of thinking. Changing your programming is possible, if you first reflect on where you are at versus where you want to be. For example, when I first started investing, I encountered a lot of negative thinking. However, my mentor had results to prove it could work, and a roadmap for me to follow. I chose to challenge the thinking around me and follow the results of those who were experienced.

Possibility thinking

When we first started Ironfish in 2006, the Sydney market was at a low point in its cycle, and we had many disbelievers. However, my founding partners and I knew that property would continue to be an excellent way to build wealth into the future and we wanted to help more people to do this. And here we are now, celebrating our 15^th anniversary and being able to help many thousands of investors make their property dreams a reality along the way.

Over the years, I’ve also been able to observe the mindset of many investors. For a lot of people, their thinking is limited to their means. For example, “I earn $100,000 per year, I have to pay down my mortgage, I have two kids so there’s nothing left for investing.” The possibility mindset would be thinking: “I want to achieve a passive income stream of $X so I can work less / retire earlier or more comfortably. But at the moment I can’t achieve this. To bridge the gap, I need to do X,Y & Z. If it means increasing my income at work by becoming a more valuable employee then that’s what I must do. Or if it is about understanding my borrowing capacity, then I need to talk to a professional about whether I can leverage my equity to invest / to assess if my finances are structured in the best way for me to achieve my long-term goal.

I believe a big part of changing your mindset for the better is to embrace possibility thinking. When I was a new migrant I used to attend luxury car shows in Darling Harbour, Sydney; I would walk around and imagine myself owning one them someday. I know others who love cars but they can’t even imagine the idea that it might be possible for them to afford one in future. If you can’t even dream of it, how can you possibly achieve it? When we first started Ironfish in 2006, the Sydney market was at a low point in its cycle, and we had many disbelievers. However, my founding partners and I knew that property would continue to be an excellent way to build wealth into the future and we wanted to help more people to do this. And here we are now, celebrating our 15th anniversary and being able to help many thousands of investors make their property dreams a reality along the way. Over the years, I’ve also been able to observe the mindset of many investors. For a lot of people, their thinking is limited to their means. For example, “I earn $100,000 per year, I have to pay down my mortgage, I have two kids so there’s nothing left for investing.” The possibility mindset would be thinking: “I want to achieve a passive income stream of $X so I can work less / retire earlier or more comfortably. But at the moment I can’t achieve this. To bridge the gap, I need to do X,Y & Z. If it means increasing my income at work by becoming a more valuable employee then that’s what I must do. Or if it is about understanding my borrowing capacity, then I need to talk to a professional about whether I can leverage my equity to invest / to assess if my finances are structured in the best way for me to achieve my long-term goal.

Start with the end in mind

Possibility thinking is great, but it’s also important to link this with a clear goal that you can work towards.

Prior to joining the property industry I had my own interpreting business in Sydney. At the time, there was no shortage of Chinese translators or interpreters but many regarded their role as a bit of a subsistence job or part-time job. On the other hand, I had a clear goal – which I shared with my wife – to become the best in the industry within six months. This meant putting my “all” into every job, dressing the part at court and going over and above. Very soon my client list grew as people started to recognise my services as the best.

I took the same approach with investing. I knew what my portfolio and income goal was, and to achieve it, I had to buy seven properties within a short space of time. I could have invested on my own or with the help of many other professionals at the time, but I went with a gentleman who became one of my first mentors because, in many ways, he helped me embrace a successful mindset.

Of course, success alone or achievements alone is not the ultimate goal. Even the most successful person will never be happy if they don’t choose to be happy.

As Ben Crowe said “[Ash Barty] has put her goals and dreams out into the universe, and she’s gone after them and she’s also embraced these principles – gratitude and appreciation and celebration – rather than getting caught up in expectation or entitlement. She’s truly embraced the principle of acceptance – accepting the things she can’t control and focusing back on the things she can control. She’s connected with her purpose and sense of why, she’s established her values which is so fundamental to anyone’s success…”

You have to choose to be happy in your pursuits, you have to choose to nurture and enrich your relationships with others, you have to choose to believe in yourself, your purpose and your values – without taking things for granted or taking yourself too seriously. In this way, you will not only find that the impossible starts to become possible, but you will also enjoy the journey of making your dreams a reality.

Ironfish is celebrating 15 years of helping our customers achieve their dreams. Read more

Or to learn more about how you can invest strategically to build wealth for your future, Joseph will be presenting a free live webinar “The Art of Property Investment”

Ironfish customer success:

April 29th, 2024 / How to invest, Financial wellbeing, SMSF

Using your SMSF to invest in property

It appears as though the self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) revolution in Australia is now in full swing. Currently, approximately 1.1 million Australians manage their own superannuation through SMSFs. According to Deloitte’s 2022 data, Australian males aged 45 to 49 typically have $224,2

April 16th, 2024 / Data & research, Equity

Manufacturing Instant Equity Through Property Investing

Have you ever wondered how some investors seem to magically make money in real estate right after purchasing a property? The secret isn’t anything supernatural or even complicated. It’s simply about understanding the concept of manufacturing instant equity through property investing. By

April 11th, 2024 / Property trends, Data & research

Affordable Australian real estate under $650K

Not every property investor has a massive budget to work with. In fact, there are still a lot of affordable options in the Australian real estate market for those looking to buy under $650K. Finding an investment-grade property in this price range might involve more research, but the results are wel

April 9th, 2024 / Property trends, Data & research, Financial wellbeing

Should I Buy a House Now or Wait Until 2025? Navigating Australia’s Real Estate Market

Despite the succession of interest rate hikes from the Reserve Bank of Australia (now on pause), 2024 is shaping up to be a promising year for the nation’s property market. Despite a 4.25% increase in the official cash rate over the past 18 months, research suggests a strong rebound in property pric

April 1st, 2024 / Message from our CEO, How to invest, Financial wellbeing

Break barriers! Boost earnings with self-improvement and reach your investment goals sooner!

Did you know that one of the most common misconceptions I hear about becoming a successful property investor is that you have be ‘rich’ to begin with. Disappointingly, this negative point of view is also used as an excuse for some people to just give up or not even start their property investing jou

Want to stay ahead of the rest?

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter: all the major property news, research, insights, strategies and investor stories in our monthly newsletter.