The Real Reason Multifamily Investors and Entrepreneurs Struggle to Move Forward

Most entrepreneurs who look successful on the outside are carrying a surprising amount of uncertainty on the inside.

They may have a growing business, an impressive real estate portfolio, successful investments, or a respected position in their industry. Yet behind the scenes, they are still wrestling with difficult decisions, uncertainty, relationships, market conditions, and questions about what comes next.

For multifamily investors and real estate entrepreneurs, this can become especially challenging.

You may know that you need to make a move, change your strategy, grow your team, enter a new market, restructure your business, or make a difficult personal decision.

But something keeps you from moving.

The question may not be, “What strategy am I missing?”

It may be:

“Who do I need to become?”

Your Next Level Requires a New Identity

When leaders face difficult decisions, they often assume the problem is external.

They blame:

• Market uncertainty

• Interest rates

• The economy

• Business conditions

• Relationship conflicts

• Lack of opportunity

• A difficult team

• The need for a better strategy

These factors can certainly matter.

But sometimes the real challenge is internal.

The next level of your business may require a version of you that you're currently resisting.

That next version of you may need to make decisions differently, communicate differently, lead differently, take greater responsibility, establish stronger boundaries, or become more comfortable with uncertainty.

Until you become that person, the decisions in front of you can continue to feel complicated.

The Question That Can Simplify Difficult Decisions

Faisal shared a conversation with a CEO who was facing significant decisions affecting hundreds of employees, multiple levels of management, and hundreds of thousands of customers.

The CEO was focused on the decision itself.

But there was another question that needed to be answered:

Who do you need to become for this decision to become simpler?

That's a powerful question for any investor or entrepreneur.

Instead of only asking:

“What should I do?”

Ask:

“Who must I become to do what needs to be done?”

The first question focuses on the problem.

The second focuses on the person capable of solving it.

Multifamily Investing Requires More Than Technical Knowledge

Real estate investing can make it tempting to believe that the next breakthrough is always another strategy.

Maybe you need:

• A better underwriting model.

• A different market.

• More capital.

• A new acquisition strategy.

• Better marketing.

• More investors.

• A larger team.

Those things can certainly help.

But there comes a point where the challenge is no longer primarily technical.

It's personal.

You may already know what needs to happen.

The problem is that executing it requires you to become someone different.

Perhaps you need to become more decisive.

Perhaps you need to become a better communicator.

Perhaps you need to stop avoiding difficult conversations.

Perhaps you need to establish boundaries.

Perhaps you need to become comfortable taking bold action before you have complete certainty.

The strategy may already be available.

The question is whether you're ready to become the person who can execute it.

Every Major Transition Requires an Identity Shift

Faisal reflects on several major decisions in his own life—from leaving an engineering career and moving into entrepreneurship and coaching, to traveling with his family, homeschooling his children, choosing challenging business niches, and navigating personal challenges and relationships.

Each of those decisions required a new identity.

That's an important lesson for investors.

Think about your own journey.

The person who successfully closes their first multifamily acquisition may need to become different from the person who simply studies real estate.

The investor who raises millions in capital may need to become different from the person who is uncomfortable asking for investment.

The operator who builds a large portfolio may need to become different from the person who personally handles every task.

Your next level requires a different version of you.

And that transformation is a lifelong process.

Stop Confusing Massive Action With Personal Growth

Entrepreneurs often hear advice like:

“Take massive action.”

Action matters.

But action by itself isn't the entire answer.

The deeper question is:

Who are you becoming through the action?

You can take action while remaining trapped in the same patterns.

You can acquire properties while still operating from fear.

You can grow revenue while remaining emotionally unavailable.

You can build a team while refusing to delegate.

You can become financially successful while avoiding the personal issues that are quietly affecting your life.

The objective isn't simply to do more.

It's to evolve.

Your vision, strategy, goals, and structure should support the person you're becoming.

Your Goals Are Not the Whole Point

It's easy to become obsessed with outcomes.

For example:

• Acquire 1,000 units.

• Raise $10 million.

• Build a $100 million portfolio.

• Scale the company.

• Increase annual revenue.

These goals can be useful.

But what happens if you don't reach them on your original timeline?

Does that mean the entire journey was wasted?

Not necessarily.

Because part of the value is who you become along the way.

The leadership skills you develop.

The resilience you build.

The people you serve.

The decisions you learn to make.

The capacity you develop.

The person you become may ultimately be more valuable than the specific goal you originally set.

The Greatest Frontier May Be Inside You

The transcript references philosopher Alan Watts and the idea that although humanity often views outer space as the ultimate frontier, one of the greatest frontiers is actually the inner dimension of our lives.

That's uncomfortable.

It's much easier to analyze a market than to analyze yourself.

It's easier to study a deal than to examine your fears.

It's easier to build a business than to confront the parts of yourself you've been avoiding.

And that's why many high achievers stay busy.

Because constant activity can become a way of avoiding uncomfortable internal truths.

What Are You Avoiding by Staying Busy?

This is one of the most important questions in the entire conversation:

What uncomfortable truth are you avoiding?

Maybe you already know the answer.

Maybe you need to make a difficult business decision.

Maybe a relationship needs attention.

Maybe you need to establish a boundary.

Maybe you're afraid to admit that the business you've built isn't the business you actually want.

Maybe you're exhausted but keep telling yourself that you simply need to work harder.

Or perhaps you don't consciously know what's underneath the discomfort.

All you know is that when you slow down, something feels uncomfortable.

So you keep moving.

You stay busy.

You work.

You analyze.

You plan.

You consume more information.

But sometimes the solution isn't another strategy.

Sometimes the solution is to stop long enough to listen to what you've been avoiding.

The Real Problem May Not Be the Market

Real estate investors are constantly exposed to uncertainty.

Markets change.

Interest rates move.

Deals fall apart.

Partners change direction.

Capital becomes more difficult to raise.

Economic conditions shift.

But external uncertainty isn't necessarily the biggest obstacle.

The bigger question is:

How are you responding internally to uncertainty?

Fear, attachment, avoidance, and disconnection can influence your decisions just as much as market conditions.

That's why personal leadership matters.

You cannot always control the market.

But you can work on the person navigating it.

The Questions Every High-Performing Investor Should Ask

Instead of immediately looking for another strategy, take some time to ask yourself:

1. What part of myself am I avoiding by staying busy?

What are you unwilling to slow down and face?

2. Who do I need to become?

What qualities would the next version of you possess?

Would they be more decisive?

More courageous?

More disciplined?

More emotionally mature?

More willing to delegate?

More willing to communicate?

3. What decision would become easier if I became that person?

This question connects identity to action.

4. What makes the transformation worth it?

Your "why" matters because becoming someone new isn't always comfortable.

Your vision needs to be strong enough to make the discomfort worthwhile.

Don't Wait Until Regret Forces You to Change

One of the biggest dangers for high achievers isn't failure.

It's regret.

Regret can come from looking back years later and asking:

• Why did I build this business?

• Why did I stay in that relationship?

• Why didn't I set those boundaries?

• Why wasn't I more present with my family?

• Why did I create a life I didn't actually want?

Success without alignment can become its own form of failure.

The goal isn't simply to build a successful business.

It's to build a life you don't eventually regret.

Your Next Level Is Personal Before It's Professional

The next stage of your multifamily investing career may require a new strategy.

But it may also require a new you.

Perhaps your next level requires you to become:

• More decisive.

• More courageous.

• More self-aware.

• More disciplined.

• More present.

• More willing to ask for help.

• More willing to confront difficult truths.

• More aligned with the life you actually want.

Your business can only evolve as far as your leadership can take it.

And your leadership evolves as you do.

Final Thoughts: You May Not Be Stuck

Sometimes what feels like being stuck is actually resistance.

Resistance to changing.

Resistance to uncertainty.

Resistance to letting go of an old identity.

Resistance to making the difficult decision.

Resistance to becoming the person your next chapter requires.

So before you search for another strategy, ask yourself:

Who do I need to become?

And then ask:

What am I avoiding by staying busy?

Because the next breakthrough in your business may not come from finding something outside of yourself.

It may come from finally becoming the person you've been resisting all along.

You're not necessarily stuck. You may simply be resisting who you need to become.

TRANSCRIPT

Faisal Ensaun: Looks like we're alive.

Most entrepreneurs who look successful on the outside are carrying a lot of uncertainty and struggling with it on the inside.

That was one of the most powerful themes that came up during the workshop that I did this morning.

Almost everything was pointing towards that identity shift that leaders go through.

And a lot of times, when leaders look at the market conditions, when leaders look at the uncertainty in their own personal lives, when they look at the heavy decisions that they need to make, the shifts that they need to make, it's not really about the business, it's not really about the shifts, it's not really about the pivots, it's not really about the relationship conflicts, all that stuff.

The real question is, are you resisting the next version of you?

That needs to come out for you to make those better decisions. Bold moves, movement forward.

It might even sound like cliché to you.

But that next version of you is the only thing that will unlock the next set of decisions you're gonna make.

I was sitting with a CEO a few weeks ago when we were going through some of the heavy decisions that he needs to make in his company, and we're talking about hundreds of people getting affected from multiple levels of management, lots of people, not to mention hundreds of thousands of customers that he deals with.

And as much as he kept that, it was about, "Oh, I need to make this decision." And one question I needed to ask him was, "Who do you need to become for this decision to become simpler?" Because he was overcomplicating it.

Or more accurately, his mind was overcomplicating it.

And to be honest, I've been on that boat multiple times. Whether it's been the decision 11 years ago to jump into entrepreneurship, coaching, leaving an engineering career, or it's been the decision to be on the road and travel with my family in RVs, and take my kids and everybody with me.

And be in different parts of the world.

Or it's a decision to homeschool my kids, or it's a decision to picking a niche or in a business that's incredibly challenging to be in.

Or it's the personal, internal decisions of dealing with trauma, challenges, all kinds of stuff, or the relationship challenges and boundaries that I consistently deal with.

All of them required me to step into a new identity, and of course, that's a lifelong process.

And every time before I've had to make that decision, first, I needed to recognize, who am I becoming?

And in the beginning, it wasn't as obvious. It was more like, I need to step into this, I need to take bold action, I need to take...

And a lot of entrepreneurs and investors hear terminology from some influencers that say, "Take massive action."

Well, it's not about the action. It's about the person you're becoming.

And in the process, we do create a vision, we do create a long-term path, we do create short-term structure.

But the structure is there to actually accommodate the new identity that's stepping into that.

And even if you have big goals, whether it's to create an impact, it's to scale or grow a company, or grow a family, or a community, whatever that might be.

It is not about that. It is about who you need to become to go there.

Even if you don't achieve the goal next year, the year after, five years from now on, it's what is evolving within you that's doing that.

And of course, it's also about the impact you're creating, the people that you're serving, the companies you're growing, whatever it might be.

And I want you to think of it from that frame, because that was the tension that was very, very hard for a lot of leaders to navigate in the session in the morning, and it was a lot of the questions were uncomfortable. There was, you could see the tension.

And a lot of times, entrepreneurs are looking for the next strategy, the next business idea, the next exciting thing.

Actually, none of it is about that.

It was one of my favorite philosophers, Alan Watts, said this, is that you're, as much as we think of going out into space as the final frontier for human beings, or the greatest frontier for human beings, and it is in some ways.

But the greatest frontier is actually the inner dimension of our life.

And it is much more scary and uncomfortable to deal with that than going out into space.

This is why you see human beings shooting off into space, but not taking care of their own personal internal world of thoughts, emotions, spiritual side, or their responsibilities that they have.

And many leaders run away from that.

Why do they run away?

Because there are uncomfortable truths to face.

So my question to you is, what are the uncomfortable truths you're avoiding?

Some of them you probably know about.

And you're avoiding it by running constantly, by being busy constantly.

And other ones are completely below your awareness.

All you feel is a discomfort, a tension.

If you slow down, if you stop, or if you pause, they're gonna overtake you, they're gonna overwhelm you.

So all the fear, the attachment, the disconnection, the uncertainties of the market, the world, none of those are the biggest problems.

The biggest problem is inside of you.

Are you willing to face that?

And if you are going through this, you're gonna hear it loud and clear.

And if you have avoided facing that, then it's time for you to actually sit down with yourself.

And if you get to a point where you cannot, or you have a hard time with it, get the support that you need.

You don't need to get it from me, but get the support that you need, because you're gonna thank your future self who will thank you that, thank you for that.

And you're not gonna end up with regret a few years from now on.

Whether that regret of why did I build this business, how, why did I leave this marriage, or why did I build this family that I built, or why did I show up with this model with my kids, or why did I build whatever that I built?

That regret is one of the most painful things for a lot of high achievers.

So don't go there.

But I'd love to ask you, once again, answer these questions for yourself.

What part of you?

Are you avoiding?

By being busy.

That is uncomfortable.

Who do you need to become for you to make the right decisions, make the difficult decisions, whether in your personal or business?

And what does that self look like?

And what is the reason?

What is, what makes it worth it?

Whether that's that vision, that why, what makes it worth it for you to go towards this?

Because the process is uncomfortable.

It's not as simple, easy as, it's simple, but it's not as easy as most people think.

In fact, it's one of the most challenging things leaders go towards.

We went much deeper into this in our session this morning, in the two-hour workshop that I did.

We'll have the replay available up until Monday.

I don't know what that is, May...

Today is May 14th. Monday will be May 18th.

It's available till then.

You'll be able to go through the whole workshop.

There's a powerful framework in there for you to work through it and score yourself and understand what's the next level of leadership you need to get into.

It'll be incredibly useful for you to apply in your business, and actually train your employees, team members, partners, and all kinds of other people in your life.

Definitely take advantage of it.

The people who were there, they got a lot out of it.

If you want access to that replay, just send me a DM saying "replay," or type it below, and I'd love to share it with you.

And please share any insights or thoughts you might have had while listening to this.

I'd love to hear from you, and I'll personally engage with those.

Until my next conversation, hope you have a great day.

Bye.