Christian OsgoodCEO, Multifamily Strategy · CEO at Multifamily Strategy

Trial by fire, the greatest teacher of all!

26 Sept 2024 · 1 min

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0:52

In this monologue, Christian Osgood reflects on the intensive, paid, on‑the‑job experience of managing a 24‑unit multifamily property. He lists the gritty challenges he faced—tenant drug issues, pipe leaks, leasing negotiations, rent increases, and renovation projects—arguing that this real‑world immersion taught him more in a year than a four‑year college could. Osgood recounts initially doubting the deal, then encouraging the listener to take the risk, noting that persisting through a project beyond their skill level forced rapid growth. The result was a dramatically expanded skill set that now enables the listener to tackle larger, more complex deals such as 50‑unit buildings. The core message is that paid, high‑stakes, hands‑on work can be the greatest teacher, accelerating competence and confidence far beyond traditional education.

Chapters

And you get a 24-unit experience. You've now experienced drugs, you've now experienced pipe leaks, you've experienced leasing, rent increases, renovations, and you got paid to do so. In my opinion, that is better than anyone's college experience. Agree. You got paid to learn some really hard stuff by doing it, and you learned it in a year. You didn't go somewhere for 4 years to learn this. That's right. You bought a deal. I originally told you I wouldn't buy this deal. This is one of the deals where I'm like, I think I'd circle out of this one. I am so glad that you didn't listen to that. I said, if you can't afford not to do it, then do it. And you went in and you did it. You guys made the right choice and you guys stuck with it. And it is a hard project that was beyond your current skill level when you bought it. And guess what? You grew to— you rose to the occasion. You grew your business, you grew your skill set. You can now handle harder projects. Now you can do the same thing on a 50-unit building now because you know everything that's going to come up. Well, not everything, but you know a lot of a lot.