Jeff Schechter, CEO of High Return Real Estate, lost everything in the 2008 financial crisis and moved to Austin to start over. He credits his turnaround to finding good executors, taking total responsibility, and focusing on one thing at a time. His mantra: you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Jeff Schechter with us. His friends call him Shecky, and he is the CEO and co-founder of High Return Real Estate LLC. So welcome to the show, Jeff.
Thank you, I'm happy to be here.
Of course, thanks for joining us. And we will dive into the first one. The first question I have for you is, what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Well, it goes back really to '08, '09, and it was an extremely dark period of my life. A lot of health issues, father dying, family member dealing with drugs and other legal implications. And I was with that last crash facing complete financial devastation. And the lesson that I learned is that sometimes it's okay to push that big red reset button. And what I mean is that a lot of people look at making big changes as running away or copping out. And it's not necessarily that. It means you're picking yourself up and resetting. There is an old expression in Hebrew that goes like this, "Mishanem hakom mishanem hazal," which literally means, If you change your place, you change your luck. And at that time, it was right when I moved to Austin, Texas, and as a result, got connected with just this incredible group of marketers and entrepreneurs. And my, my life was so vastly improved after that. It was just never the same. So that was just a huge lesson for me.
And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
I think you should look to other experts that can do things better than you. For example, within the neighborhoods that we invest, and it's our business obviously, but we can create a cash-flowing property better and more profitable than anyone else can do it themselves, just because we've got the systems and the economies of scale in place. So the best information is just look for people that can do things better than you can to achieve the desired results.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
This is, this is really the easiest one. Decent execution will always bring more success than the best idea. So what I'm saying really is that if you just have half-assed or halfway decent execution of something and you keep executing, you're always going to be more successful than being that guy with the next, or gal, with that great amazing business idea.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Really just to take total responsibility for everything in your life. Obviously, the younger you are, the harder it is to realize that. But once you realize that it's all you, like it's not your friends or your spouse or the economy or whatever, then, you know, you're fully empowered to create the life of your dreams. And I think that kids don't necessarily always understand that there's very few parents that are that are telling kids that. So if I was to give my, my younger self that advice, absolutely, that's what it would be.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Just having a powerful why and working towards that. Know what it is that gets you jazzed and go for it.
And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
It's kind of a loaded question because I read a lot of books, but the one recently that impacted me the most is a book called The One Thing. And there's a, there's kind of a statement in there that the whole book is based on. It goes like this: what's the one thing you could do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary? Especially as a business owner, I just keep asking myself, but reading that book sort of trained me to ask myself that question probably 20 times a day. What's the one thing? Am I working on the most important thing? So, it not only keeps me focused, but it keeps me working on one thing at a time because honestly multitasking is a myth. I'm way more productive when I know, okay, the next 10 minutes I'm doing this, and then when I'm done, I can move on to something else.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote is as follows: "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." And that is by Wayne Gretzky. And it's just a constant reminder for me to stay in action. You know, we don't always necessarily know exactly what the right thing to do, but oftentimes doing something is better than doing nothing. And so I just remember that and it keeps me moving forward.
Yes, man. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
Just at our website, highreturnrealestate.com. It's spelled just like it sounds.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for coming on. We appreciate it.
Yeah, thank you. Pleasure to be here.
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