You’ve heard of flipping houses, but have you heard of flipping horses? It’s the same concept — buy low and sell high. Just like house flippers, successful horse flippers have an eye for potential. They cruise classified ad websites and hang out in racetrack stable areas, looking for unwanted horses with the potential to become show-ring champions. The horse flippers often have their own stables and the skills to quickly train a horse for a new career.
And just like in the real estate game, horse flippers often stand to make the most profit when they fix up and resell the horse quickly.
My friend flips horses as a side hustle. She loves to take a retired racehorse and turn it into a beautiful riding horse for someone to love and enjoy. Her process is to buy the horse in the fall, get it looking its best, use the winter months to train it for a new career, and then sell it in the spring when the market is full of eager buyers. The process takes about seven months.
One time, my friend strayed from the process. She got a horse with a fun personality and beautiful looks, and when the spring rolled around, she didn’t put it up for sale. Instead, she decided to keep it for a few more months. She thought if she could spend more time riding it and take it to a few competitions, she could get more money for the horse.
Unfortunately, the plan didn’t pan out the way she had hoped. She developed the horse to the level she wanted, but the region experienced a drought that led to a massive hay shortage. It suddenly became very expensive to keep any horse — let alone a well-trained show horse.
I’ve seen many creative professionals experience the same effect with their work. They are precious with the project; they try to make it perfect before releasing it to the world. When they finally do, it falls flat. They get so wrapped up in the process of researching, perfecting, and planning their idea, it creates a Proximity Paradox. They lose sight of the fact that their idea was meant to address an unmet need, and while they’re sitting on it, that need morphs into something else or is fulfilled by a competitor.
Gone are the days of the grand reveal and launch party. Perfection is overrated. If you’re onto something, launch as soon as possible. In this section, we’ll look at areas where we can get caught up in processes, and we’ll share strategies to speed up ideation and action.