To people who have attempted business or investment ventures, they quickly discover that simply doing what everybody else does is a recipe for mediocrity.  Both the business and investment world are very competitive.  Simply handing your money to a stock broker cannot be expected to generate exceptional returns, because every other broker is working to find great deals for their clients while yours is trying to find one for you.  This results in competition for deals that quickly dissipates opportunities for exceptional gains.  Similarly, opening a business that is similar to other businesses in the community can only be expected to produce average results, since you will be splitting the customers interested in your products and services with all of the other businesses in the local area.

To achieve exceptional success, we must assemble different pieces of value together and create a new investment or business.  We like to call this process “assemblation” and are looking toward this as a way to create differentiation.  As an investor, we practice assemblation by finding combining value drivers similar to the way that a baker combines ingredients.  When creating a business, there is more value to be found from a ‘complete solution’ than for simply providing a part of what you clients need.  When creating a real estate deal, there is more value to be found by coordinating the purchase of a distressed property, rehabilitating the property, and marketing it to tenants than simply buying one that is rent-ready.

Once the power of assemblation is fully internalized, it becomes immediately apparent that we must find ways to create more value in all that we do if we seek to be successful.  Even people who work a traditional job can practice assemblation in their career.  Most people who work in a particular job have a defined job scope and set of responsibilities that they are paid to perform.  Unfortunately, very few seek out ways to deliver value above and beyond that which is defined in their job scope.  By bringing-in new ideas and using your job scope to create more value for your employer, it will increase the importance of your services as an employee.

Thus, astute investors and businesspeople use the principles of assemblation to assess every opportunity that they see.  A property is not viewed for what it is, but what it could be.  A new business is not evaluated based on how many other people are doing the same thing, but on how the current industry can be improved by assembling pieces of value into a complete solution.  An employee should not analyze a job based solely on how much they will get paid, but on how much they can learn, and how much they can grow.  By practicing the art of assemblation, it changes out viewpoint on all things that we experience in our life.  It takes emphasis away from ‘how can I do my job’ to ‘how can I create value’ . . . this distinction is very important for people that want to create a lifetime of success through assemblation.

Another extension of the assemblation principle is to actively avoid situations where you cannot create value in favor of situations where you can.  For investors, this means to seek ‘deals’ where you are a part of creating value instead of ceding control to an investment manager.  If investing in the stock market, assemblation means to seek opportunities for providing needed capital to small businesses or investing in market indexes instead of trying to piggyback on fund managers.  If investing in real estate, assemblation means finding low priced properties and improving them so that they can be rented to tenants instead of simply trying to ‘flip’ properties without adding any value.  If job shopping, you can practice assemblation by looking for opportunities with ‘head room’ for growth of your job scope.

In the end, our world is quickly evolving into one where success is only available to those who practice excellence.  The days of expecting success after ‘serving your time’ are long past.  We must assemble success if we wish to enjoy a comfortable life and retirement.  We must practice assemblation in our business and investing activities to create value that others have left out.  By mastering this art, it will place you in the top tier of achievers, and place you at the precipice of success.