This is the first in an ongoing and likely open-ended series of posts on value creation in the context of the infill developer. We will discuss what exactly this means, and what it doesn’t, pitfalls often encountered, tales of woe and horror, and triumph. Value creation is a distillation of intangibles, yet a physical manifestation of willpower, somehow abstract, but cultivated in the real world of mud and markets, and visualized long before execution. And execution, the key phrase, often repeated in this series, it is all about execution. What does it mean to execute value creation as an infill builder? I know a few things about this space, I have the 10,000 hours of repetition, but do not claim to know it all, or even enough. There be levels to this pursuit after all, I know mostly about the level I play in, and little of those levels above. Value creation is distinct from employment for sure, employees create value but not necessarily play in the realm of the owner/investor. A mindset is surely needed to create value, but how to cultivate this mindset, how to transition from wage work to value creation work, an obstacle many cannot overcome. And finally, strategies of what to do with the value, to compound it and shelter it from those who’d take it from you.
I find myself somewhere in mid-career, blessed to be freed of survival work, largely due to following my own strategies discussed in these posts. My focus now is laser sharp, to create value, and execute my plans into reality. These posts hopefully can help aspiring developers chase their own dreams, a road map that I wasn’t able to find when I needed it. I can respond to specific questions and will post replies to clarify my thoughts on topics of interest. Thanks for reading and good luck!