NFA Finance

I used to think the goal was to get to a place where everything was figured out.

Enough money. A successful business. The right house. The right relationships. A solid plan for the future. Get all the pieces lined up correctly, and eventually life would become predictable.

It doesn’t.

If anything, the longer I’ve been in business and the more life I’ve lived, the more I’ve realized that certainty is mostly an illusion.

You can have the perfect plan and something changes tomorrow.

You can think a deal is done until it isn’t.

You can think a business is bulletproof until the market changes.

You can think someone will be in your life forever until they’re not.

You can have money coming in, opportunities everywhere, and everything running perfectly—and six months later you’re looking at an entirely different landscape.

That’s life.

And I’ve spent enough time fighting that reality to finally understand something:

I don’t need to know how it’s going to work out. I need to know what I’m doing today.

That’s how I deal with uncertainty.

I move.

When I don’t know exactly what the next six months look like, I work on what I can control today.

Make the phone call.

Fix the car.

Make the video.

Write the blog.

Clean the house.

Make the deal.

Go for the run.

Handle the problem sitting directly in front of me.

Then do the next thing.

Because I’ve noticed something over the years: action creates clarity.

Sitting around thinking usually creates more thinking.

Worry creates more worry.

Waiting until you’re certain usually means waiting forever.

But movement gives you information.

You make the call and find out where you stand.

You put something up for sale and find out what the market thinks.

You publish the video and find out whether people watch it.

You start the business and discover what customers actually want.

You take one step, and suddenly you can see the next one.

That’s how almost everything worthwhile I’ve ever built has happened.

Not because I could see the entire road.

Because I was willing to start driving.

There have been plenty of times in my life when I had no idea exactly how something was going to work out. I’ve had businesses succeed. I’ve had things fall apart. I’ve made money. I’ve lost money. I’ve made great decisions and I’ve made decisions I’d never make again.

But I’m still here.

And that matters.

Because once you’ve survived enough uncertain seasons, you start realizing uncertainty itself isn’t the enemy.

Paralysis is.

The dangerous thing isn’t not knowing what’s coming.

The dangerous thing is allowing that fear to stop you from doing anything while you’re waiting to find out.

I’m 47 years old now. I don’t expect life to suddenly become predictable.

Actually, I hope it doesn’t.

There’s something exciting about looking ahead and realizing there are still chapters of your life that haven’t been written yet.

Businesses that don’t exist yet.

People you haven’t met.

Places you haven’t been.

Ideas you haven’t thought of.

Opportunities you couldn’t possibly predict today.

That’s uncertainty too.

We tend to associate uncertainty with everything that could go wrong.

What about everything that could go right?

You don’t know.

Neither do I.

And that’s the point.

So these days, when life gets uncertain, I try not to waste too much energy demanding answers that don’t exist yet.

I ask myself a much simpler question:

What’s the next move?

Then I make it.

Tomorrow will reveal itself when it gets here.

Until then, I’ve got work to do.

Stack daily wins.

— Nicholas Francis
Modern Day Dealer