Lessons from My Generational Kin
By John N. Frank
Many years ago, when I was dealing with a profound personal tragedy, someone recommended I read a book that started out with a Buddhist guiding principle, “life is suffering.” The book wasn’t trying to be maudlin or to get me more depressed. Rather, the author was making the point that difficult things happen in life. That’s a given; what’s up to us is how we deal with and go on from them to have happy and fulfilling lives.
I’ve been hearing just that message again recently as I interview real estate professionals for a story I’m working on for the June issue of REALTOR® magazine. The article will talk with five
practitioners who are 50 years old or older. All have become trusted mentors to younger real estate pros. And all have gone through hard times in the past and learned from them. They’re now passing those lessons on to their younger associates, many of whom are experiencing their first market downturn. The veterans are talking about the importance of remembering and practicing basics in prospecting, career education and in providing service to clients.
My story will go into much more detail, but I wanted to give you a short preview here and get your reactions to what they’ve been telling me. I also want to thank everyone who nominated people for this story. I have many more nominations than I can write about in one story.
The overarching message from these generational brethren of mine is to keep going; life can have difficult moments, but those aren’t signals to throw in the towel and go sit in a corner. Or to stay up watching endless late-night TV as I have been known to do.
Rather, find ways to keep going and to adapt to changing business conditions. “You just have to keep working. I preach never give up—if you hit that brick wall, go over it or go under it,” one person told me. Said another, “Sometimes you look at the whole elephant and say ‘there’s no way I can eat that.’ Well, sure there is, you eat elephant one bite at a time.”
These folks aren’t being Pollyannas, who I instinctively shy away from as a rule, they’re being realists who want to help others know that clouds pass and the sun comes out again.
So who wants to eat some elephant?
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Comments
Here, here! I so agree with John Frank that we realtors need to keep going, paying strong attention to prospecting and service in order to weather this "downturn." This is a complete return to "basics," but it also is a time requiring practitioners to practice a couple of notions that two of very successful men have taught me during the span of my career (mostly in advertising/marketing and for 7 years in real estate):
1. Wayland Ayer, the founder of NW Ayer, the oldest American advertising agency (older than J. Walter Thompson) had a motto: "Keeping everlastingly at it brings success."
2. This notion also ties in well with the teachings of one of the best coaches in the real estate business I've ever known, Brian Buffini, who extols the repetition of small but meaningful communication with clients and referral sources as a strong root of success. The way he puts it: "It's a cinch by the inch, but it's hard by the yard."
No doubt, this climate is testing our wills and our bank accounts... but when this downturn is over, I am sure that those who persevered to keep customers informed, who educated themselves on the realities of the market and who kept at it, one step at a time, will be those who ATE the elephant and never looked back.
Posted by: Victoria Horstmann | October 21, 2008 04:34 PM