“Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul. The blueprints of your ultimate achievements.” – Napoleon Hill
Two senses gave rise to this brief article. One was visual, the other was audio.
On the Labour Day weekend, my wife and I decided to visit our family in Lindsay, Ont. It’s normally a 90-minute drive by the 401 and 115/35 highways, but we decided to go the picturesque route, which took us through rolling farm lands, villages, towns and beautiful housing developments. As we passed through the Town of Uxbridge en route to Lindsay, we noted a sign: “Durham County Rd. 1 – Bridge out”. Not being totally familiar with where the road work would end, we continued to drive on at my suggestion, great navigator that I am (not!). So, guess what? After about 10 to 15 km, we came to two massive concrete barriers, which of course had a sign: “Bridge Out – Local Traffic Only”.
Eventually, we arrived at our destination, albeit 45 minutes later than normal.
The audio portion of this article came as a result of a snippet of a CBC broadcaster interviewing Dick Fosbury, former Olympic high jumper, who currently lives in Ottawa. Fosbury made history at the Mexico Olympics by doing what is famously called the “Fosbury Flop”. He set a world’s record, beating the former record of 7.4 feet by doing something totally unorthodox. Instead of the normal “scissors” or “straddle” technique, as he did his run at the high bar, he turned his back on the bar and literally flew over the bar on his back, inventing what is now called the Fosbury Flop. His record stood for some time.
I mention these two events as it relates somewhat to what we do in our everyday real estate activities.
We see certain road blocks – the Competition Bureau, more bureaucracy, more and more challenges to our everyday activities. Do we have to pay attention to these events/situations? Are they telling us to take a detour and follow another path? Can we reinvent the way we have done things in the past?
We have a little over three months left in this year to make some sales that we may have missed somehow this past summer.
Take a look at your past successes – your happy buyers and sellers. Did you manage to stay in touch with them on a regular basis?
Have you tapped into your potential list of investors to tell them that there are still great buys to be had, both in resale and new home sales? How many of you go to the new condo presentations?
Do any of you follow my Yellow Page Canvassing to find Buyers and Sellers (see my archived articles at www.remonline.com) as well as other tips and ideas from my past years writing this column? Or the other fine contributors who have made superb contributions to help push forward your business acumen?
If managers and brokers alike would use some of REM’s articles for their sales meeting ideas, they’d never have to lack for an idea. Ditto for you dear readers!
Detours, changing how you do things and how you approach various challenges in your career, all amount to getting to where you’d like to be.
So, whether you’re being coached by Ferry, Robbins, Buffini or other great coaches (maybe even one of us broker managers!), are you following what they’re saying?
This could be the best three months of your career. Get going and you will see the results of your efforts.
But pay attention to the detour signs and try to do the Fosbury flop. Have a great fall campaign.
Many thanks for all the comments about my last two articles by the way. Your comments are always welcome, pro or con.
Stan Albert, broker/manager, ABR, ASA at Re/Max Premier in Vaughan, Ont. can be reached for consultation at stanalb@rogers.com. Stan is now celebrating 40 years as an active real estate professional.
Stan Albert, ABR, ASA is a consultant with Re/Max Premier in Vaughan, Ont. He can be reached for consultation by email. Stan is now celebrating his 45th year as an active real estate professional.
