BY HEINO MOLLS – From time to time I am chided about the relevance of this column when it comes to the business of real estate. I admit that I may seem to occasionally stray from REM’s mandate, which is to focus on topics that directly affect the business of real estate, but I don’t think I really do.
I confess that I love to spin a yarn. I enjoy telling stories. And I have always believed that no matter what business or what profession anyone is in, there is a story behind the service they provide. I believe that the real estate business more than any other has the most important stories.
Stories about people.
Just scratch the surface of any sales representative, broker, president, or CEO, in any business, and you will find a marvellous tale. The driving force and the reasons behind their success or even non-success are fascinating. Some business people succeed despite overwhelming obstacles and some underachieve, despite having all the tools necessary to soar to great success. For me they are all wonderful stories.
I have found that there are similarities that all people have on the road to success, regardless of whether they achieve that success or not. They include things like tenacity, attitude and even financial freedom. These are huge accomplishments on that road. But that’s all they are, tasks on the road. They are not the ultimate goal.
Goals, in most cases, are surprisingly far more humble things than the tasks that are needed to achieve them. By every measure, success is not complex.
Success is the simple achievement of a dream.
There are enough dreams to go around for everyone. Certainly we all have noble dreams of world peace and the eradication of poverty. But for many of us, we also have simple dreams for ourselves.
There’s the city dweller who dreams of living in a cabin up north. There’s the farmer who dreams of living in a luxury condo downtown. There’s the couple who dreams of operating a B&B. There are the parents of a little boy who dreams of a backyard skating rink, or a little girl who dreams of a stable with her own horse. There’s the artist who dreams of painting in the attic of a big house with just the right light coming through the window. There’s the woman who
dreams of opening her own antique shop. There’s the man who dreams of running his own bar, and the person who dreams of a private den in which to write a book. There is everyone who ever wanted to sit on their own dock by the river. And all dreams in between and beyond.
For every dream there is a road. And on every road there is a business person, a working man, an ambitious woman, a boy with a plan, a girl with great hope in her heart.
No matter what anyone does in life, everyone has a dream. And more often than not, in that dream, there are fundamental elements such as a writer’s den, an artist’s studio, a remote cabin, a dock by the lake or even a bar down at the corner. They all share one common thing. Every one of these dreams has a connection to the business of real estate.
Before anybody can be in these places, someone’s got to sell it and someone’s got to buy it.
My point is this: I know of no other business that is so frequently a part of someone’s dream than real estate. I cannot think of anything more remarkable to do for a living. Of all the things you can do in the world of business, real estate is probably as close as you can get to sharing and
helping people achieve their dreams.
Go ahead and talk all you want about the vision of a company. Tell me how executives take corporations through critical paths. Speak about the collective efforts of a committee and by all means give accolades to those who work in a firm’s particular department that is efficient.
But never forget that at the end of the day, all of these groups are made up of individuals who go home each night and dream of different things.
Wonderful dreams. And remember, more times than not, it is irrefutable that Realtors play a significant role in achieving these dreams.
The people who create these dreams make wonderful stories — important stories that may not seem to directly relate to the business of real estate.
Without them, there probably wouldn’t even be a real estate profession.
Heino Molls is publisher of REM. Email [email protected].
By: Heino Molls
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