We are lucky to have some very good speakers in the real estate community. In my opinion, five of the best in no particular order are Richard Robbins, Bruce Keith, Brian Buffini, Craig Proctor and Barry Lebow. I have read much of what these fellows have written. I have heard each one speak. They are very good at what they do. If you want to be inspired, if you need some encouragement, if you want some fresh ideas, I suggest that you read what they write and better yet book a ticket to hear them speak.
I sure can’t talk in front of people at that level, nor do I think I can write as eloquently as these fellows. However, I recently came across a couple of folks who seemed down and out about the frustrations of this business and I was thinking about talking to them. I wanted to give them some advice, not from a powerful speaker or great writer but from me. An old man who has simply had the good fortune of watching this business for over 30 years now.
My humble advice is just this; count your blessings. You already have all the tools it takes to make it in this business and make it big!
Start by looking right in front of you. Obviously, you can read. You are lucky because many people cannot read. You are blessed with the ability to research marketing techniques, ideas on selling and creative solutions to challenging problems. The last time I looked, the public library still had a wide array of books on all these subjects and it was still free to sit there in warmth on a cold wintery night or read at a table in the cool air conditioning during a hot summer day.
Most of you are blessed with the ability to walk. Use this to gain knowledge about a community, a neighbourhood or just simply one street. Perhaps you could come upon the original farm house on Smith Street and learn how the neighbourhood was first subdivided. You could become an expert on the community history. All you have to spend is time. Maybe there’s a coffee shop you could stop by. It doesn’t take much to start a conversation and learn about the issues that concern the residents. If you can walk, you can deliver flyers or a short note about yourself to the residents. Perhaps, if you are ambitious, even a newsletter.
I don’t know you but I think it is probable that you have sight and you can hear. These are such great blessings that you can use wisely to learn and see and listen. I assume also that you have been given the great blessing to think, to wonder and to imagine. How unbelievably blessed you are.
These great things were given to you at no charge. How lucky you are. What great fortune you have. You have won the lottery of life. If you do not use these things to do good work for others and then apply them to your work wisely, then you are a fool. If you have these tools and you sit and lament that you have nothing, then you are a great fool.
Each and every thing you could possibly need is already in your hands, already in your possession, already a part of who you are. From here forward you have everything you need to succeed, not just in the business of real estate but in life itself. You are so very blessed.
It would be wonderful to work with the great array of equipment, modern facilities, computer programs and a large staff to carry out all the mundane tasks that are needed to run a successful real estate business, but you already have all the tools, all the potential, all the opportunities and all the possibilities to do well without these things.
I know many people in this business with disabilities. It is among my many blessings that I got to know them. I could fill a book with stories about how they achieved so much, despite being restricted by a lack of the basic abilities that so many of us take for granted. It is probable that you have none of these disabilities. My humble advice to you is just this: Don’t feel sorry for yourself if you haven’t made a sale. You have everything you need to succeed in life. All you have to do is gather your blessings and get out there.
Heino Molls has been the Publisher of REM, Real Estate Magazine (formerly Real Estate Marketing), since 1989. Previous to REM, he worked as an executive at the Toronto Real Estate Board (TREB), and at the Toronto Star. Contact Heino by email or call 416-425-3504 x2.
