a scary evil clown peering out from a purple stage curtain, with his forefinger in front of his lips, asking for silence, with a negative space on one side
What is the silent killer in real estate? If there is such a thing, would you want to know? If you knew, would you do something about it?
Astronauts flying into space in a rocket ship are basically in a bomb with a few people inside waiting to explode as a result of the smallest error. Astronauts ask themselves the question during every step, “What is the next thing that can kill me?”. Astronauts need to be excellent at what they do to stay alive and what they do is complicated. It takes decades of high-level training to be prepared to go to space. I am continually surprised by the mediocrity of people we encounter in work and in life.
“There is a North American sub-culture of pretense, where watching Top Chef is the same as knowing how to cook”. -Chris Hatfield
The Silent Killer in Real Estate
When flying rocket ships, good enough isn’t good enough. Pretending you are good doesn’t work either. Pretense, or pretending to be good at something is rampant in our society and this is nowhere truer than in Real Estate. Licensing courses don’t even scratch the surface of teaching and evaluating the skills needed to represent a buyer or seller during these important and complicated transactions. Most of the learning after getting a real estate license is focused on lead generation with very little attention paid to the actual skills needed to represent our clients.
While this is a sad state for our industry, it creates an enormous opportunity for people who are excellent, or want to become excellent, at what they do. When you are excellent at something, it’s obvious and people will flock to you, recommend you, and refer you. You will have more clients than you know what to do with. The past week I was hiking around the south rim of the Grand Canyon with my family. I was reminded there is a Grand Canyon between wanting to be good at something and being good at it.
There are two ways to approach this canyon. You can try to convince everyone you are good – this is like snapping a few photos from the strategic viewpoints or buying a souvenir at the gift shop, or you can understand and do the hard work of becoming excellent – this is like hiking down into the canyon, exploring its many remarkable characteristics, and climbing back out.
Excellence is the new currency. As Tech tools take over the easy mundane jobs, we are freed up to do the important work of emotional labour, negotiation, strategic planning, problem solving, building relationships, developing networks, understanding the psychology of decision making, communicating and having the courage, persistence and confidence to protect our clients during this important process of buying and selling Real Estate. Don't let the silent killer in real estate keep you from your deserved excellence.
I leave you with these questions to ask yourself today. “Am I delivering excellence in real estate? Could I be doing so much more as an agent?”
Strength and courage,
Wade
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