Y2K

Nuggets For The Noggin
Y2K
By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, February 12, 2009

Do you remember the years leading up to Y2K? (That is January 1, 2000 for those folks who may have lived on the moon?) How could you forget? It was like the world was going to end at midnight on December 31, 1999. All the computers in the world were going to crash. Admit it; you thought there was some truth to those predictions. I’ll even bet you ran to your computer soon after midnight to see if it was still working just to see what you may have lost, right?

Can you believe that was over 10 years ago? Well it was, it was over 10 years ago; how time flies.

It is now February 12, 2010 and something caused me to think of Y2K. Think back to January 1, 2000, what were you doing? What goals did you set? What did you want to have achieved in the next 10 years? Did you achieve them? Did you have goals? Did you have yearly goals? Did you have goals for 5 years out? Did you have life goals? If you are like most folks, there is not a lot of difference between January 1, 2000 and February 12, 2010 in regards to setting goals; they still do not set them in writing; they simply are not a priority in life. If so, you still are working without a net. You have no specific goals. You do not have a picture of who you want to be or what you want to achieve 10 years from today. Therefore why would you expect that anything would change between now and February 12, 2020, 10 years from now?

“You will be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”
Charles “Tremendous” Jones

For those who have read previous Nuggets you know that they emphasize creating an educational plan for yourself because no one is going to do it for you. Run the numbers for yourself. If you had spent 30 minutes a day, every day for the past 10 years, you would have spent 1,820 hours working on your profession. What could you have achieved or become if you spent 1,820 hours working on becoming the best you could be? What and who WILL you become by February 12, 2020 if you spend 1,820 hours over the next ten years? It is never too late to start. If you do not start now, when will you start? If you do not make a study of your profession now, when will you start?

I have a list of over 50 of the best reads for anyone in sales and will make it available to anyone who asks. Just send an email to JimBrown@gymbeaux.com and ask for Best Reads in the subject line.

But for those of you in real estate, both new and experienced, if you want to start a real plan to educate yourself in real estate at least over the next year, this is my recommendation:

1. Start with your state’s Real Estate Law and Rules and Regulations. This should be read twice a year. Yes it is boring but it is what gives you the authority to do what you do so does it not then make sense to become an expert at what the law says?
2. Read the REALTOR® Code of Ethics, again at least twice a year. This gives you the guidelines to enable you to ethically work with the public and with other REALTORS®. Again, does this not make good sense if you want to be the best you can be?
3. The only other book I would read during the first year is The Million Dollar Real Estate Agent by Gary Keller, Dave Jenks and Jay Papasan. Yes I am with Keller Williams Realty (a disclaimer) but this book is NOT about Keller Williams; it is about building a business. Therefore any business person in any business could use this book as a study on how to set up a profitable and successful business, real estate agents being no exception. I would take it a step further and not only purchase the book, I would have a company like Office Depot, Staples, etc take the book apart and insert a spiral binder so it lies flat on your desk. If you take your real estate career seriously you will want to make this your absolute study over the next year and beyond. You will want to highlight the ideas and business practices that will enhance your business. I would also purchase the book on CD to listen to in my University on Wheels whenever I am on the road. Is this an over kill? Only if you do not want your real estate business to succeed. If you truly want to be the best real estate agent you can be you must first become the best business person you can be and this book will certainly demonstrate how than can be achieved.

The key is not to just “read” these items but rather to read, highlight, re-read, discuss, create plans to implement what you have learned, set goals for yourself and your business and then treat your business as a real business. The ultimate result would be that when you decide to retire you will have a product to sell – your business. What will it be worth at that time in your life? If you have it defined, if you have systems in place, if you can show history and success, if you can show a profit and loss statement with the emphasis on profit, YOU HAVE A PRODUCT TO SELL! If you owned a donut shop you wouldn't just walk away from it as most real estate agents seem to do, you would sell it. Why would you not want to sell or derive a benefit from all your hard (smart) work?