No blame, no shame, no one thrown under the bus

On the heels of my losing $19 on the Superbowl game yesterday, as promised to a dear friend and New York fan, Randyl, today's blog is about the GAME. The game of competition and teamwork. The game of winning the game of admitting defeat.

Most of you have heard that my Patriots came up short by a few points and the Giants won the game. For those that didn't have occasion to see the game, it was a nail biter with changes of fortune. (Now, does it bug anyone else that the sportscasters switch loyalty faster than a New York second when the tides change in the game?)

Anyway...there were many spectacular catches and one spectacular miss for the Pats. It was a game changing miss and when the cameras panned the benches the poor mooks own team mates were hanging their heads. I suspect in part sensing that that missed catch could cost the whole game, and partly feeling for the teammate that missed. Ouch. What great pain to let the whole team down.

In a follow up interview the Pat's coach was asked about that miss. His answer was inspirational. He said, in effect, that the player had made many fine catches for the team and clearly tried his best to make this one. No blame. No shame. No one thrown under the bus.

It is only the small hearted people that take any joy in another's failure. The finest know, without a doubt, that the miss could have been theirs.

The measure of the quality of any team is not how they behave in times of victory and elation, but how they hold together when the tide turns.

Bringing this closer to my work I am reminded of the great quote: "Success has many fathers, failure is always a bastard." The art of explaining a collapsed deal is to cover off honestly without venom. My question to myself and to you is if we're as noble receiving "bad" news as we are receiving fantastic news. Do we consider with our colleagues a way to fix the problem for this time or the next or look for someone to throw under the bus?

Champions in any field should play like champions no matter how the tide turns. Ecstatic in victory and honourable in defeat. The team stays focused no matter what. The coach keeps perspective no matter what.

No blame, no shame, no one thrown under the bus. Hope that's how we all roll!

What's it worth to you?

There is an urban legend involving Picasso I thought of today. As the story goes, Picasso was in a restaurant dining with a friend when a woman approached him. She apologized for the interruption but told him he was her favourite artist. She begged him to sign her dinner napkin and promised she'd pay him whatever he asked if he would just take a moment to do that. She repeated that she would pay him whatever he asked. Picasso signed the napkin and when the woman asked him what she owed him he told her $20,000. She gasped, "but it only took you 30 seconds to do that!" To which he replied, "No, it took me 20 years."

Sometimes people think Realtors get paid too much on a successful sale. After all, if you broke it down into hours it seems a disproportionate amount. What is underestimated is the amount of training, knowledge, experience and accuracy a great Realtor brings to the equation. What is also underestimated is the understanding that a Realtor generally does not get paid until and unless they're successful! Just because they work hard does not mean that they receive a dime until and unless they've done their job.

Are there lazy Realtors just in it for a quick sale? Of course. There are duds in any profession. But you will hear me say again and again, a great Realtor is worth their weight in gold. They will make you money, save you money, steer you in the right path to optimise one of THE MOST IMPORTANT investments you ever make. They will lose sleep finding you the most perfectly suited home for you and your family...and your critters. They will hold your hand, fill you in and advocate for your interests like a badger on steroids.

A great Realtor is not a one hit wonder; they're invested in you and your future. They are educated, experienced, superb negotiators, knowledgeable, know their area and most importantly know you! If you don't think in terms of having a Realtor in the same way you think of having an accountant or a doctor or a dentist, you certainly should!

Jumping from pillar to post with one hit wonders in the real estate profession is no different to your long term goals than if you had a different investment counsellor every time you made an investment decision. You stay loyal to the investment guide who knows you, knows your goals, knows your capacity for stress, knows your tolerance for risk, knows your family. As a great investment counsellor a great Realtor is with you in the good and bad market cycles advising on timing and strategy.

Given the amount of risk, stress, uncertainty, drama, learning and liability a great Realtor lives with every day it does not take them several hours or days to successfully market your home. It does not take them hours or days to successfully find you a home. It takes them years of experience gained long before you ever met.

What's it worth to you to have a great Realtor? It's priceless.

A Class Act!

In the past week I became aware that clients who had been working with one of the Realtors from my office had a shift in loyalty. This happens, usually due to a misunderstanding and no fault of the great realtor they started with.

To appreciate the story know that after a close chance to sell their home and purchase another one, the buyers intending to purchase the client's home (which would set the domino reaction) couldn't complete; so the home listing expired, unsold.

As it happened, the original buyers came back with an offer a few months later since they were able to now access the necessary funds. The clients were presented with this offer again and the chance to buy their dream home. Unfortunately they decided to shut out their original realtor and use one from another company that had helped them almost two decades ago.

The second realtor was completely within his rights to think "sucks to be you" in reference to our office realtor. After all, the home had been expired over 60 days and the original realtor had no claim on any proceeds even though she was the one that initially negotiated the deal on both the sale and purchase for these people.

The Class Act part of this story is that the successful second realtor not only contacted our office to update everyone of what the status was; he also referred the lion's share of the commission on the sale of the clients home to the original realtor. And, beyond that, he also referred a portion of the new home purchase to our office realtor. What a Class Act! Makes me proud of our profession.

By being so above board, generous and clear, this colleague earned immense respect and good will; not to mention the ongoing wish to do business with him.

In circumstances good and bad we always have the opportunity to be a Class Act. The impact of such actions is a living legacy. All too often short sighted greed rules the day. In this case, the fine realtor who was so generous doubtless asked himself the golden question: "if I was on the other end of this, how would I want it to be handled."

Some say what goes around comes around and I think that's true. By taking the long view, the kind and honourable action I believe we set in motion all manner of great future returns -- not to mention the immediate gift of feeling great and building friendships!