Show Up and Do Something!

Isn’t Real Estate great! I mean where else can you have a career where you are literally your own boss, set your own hours, etc and still make several hundred thousand dollars a year? You mean – your real estate career is not working out quite like that – why not? I would be willing to bet it is because of one simple principle – that I will call the Show Up Principle.

Over the years I have observed many, many new agents get into the business –in fact, I can still remember the day I got started. For most agents it goes something like this – they show up at 8 or 9 o’clock on their first day as an agent – eager to great the world and ready to go sell four or five houses that day. They go to their broker/manager and get direction for their first day and then go and tackle it with reckless abandonment. It is always fun to watch and see the excitement and energy the new agent applies to their career on day one. Regardless of what they are asked to do they go out and do it.

This continues for a few days, but, unfortunately comes a day when the agent doesn’t show up until 9 or 10 and today they decide to take a lunch hour(s) and then about three in the afternoon they start to pack it in. Oh, they will have some believable excuses – what they don’t realize is they are not only cheating their broker/manager, but they are lying to the owner of their company – themselves. Every one of them still has visions of $100,000 or more in earnings in their first year (which by the way is extremely reachable for anyone in any market) but they don’t want to put the hard work in necessary to earn the money.

A very good friend of mine, Jim Fite, the Broker/Owner of CENTURY 21 Judge Fite company gets credit for the next two comments (although, one of them may have come directly from his dad and the founder of the company, Judge Fite) “real estate is either the easiest low paying job or the hardest working, highest paying career there is,” and “Show Up, and when you do, Do Something!”

I have never seen a person who came into this career with desires of working hard, putting in the time and setting a high goal, not achieve extremely high awards – including in their first year. People who are self driven, who are willing to treat their real estate career, like a full time career will succeed. Truthfully, ask yourself, if I worked for someone else, would they accept my current level of performance? If they answer is no you have two choices – begin to work and work hard or FIRE YOURSELF!

The biggest secret to success is to Show up and to Do Something Real Estate Related when you Show up. Set yourself a schedule and begin to follow it. If you need help with what activities you should be doing, ask your broker/manager. Arrive on time or even a little early. Start your day each day with a bang and do REAL ESTATE related activities (contact home owners around Just Solds or Just Listeds, follow-up with past clients [if you don’t have any – get some from your broker/manager], preview new listings daily, preview all houses before you show them, call expireds, contact For sale By Owners, plan lunch with a Top Producer occasionally [yes, you will probably have to pay because most are very hard chargers who don’t take a lot of time for lunch] and, there are 100s of more activities you could do – simply DO THEM! When it comes time to leave, put in a few extra minutes of hard effort – just like when you work out at the gym – it will pay off nicely.

The GREATEST single thing about our profession is that YOU choose the level of YOUR Success. What will it be? Are you going to be one that achieves your goals or are you simply going to warm a cubicle until you run out of money?

The choice is YOURS and I hope you choose SUCCESS!

Until next time, regardless of how bad you think it is – keep a smile on your face!

Bill