When I was with Bradley Real Estate, my broker Melissa Bradley began a tradition of starting company meetings with moments of silence. First, we took time to forgive ourselves for any mistakes we made during the week. Then, we took slightly less time to forgive other people for any mistakes other they made, including anything anyone may have done to us. Initially, I thought it was kind of corny, but once we got into doing this every meeting, I found it useful in relieving stress and still do.
Selling real estate can be stressful. There’s a lot on the line for our clients who are making some of the largest transactions they’ll ever complete in their lives. My mentor John Vantress told me 21 years ago, “In every transaction, someone is going to freak out about something.” While he was exaggerating about the frequency, it definitely can happen. Sometimes it’s the Realtor on the other end of the transaction that freaks out.
Earlier this year while negotiating a transaction it was me who went ballistic on another agent. He did something that was legal, but it was putting the screws to my client in a big, bad way. It was a cut throat move, and if I had been in his shoes I never would have done it. I consulted with my manager and he thought the same thing, so it’s not like I was doing anything wrong when I went off on him. Most Marin Realtors would not have done what he did. However, I got over it and moved on. I forgave him. We still completed the transaction, but I will always be weary of that agent in the future.
We aren’t perfect. We all make mistakes, which brings me to the latest edition of my hard copy newsletter. Every 8 weeks or so for the past 16 years I’ve been sending out my newsletter to my farm. This was my 96th edition, so you’d think I’d have it down by now. I mostly do, however sometimes I miss typos, and my grammar is suspect at best. Long ago I accepted those limitations in my writing style. But in this latest edition I completely screwed up.
In my column on the front page, two sentences in the last paragraph I wrote are complete word salad. They kind of makes sense in a big picture sort of way, but I’m embarrassed by my lame attempt to put words together in a coherent structure. Here’s the full paragraph, “Coming into the fall it’s also encouraging that interest rates are now. People are buying down 30 year at 2 year lows and down to 6% rates with points, and getting ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) products in the mid to low 5’s. These are the kind of interest rate numbers that we need to stimulate demand. As rates improve, so goes the real estate market.”
How it should have read is, “Coming into the fall interest rates are also encouraging. People are buying down 30 year mortgage which are at 2 year lows, down to 6% with points, and getting ARM (adjustable rate mortgage) products in the mid to low 5’s. These are the kind of interest rate numbers that we need to stimulate demand. As rates improve, so goes the real estate market.”
For a while one of my daughters was proof reading my newsletters and she would have caught those mistakes. I do my own proof reading now, and I’m far from perfect. It’s okay though. I’ve forgiven myself. There’s nothing I can do about it the newsletter went out in the mail. Years ago, David Shapiro, a great man and a Realtor who was respected and admired in our community, told me he was impressed with my newsletter. He listened to me critique my work and told me something I’ll never forget. “It doesn’t matter what you send out, as long as you send something out consistently.”
Well, I’ve been consistent. And my newsletters and blogs could consistently be better. However, I’ll leave you with these two other quotes which I think are appropriate. Woody Allen once said, “90% of success in life is showing up.” That’s kind of what David was getting at.
I found this quote on the internet, “Perfection is the enemy of action.” I obviously don’t spend enough time proof reading my blogs and newsletter, but it’s beats not doing them at all.