Observe and serve?
The hill of success
While listening to Napoleon Hill’s Law of Success, his seminal 20-year work on what makes people successful, I was struck by the reference he made to a book titled Observation: Every Man is His Own College by Russell Conwell. Just from the title, I instantly understood Hill’s address. If we simply paid attention more often, our own keen observation could reveal the path to success.
As I was thinking about the real estate business, I not only thought it was great advice, but more importantly, I realized that it could be the life saver that agents need. Why?
Well, let’s look for answers in our own daily behavior. Motivated to put these thoughts into blog form, I decided to head to Starbucks, where these ideas are etched into electronic pros and cons. I’m listening to classical music on Pandora to eliminate the background noise of a group of kids hitting the latest high-octane frozen sugar mocha with a hint of this and that.
Like starbucks
Half of the place is dedicated to a cycle of caffeine junkies looking for coffee “experiences,” while the other half is full of plugs like me, who are online working and searching. It’s like sitting in someone’s house with different activities in separate spaces, but it’s all a new, cohesive public flow.
To some, it might seem like I have a great old ADD tech case with my MacBook plugged into the wall and my Iphone next to it, all while my Ipad is nearby in case I need super high resolution video; because that’s how I keep up to date with the latest news from Newsy.
Eventually, I’ll finish my green tea and my last real estate agent tip message and drive home in my Prius V at over 40 miles per gallon … oh, and yes, I even heard a beep and a thumbs-up from a fellow Prii driver on the way here as we both work hard to reduce our carbon footprint without knowing if we’ll ever get credit for it.
Only children
At home, I will probably reach out to my social media friends on multiple platforms and will actually respond to everyone who comes up, even if it’s just a thumbs up. I’ll probably end the day by making a ridiculous, silly six-second video on Vine and my kids will post it on their page and their friends will think it’s funny that someone’s dad is in the game.
As I transformed into this new form, I got all kinds of weird looks. Has the wig been turned over? All of that is for children. Can’t you be serious or not? I hope you are being silly!
No not at all. What I’m doing is learning from Napoleon Hill about what made the people he studied successful. I am observing what is happening. Most of my recent clients are between the ages of 55 and 75. They have surveyed thousands of homes online for weeks, maybe even months. They have narrowed their search on my site. They have approached when they have decided to leave the anonymity of their email address and they have expected us to be their on demand as their television; and we have been ready.
We have given them everything they have asked for and we have not asked or expected anything in return. We have been willing to work for free just to earn the chance to get to know each other. We have told them that it is okay when they have not seen something they liked and we have given them hope that they will come up with it; no pressure … really. Not once have we asked ourselves how much we were making per hour. We are more willing than ever to do much more than expected, not because we have to, want to, and have more fun doing it than ever.
To serve
You see, looking at the modern world, our college life education has revealed the obvious new path to success and we’ve embraced it. The funny thing is, while technology has certainly changed the modern world, the old-school philosophy of working hard to really help someone is ruling the day. As always and forever, if you don’t pay attention to that and embrace it, you will be left behind.
