October through December we have three amazing cultural opportunities that we often don’t pay enough attention to. Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day and Christmas. Now, when I said we don’t pay enough attention to I don’t mean from a materialistic way. That we do spend enough on. No, I mean taking the time out of our crazy busy schedules and reflect back on our lives.
Article By: Neil O’Donnell
October through December we have three amazing cultural opportunities that we often don’t pay enough attention to. Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day and Christmas. Now, when I said we don’t pay enough attention to I don’t mean from a materialistic way. That we do spend enough on. No, I mean taking the time out of our crazy busy schedules and reflect back on our lives. Thanksgiving and Christmas are those special times to reflect on our family and those in our lives who have been there for us and what they mean to us. I’m not going to spend any more time talking about Thanksgiving or Christmas. Its Remembrance Day that I’m going to focus on.
However, it’s not the need to remember our veterans and the ultimate sacrifice they made for us. It’s not the sacrifice of the women left behind to support them and our country while the men were off fighting. No, there are enough people who will be talking about that. No, what I want to focus on is the ‘why’ they sacrificed everything for us. They sacrifice their future for ours to ensure we had the opportunity to live any life we chose.
The interesting thing is that it seems from the end of WWII to now the notion of opportunity has become some weird perverse sense of entitlement. Instead of being grateful for the opportunity to become whatever you want, or live whatever life you want…it has turned into the belief that I’m entitled to whatever life I want, or to do anything I want without consequence. That is not what our Grandparents and ancestors fought and died for.
So, what is ‘opportunity’? It’s the chance to change your personal circumstances from what they are now to something you want them to be. The best thing about opportunities is that they come along all the time, throughout your entire life. You just need to reach out and grab it.
I recently listened to an interview with Kobe Bryant and it is probably one of the best examples of someone who took an opportunity he was given, and it transformed his life.
Everyone knows Kobe Bryant as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. Kobe’s won 5 NBA Championships and countless MVP titles. But he wasn’t born with any special talents. He was just a regular kid.
When he was 12, his dad put him in basketball camp. This is the opportunity. However, he didn’t score the entire time. Not one single point. So, he had a choice: quit, or commit and do whatever it takes to be the greatest. Give up because it would require work or make the most out of the opportunity he was given.
From age 12 to 14, Kobe went from scoring zero points, to being the greatest player in the state. Why? He focused on the fundamentals. He spent 6 months working on nothing but free throws, then the next 6 months working on nothing but jump shots, then 3-point shots… and so on…
Now, Kobe tells his daughter, “Show up every single day. Do the work.” It’s simple math. How often do other kids play? Maybe 2-3 hours a week? But if you practice 2-3 hours a day, every day, how much better will you get than them? Kid A does 2 hours a week for 1 year is 104 hours. Kobe doing 2 hours a day for a year is 730 hours.
Kobe committed to being the greatest. He focused on the fundamentals to get there. It was his top priority. He made the most out of his opportunity.
Just like a 17-year-old kid I just read about… He ran away from an impoverished, abusive home, and dreamed of “being rich” when he grew up.
The boy worked as a janitor and helped people move on the weekends. He knew he was not better than anybody. He committed to putting his skills to work to help people. He did whatever it took to have the life he dreamed of.
He said, “I want to be able help any individual, I want to help change anything. If they’re committed, I’m committed. I want to have the skills to do it.”
After a few years of promoting motivational seminars, he learned the ropes. He focused on the fundamental elements of what made motivational speakers, and their seminars, successful. He worked diligently to develop his own style and documented approach. He worked as hard as he could, doing seminars every weekend and, in between, doing different media events to fill the seminars.
It worked. That boy grew up to be Tony Robbins. He made his first million by age 24. He’s a #1 New York Times bestselling author, and coached Bill Clinton, Oprah, Leo DiCaprio, Princess Diana, and Mother Teresa. Just to name a few.
Tony Robbins and Kobe Bryant used the same mathematic formula. Show up every day and do the work. Doing whatever it takes to make the most out of the opportunities that they had. They both created a documented approach to maximize their potential.
Not unlike how we created our documented approach to helping our clients.
When I got into real estate, I saw an opportunity to do things differently. Now we couldn’t just say we were different, hell everyone says that. No, we spent years working on our documented approach. We took a mathematical look at what works and what doesn’t, when selling a home. Focusing on the fundamental mistake’s sellers make, and how to avoid them.
Similar to Kobe, we looked at each fundamental mistake, one at a time, to figure out the best ways to avoid it.
For example, we looked at listings that had a lot of showings and were sold shortly after hitting the market. Then we looked at listings that sat without showings. Searching for the most notable differences between these groups of listings.
Then, we made a short list of 2-3 major differences. These became the fundamental mistakes we help our sellers avoid.
It was a long process. But I was committed to making the most out of this opportunity and as a result finding the best way to help my clients avoid fundamental, and costly mistakes. The best way to help them extract the most profit when selling their homes. I was willing to do whatever it took.
And so, we put it all together. These fundamental mistakes became the foundation of our Value Driven Approach to Sell Real Estate.
Maybe I’m not the greatest of all time like Kobe Bryant of Tony Robbins. YET. But I started the same way they did. The same way we all do. A regular person. Not born with any special gifts or talent.
No, just a regular person who puts in the work, the effort to make the most of whatever opportunity life presents me.
It’s this unbelievable gift of opportunity that I want people to think about this Remembrance Day. Think of all the opportunities you’ve been given. Whether that is in your business life or personal life. Maybe you are striving for a cause that you are passionate about. Whatever it is that makes you put in the effort, do the work for, all of that is possible because of the sacrifices of those who came before us and laid there all on the alter of freedom.
Because of them…You can do anything you damn well please…
If you want it bad enough to do whatever it takes.
If you’re willing to show up and do the work.
If you’re willing to sacrifice.
If you BELIEVE you can.
For a more in-depth discussion on these topics, go to: Request a FREE Copy of our latest book, “The Value-Driven Approach to Sell Real Estate: How to protect yourself from Real Estate Greed and bank extra profit by thinking like the great Warren Buffett.”