What is your motivation?
A few years ago, I had a client trying to sell a small, rural tract of land. She called me multiple times per week asking if we had any movement on the site. For those of you who have ever sold or attempted to sell something similar, you know it could sell in 3 days or 3 years - you just never know. Rural acreage is strange. Needless to say, our multiple conversations per week often ended in frustration with her insinuating that I haven’t done everything in my power to get her land sold. This listing happened to commence at the beginning of the summer season - a time of the year filled with my wedding anniversary, birthdays for all 3 of my kids, vacation time with my sister and her family, summer camp for the girls, etc. In other words, a time of year where I would be out of pocket on multiple occasions. During several of our phone conversations, I was somewhere doing something with my family. One day, in the middle of a particular frustrating call, this client said to me, “You seem to be spending too much time with your family and not enough time selling my land.” I terminated our agreement immediately.
If you’ve sat in on my SIOR courses, you’ve heard me talk about The Wheel of Life. (If you haven’t and are not an SIOR - sign up!) Only spending 4 hours on “Building a Commercial Real Estate Business” doesn’t allow me to spend a large amount of time focusing on The Wheel…that’s what blogs are for.
One of the things I love about my profession is the freedom that it provides. I love what I do, but I also love what I do it for. I do it so that I can keep a healthy balance and dedicate my time to those parts of my life that bring me fulfillment. If you look at The Wheel of Life, you will see that “Career” is only one piece of this pie. Equally important is Family, Fitness, Friends, Hobbies, and more. For me, my annual pilgrimage to Disney World takes care of that “Family” piece (and has a positive impact on the “Home Environment” piece, as well). Jumping on a Peloton for a 45 minute ride or running a half-marathon satisfies the “Fitness/Health” piece of the pie. Having a glass of wine with “Friends” on any given Saturday night satisfies another piece of the pie. Finding some quiet time on the front porch with my Kindle and the latest Brad Thor novel is a “Hobby” that I find relaxing. Celebrating a kid-free weekend with my wife takes care of that “Marriage” portion. The money (“Finance”) isn’t too bad in #CRE, so that helps, as well.
As my friend and fellow SIOR instructor, Paul Kluck, likes to say, “If you have too much or too little of a specific ingredient, that’ll be a pretty shitty tasting pie.”
Sit down with this Wheel of Life. Are you doing everything in your power to keep that happy and healthy balance? What would you have done in a similar situation? Would you put your family to the side to satisfy an unreasonable client? Are you sacrificing one area of this pie in exchange for another? If so, that will catch up to you and, like Kluck said, the end results will not be tasty.
