Success Is A Matter Of Perspective
March 18, 2008
Baseball’s top home run slugger Barry Bonds has struck out over 1,500 times in his career. He has hit an unbelievable 762 home runs but he has returned to the dugout in failure nearly twice as much as he has taken one out of the park.
Joe Montana, arguably one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks threw over 5,000 passes in his NFL career. Only 5% of those passes were touchdowns.
Michael Jordan, His Airness himself averaged…averaged, over 30 points per game over his stellar 15 year reign as basketball’s elite player. However Jordan only made 49% of the shots that he took.
Wayne Gretzky, the “Great One” revolutionized the game of hockey with his scoring, stick handling and skating prowess. In his 20 year career, Gretzky took over 5,000 shots on goal and scored an unbelievable 894 goals. His percentage of success…just 17%.
Success is a matter of perspective. Those at the top of their game have shown us that it is perserverance and a winning attitude are the attributes of a true champion.
In today’s real estate market, many real estate agents are throwing in the towel. Instead of upping their game, training for today’s challenges, embracing and implementing new strategies and techniques, availing themselves of technology and truly respecting their profession, they are simply hanging up the cleats.
I hear stories about low barriers to entry and other musings as to why so many agents fail. There is much less of a barrier to play a sport. Anybody can play baseball, football, basketball or hockey.
It’s the skill set and mindset that one develops that sets the high performers apart from the failures in sport, and it’s the lack of the same which causes the demise of the Realtor.
However, there was one attribute that each of these superstars benefited from that ensured their ongoing success. This one attribute is what really made each one of these athletes great. They were part of a team. Not one of these individuals would ever have succeeded if they were not surrounded by a number of other talented individuals who supported them, encouraged them, cried with them, fought with them and trained them.
As so many agents are floundering, what are you doing to help them? What are you doing to build the next superstar? Every championship ring these individuals have won allowed everyone of their teammates to win the same ring. Every award that they have been bestowed is because many others have contributed to their success.
As we are launching Operation Agent Rockstar, understand the foundation of what we are creating. We are creating an environment that is based upon a team of other superstars working together to build another superstar. Yes, our subject will have to work very hard to succeed, as nothing worthwhile can come from someone not willing to work for it. However, by building a “Dream Team” that will counsel, educate, train and encourage a young agent isn’t that the way to build a young and up and coming superstar…in any profession?
If you are not creating your own dream team and helping others to succeed in business, then where do you think the real estate industry is headed?
Banks are failing, consumer confidence is low, foreclosures are at an all time high and we have people bailing out because they can’t make ends meet and it’s too tough to make it work in this business.
That’s when teams pull together…good ones anyways. Start your day differently. As we are about to commence March Madness, why not help someone become a Cinderella story? It will only serve to make you a better team player yourself.
Lastly, I mentioned Wayne Gretzky’s stats above and I would be remiss if I did not close with what I feel is one awesome quote by the Great One himself regarding futility and failure and not succumbing to either.
You always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take!
[…] Original post by Barry Cunningham […]
[…] Is A Matter Of Perspective Roby Robertson wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptImmediately; Dear Realtor…An Open […]
O.K. this sounds like you’ll have some fun and probably be successful with the agent to be.
In reality real estate agents are mostly uneducated , not intelligent, don’t want to work that hard and are much better actors and actresses than they are business people. In fact the overwhelming majority of real estate agents would do better in My Fair Lady than they could in Agent Rockstar.
This sounds a little like American Idol without the pain of the auditions.
The very good successful agents that I know, (and there are just a few) have teams in place and continue to use consultants for various aspects of thier business. It probably took them a fair amount of trial and error before they had a “team” of pro’s in but they operate that way in good times and bad. Someone entering the business with that lineup would be heavily favored to succeed if they are willing and remain able to go through it.
[…] spent some time today talking about Barry C’s new blog post titled, “Success Is A Matter Of Perspective“. In it he talks about how some of the greatest athletes known to man achieved personal […]
I agree with George’s comment. Not only in Real Estate, but in any field in which someone chooses to be VERY successful, he/she will indeed need a team of talented individuals around them. The reality is that amassing this team takes time and bumps & bruises through the learning process. Even the best networker may not be taken so seriously from a “mentor” if they are unproven till this point. They have to prove themselves and show and prove before they can be viewed as “equals” from the professionals who are being asked to be a part of the team. After all, the ONLY real thing on everyone’s mind in the business world is, “How will this relationship benefit ME?” Nevertheless, I believe that your Operation Agent Rockstar is a wonderful idea that will help this young lady leaps and bounds IF she is willing to put in the work. I just think that it’s a bit too unrealistic in the aspect that a regular agent who graduates with his GED….I mean his salesperson’s license, is not in the same position as she will be, therefore she will be more guided and mentored into NOT making alot of the mistakes that the rest will make. In real life, the agent will have to go and build their team with whatever resources they have and may not find the best people to be on that team. In Agent Rockstar it’s opposite. It’s as if you guys are the New England Patriots with an already established team and YOU are drafting HER. She should make an amazing agent when it’s all said and done.
Thank you Julio. It will be interesting to watch from the sidelines. Even with the best team in place there are so many variables that can affect the Rockstar along the way. Any great team needs great conditioning which the Rockstar doesn’t have. The bumps and bruises you mention allow us to develop instincts along the way in order to compete with every clueless person running around with a license. Some even believe that they’ actually are “Above the Crowd “.
I hope that B&B will give us updates on the good and the bad as time goes on.
Oh …I would have rather you used the NY Giants as a reference but I get the point.