I'm sitting here writing this in a Word document in frustration as I wait for my wireless connection at my house to try to re-establish itself. 
Ah, there it is! The icon says we're connected! But wait...I go open Internet explorer only to find...nothing. It won't connect. My heart falls and my frustration level rises because I know what this means. I will call the cable company. I will listen to their forever long menu of choices. I will finally reach some live person who may or may not be in India somewhere. They will tell me to disconnect the power to the modem and the router then plug it back it. This I have already done...twice, having been through this drill more than once. They will then tell me to unplug the power, unscrew the cable that goes into the modem, wait a moment or so, screw it back in, plug the power cord back it and see if the magic signal comes to life. "Any signal?" they will say. Nope. Nothing.
All of this will result in a scheduled visit from the cable man sometime in the next couple of days. And you know what that means right? Someone will have to be home between the hours of 9 and noon or 1 and 5. Like anyone actually has a job that allow them to just stay home for four hours at a time because the cable guy is coming? Yeah, try telling that to the boss!
Here's another one. I wanted to go to the doctor for a physical. I called them up to schedule the appointment. When the lady answered the phone, I told her what I wanted to do. She said, "Okay please hold on." So I did. Wait...wait...wait...papers shuffle...wait...wait...wait...muffled talking in the background...wait..."Okay, Mr. Haywood? Uh, yes. I'm sorry, but we're showing a balance of x dollars on your account. That will have to be paid in full before we can schedule any further appointments."
Excuse me? Are you kidding? My doctor has allowed us to carry a balance with monthly payments for as long as we've had kids. This was partially because we were without health insurance for several years and partially because we faithfully make our monthly payments. Now he's in a "group" and they're changing their billing policies. Grrrr. They will no longer allow patients to carry a balance on their account. And you know what will happen if you sign up with whoever they hire to take care of their billing, right? Miss a payment and they're calling you like nasty bill collectors. Then you have to pay the whole balance in full anyway. Might as well pay it up front...IF you can afford the hundreds of dollars you owe that the insurance company didn't cover from the surgery your wife had. (That's our situation).
Now hear me out here folks. This isn't a rant about our health insurance system or a cry for free cable. These two incidents actually got me to thinking about being a Realtor. In a world where our service companies cause as much stress as they do help, we Realtors do a pretty good job...no make that a very good job of solving problems for our clients without creating additional unnecessary stress in the process. And not only do we solve problems, but we usually know ahead of time what problems you may encounter in your attempt to purchase that property or sell your house. We know market conditions. We know neighborhoods. We have resources like mortgage officers and title companies and inspectors and brokers who are all in place to help you be successful in buying or selling property.
In short, most of us are very good problem solvers who do not put you on hold and cause as much frustration in solving your problem as answers. We make the world a better place for our clients. Are we perfect? Nope. Do we make mistakes? Yep. But at the end of the day, I believe we are some of the best service oriented problem solving types of people you can work with. We'll hold your hand and figure out what it takes to solve that problem, if that's what it takes.
So I hold my head up high knowing that as a small business owner, I make a positive impact in the world each and every day.
Let's go find a house to buy. I'll help you "Get 'Er Done!"
PS - The cable and inter-net finally came back to life, so I was able to post this 2 hours after it was written!
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