The Realtor as Super Hero

To say that realtors have a lot of negative press is an understatement. Sometimes the negative press is within our ranks. I am sure that a day on Active Rain is never a day without a rant about some uneithical Realtor, or Realtors that don't answer their phones. It stands to reason that any industry, any business, any profession has a wide range of competence and ability. If our visualization is primarily negative guess what, we will be able to find eveything that supports are belief while rejecting that which does not fit into these parameters. I guess misery loves confirmation.

One of the biggest complaints I hear from real estate gurus, many who I respect, is that real estate has too low of an entry level. That is probably true, but even a higher entry level doesn't guarantee excellence. Hairdressers in Oklahoma need 1500 hours of training, but does that alone make them a stylist of reknown? No.

Here is what I love about the majority of Realtors, and this is a big majority. They went through whatever training the state required, and they all had one thing in common. No guaranteed pay check. American insitutional education does a great job of teaching conformity, and always going with the safe choice, so you got to love a group of individuals that conquered their fear, and tried to take control of their destiny. Many will fail, but when you took your test did you say to yourself I know I am going to fail, or were you excited and anxious at the same time, wondering what's next? When I started a retail electronics store in 1973, I had never been to business school. Had I gone I would have learned that at that time 95% of all new retail businesses fail in the first year. I went 16 years. So much for the difference in conforming to the rules versus plunging ahead into the unknown without regard to stats.

This is not to dismiss problems, or to be Pollyanna. I can be just as cynical as the next person. But today I want to celebrate our business, and the majority of those who don't judge success by how many transactions you do, but by how many transactions you do well, with integrity, ethics, and the belief that it is all about the client. They don't teach that in a school with four walls. That is the school of life. So all of you Realtors out there listen to me. It's okay to wear your cape on the outside.