Excuses are for losers. That is what my dear old dad used to say, and I am more convinced that it is as accurate today as it was 45 years ago when he was alive.

In the cpurse of my practice as a Massachusetts real estate attorney, there have been many occasions where I gave incorrect, or incomplete, advice. I alwasy try to give the correct answer, but no one bats !,000, and sometimes I was wrong. In the early stages of my career, I tried to rationalize, or explain, my erros rather than accepting them for what they were, good faith erros.

Lately, my approach has been much different and to be perfectly honest with you, I no longer fear making mistakes because oft times, fixing a mistake can garner a better overall result for me than if the mistake had not oiccurred. Let me give you an exapmle. Suppose a closing is achedulued for 2:00 PM in a realtor's office, and I show up at 2:30 PM. I could complain about the traffic, or the Lender being late, or any number of reasons why I had inconvenienced people. Or I could apologize, accept the consequences, and tell all involved that I am prepared to give the Buyer a monetary closing cost payment to mitigate the time that I wasted for others. Very rarely does the Buyer accept the money. The important thing is that I acknowledged that people have busy schedules, and they cannot sit around and waiit for me to show up at a closing. I take responsibility for my actions; perople generally move on.

This is the way I conduct business these days, and it is a lot less complicatesd than it was before. Mistales happen; it is the way we respond that sets us apart from the crowd.

 
Post is included in group: Boston Area Real Estate
Post is included in group: Boston South East Agents ZIPREALTY Rockin 2008!
Post is included in group: Cape Cod Real Estate
Post is included in group: LA Connection
Post is included in group: Real Estate Law

5 Comments on Making the Buck Stop Where it Should--The Power of Taking Responsibility for Errors and Moving forward

AUG
04
2010
282,383 Points 4 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp Called Shot Master

Hello Elliot:

 

Good post and good to see you active as a rainmaker.  We have relocated to Texas and now a Texas Broker.  Will fill you in on old property in a different venue.
6:45pm • #1
146,205 Points Outside Blog Attended Rain Camp

I totally agree with your post.  I learned a very good lesson many years ago when I made a big mistake and acknowledged my mistake and apologized to my boss.  He was so taken back by this - he was not used to anyone acccepting responsibility.  It was a great learning experience for me. It is so important to admit when we accept responsibility for our mistakes. 
6:51pm • #2
424,967 Points 39 Featured Posts Hit Router Called Shot Master

Elliott - That is a great attitude.  If our society weren't so blame-happy (and litigious) it would make life better.
7:11pm • #3
AUG
05
2010

I had a boss many decades ago who loved excuses. You'd be late to a meeting, and he'd ask you why you were late. Didn't matter what your answer was. His response was "That's just an excuse."
10:05am • #4
AUG
08
2010
814,678 Points 164 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Called Shot Master

Elliott, what a wonderful attitude! This post is quite timely, I have been thinking about excuses lately, why we make them, why we can't just say I am sorry. Mistakes happen, oversights, we sometimes cannot, no matter how hard we try, arrive on time. Often things are out of our control yet we often try to take control.

Do your best, simplify, take credit for wins and losses, what a great attitude! No one is perfect after all. But yet we all struggle to appear perfect. Interesting, isn't it?
9:36am • #5


What does the graphic say?
Leave a response…

(optional)
Spam Prevention:
 
Picture_005 Rainmaker_large

Elliott S. Topkins Massachusetts Real Estate and Title Atty

Boston, MA

More about me…

Topkins & Bevans-etopkins@topbev.com

Address: 10 Newbury Street, 4th Floor, Boston, MA , 02116

Office Phone: (617) 236-0104

Cell Phone: (617) 596-3184

Email Me

Realtor's Resource Blog is dedicated to furnishing current strategy and information to the Massachusetts real estate community of professionals and to out of state realtors and REO and relocation companies who need excellent representation in Massachusetts. My law firm, Topkins & Bevans, can cover the entire state of Massachusetts. I hope to use my 40 years of hands-on real estate experience to assist you and your Massachusetts Buyers and Sellers.


Listings

Links

Archives

RSS 2.0 Feed for this blog

Find MA real estate agents and Boston real estate on ActiveRain.