If you ever felt a little out of place with others around you welcome to the club. There is a funny expression, "You are unique, just like everyone else."
When you grew up in your teenage years, your Mom would admonish you to "Behave YOURSELF!" Well other than learning right from wrong when you are fully grown you have to figure out finally what behave means to you. Maybe you thought despite your devious ways as a teenager, you WERE behaving yourself.
Being eccentric or WEIRD in good ways helps us overcome the hum drum of normal. In real estate it lets us get paid in our desired specialty niches for "being ourself", creating an unfair advantage with our strengths, having FUN in our work.
I love the weird. I love the eccentric in any of us I find, including myself. I think different is good as long as it makes the world a better place. Edison as a boy sat on chicken's eggs to help them hatch. His curiosity and persistence later in life brought us many inventions including a filament in a light bulb that would not burn out too soon. The Wright brothers had this crazy idea that man could fly like the birds. Madame Curie liked to play with things that glowed in the dark. Wild and crazy Werner Von Braun had this dream of going to the moon of all places with rockets.
Being "normal" is a real stifler in your life and stops your creativity, your individuality, and your greatness to reach your true potential. They say in marketing ourselves to others we have to find our genius, our unique selling propostion, and the target audience that wants what we have. We are not everything. Who we target is not everyone. It is the MATCH of what we are good at, like building an airplane, for people who want to fly over the trees is where we have the match.
In real estate it is listening and watching ourselves to see where we have interest and FUN, and also monitoring what we are good at. Then finding the IDEAL CLIENTS that want that!! In all other career aspirations and our personal life, fathoming and divining our "gifts" - organizing, entertaining, leading, analyzing, nurturing, hospitality, solving... many gifts and taking those "talents" where they are needed.
Embrace your gifts that enrich lives, allow yourself to express your passions, EVEN IF they drive others crazy. Don't be a people pleaser with your "weirdness." It will drive you insane doing that. Whether it is your devotion to your work, politics, spirituality, charitable causes, hobbies, education of you, teaching of others, entertainment of others with music, dance, acting, or whatever, I say go for it!
To achieve the utlimate in life with WHO you are, value your weirdness, cherish it, immerse yourself in who you are, and see where it leads, what doors will open for you. Respect others uniquenesses as well. And don't feel bad if you are misunderstood often. It comes with the territory. Visionaries are often misunderstood. WHY? They are going where others have not been before.
Weird? Naw... That is just plain old Texan independence. One of the things I learned, growing up in Dallas, was that you are who you are, and people won't respect someone who tries to be someone thy aren't. Now that I live in Colorado, I have carried the values I was raised with, and the lessons I learned along the way.
Comments(124)