This week found me meeting with a former business associate from the wireless industry to catch up on the last couple of years and to work out the details of a printing project we'll be doing for him and his dealership.  The wireless business, for anyone that's been around it, is one that has experienced change on a monumental scale and continues to feel 8.2 Richter scale shifts in its tectonic plate "old boy network" foundation.

I rode that wave for the entire 90's and into this decade only to draw the line at yet another wireless mega-merger where my role would most certainly have ended up diminished as I turned down opportunities to relocate to wherever the corporate facility du jour would have been located.  I was-- and still remain-- committed to NOT relocating away from this beautiful San Francisco Bay Area where my bride and our family have made ourselves a home.  My attitude toward change at that moment in time wasn't especially receptive and that made change difficult.  My friend, Samir Riad, who as an independent dealer-owner was impacted far greater by the various buyouts than I ever would be, remained constantly upbeat, unusually even-keeled, and frighteningly adaptive as chaos pretty much rained down around him.  How did he handle it?  He changed his focus and turned his attention toward writing a book about, of all things, learning to play bridge.

He confessed that the motivation to write the book came after a long evening with our respective wives, a few too many bottles of nice Cabernet, two absolute bridge virgins (Mrs. and myself), and a deck of cards on the patio.  Our pathetic attempt to master a complicated game requiring attention spans beyond those of a gnat while simultaneously draining supplications from the Mondavi, Jordan, and Heitz family cellars proved impetus enough for Samir to add published author to his long list of credentials.  When business was stressful in one area, he mused, best not to obsess on the negative but to concentrate elsewhere and find another way to be successful.  Change is inevitable.  How you react to it is entirely controllable.

Real estate is changing.  Some will focus on the things they don't like about the new paradigms.  Others will start concentrating on how best they can become successful amidst the new environment.  Your ability to dwell on positive outcomes, make honest assessments of what you want [and don't want] from the new environment, and then demonstrate the courage to initiate the changes necessary to bring about your success will dictate everything!  Hoping for change to arrive at your doorstep in a manner you approve of is a fool's game.  Making individual changes occur that you control so you can adapt to global changes that will happen around you anyway is what will dictate your success.

Chris Hendricks