We've all done it. You're driving along and suddenly a bright little icon blinks on. Check engine it tells you. So what do we do? Ignore it. Hope it flickers out. Maybe it's just stuck. My engine is fine; it must be a mistake. I'll deal with it later. Pretty light, so pretty.
A couple things can happen at this point. First, the light actually can go off. Which is the worst possible thing that can happen because then it reinforces the belief that all of the warning lights on my dashboard are a ploy designed by the engineers who made my car to convince me that my car is broken and I need to go spend money at the dealership to fix it.
Second, I can be slightly ambitious and call the service department of my choice and ask them why that light goes on. Again, it's a crapshoot. The service manager can feed me a meal of lies and tell me the catastrophic damage that can be done to my car by driving it over 12 miles per hour an then I panic and I go spend money at the dealership to fix it.
Last option. Ignore it and it gets worse. Gaskets blow, sensors explode, valves spring a leak, metal grinds on metal, and my car comes to a shuddering halt. Then I have to get towed to the dealership and I spend five times as much money as I would've spent had I heeded that stupid little check engine light.
For many of us in the real estate industry right now, we've got a light flashing on our dashboard called the "check bank account" light. Fewer sales, less loan activity, dropping home prices, less liquidity. It all adds up to less money in our pockets at the end of the day, and the lights start flashing.
What are our choices? Ignore it? Lie to ourselves? Wait for the market to come back?
When my check engine light came on yesterday, I walked across the street and knocked on my neighbor's door. He's an automechanic who owns his own shop around the corner from my house. He took my keys and drove my car to work and did some serious diagnostics on it. Turns out, I had problems, and he offered me some honest and painful solutions. Solutions which cost me half of what the dealership would've charged me.
We need to do the same thing with our businesses right now. All kinds of lights are blinking on our dashboards. Check attitude. Check habits. Check work ethic. And we need an expert in our lives that we trust to tell us the truth about what we are doing, or, what we aren't doing. I am going to challenge myself to seek out that person for me today to ask me the tough questions and run some diagnostics on my business. Get a coach, a mentor, an accountability partner, a networking group, or a friend involved and you'll be back on the road driving in no time, instead of broke down or just broke!
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