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Hindsight is 20/15.

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Auto & Home & Life Insurance throughout North Carolina

My parents didn't raise me an Economist.  Seems odd now considering they have a mature handle on their money.

When awaking this morning, I was on the can making sweet ripples with our local sewage system and thought about a post I wrote sometime ago.  Specifically, it is this one.  I actually liked that post and thought I had a decent grasp on things.  Looking back, turns out that I couldn't have been more wrong ... and right.

Something about paradoxes has always intrigued me.

I encourage you, if still reading, to take a gander at that post.  I don't normally stroke my ego any more than it needs to be before it runs out of skin, however I've grown to somewhat adore history and perspective.

The Cliff-Notes version had me predicting that things (Real Estate & Otherwise) would turn around in five months from me writing that post.  Boy, was I wrong!  I might as well have predicted Michael Jackson singing the National Anthem at the 2010 World Cup, with the US fighting for the championship.  I might as well have predicted Gary Coleman being involved in a luring affair with Corey Haim in a TMZ Blog.  In fact, I might as well have predicted the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment would be running for an important political seat in the state of Connecticut.  Well, one out of three ain't bad.

Inherent in those words though, was a philosophy that I believe still holds true.  That, of the cockroach.  That, of survival.

We're egotistical (and perhaps I'm projecting a bit) beings in the first place.  That's what has helped us to where we are.  And now we think these times may be the most challenging, may be unprecedented, and may just be THE END as we know it.  I don't think so, folks.  And I'd dare say that this profession, on this forum, has egos that would turn Hollywood on its ear.

While we may not have to survive like the cockroach, it's a good lesson.  Can you imagine going Quantum Leap into The Great Depression?  Can you even fathom having to deal with the kind of crap that has went down on all these years on Earth, at various periods?  One-Hunderd years from now some gibroni may be writing the same thing about us and now, but it will go down that we survived and thrived.  And inevitably, we die.  Because that's what we do.  And we do it as well as we can.

That's what I liked about that post.  I was wrong about the Economics, but dead-right on US.

Right on!

 

Comments (13)

Ruthmarie Hicks
Keller Williams NY Realty - 120 Bloomingdale Road #101, White Plains NY 10605 - White Plains, NY

The sad thing is that the administration that has helped to spare us the 2nd great depression is being tarred and feathered on this board.  We were very, very close to having to go through exactly what our Grandparents did in the 1930s.

Jun 29, 2010 04:42 PM
Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner
Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268 - Iowa City, IA
Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices

You definitely have a way with words Jason.  I see you're point, although I think in view of my phobia about cockroaches I think I'd prefer some nice Winston Churchill quotes rather than analagies to roaches. Your point about survival is well taken though.

Denise

Jun 29, 2010 04:44 PM
Jason Sardi
Auto & Home & Life Insurance throughout North Carolina - Charlotte, NC
Your Agent for Life

Ruthmarie - I like Obama.  I voted for the guy.  In some camps he is the hero and in others, he has horns.  That written, he signed up for the gig and the gig ain't easy.  You're a scapegoat until the historical afterlife, in which case, you're either Woodrow Wilson or a Dead John F. Kennedy.  Doesn't seem fair.  Time will tell on the decisions made by this Administration, but I'm not about to label him a Hero or Demon just yet... he's just the President, the object of hindsight.  A Leader is only as good as his/her people.  That's a Nation, ours ... and a leader, the one the majority of us seem to have elected.

Jun 29, 2010 04:50 PM
Jason Sardi
Auto & Home & Life Insurance throughout North Carolina - Charlotte, NC
Your Agent for Life

Denise - In which case, I offer the following: "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
Winston Churchill

Jun 29, 2010 04:53 PM
Richard Green
U.S. Cybertek, Inc. - Houston, MO

Jason - Interesting post, I like it. The thing with survival is that it is not a "If you can", but a "How well you do so?". The recession is making everything tough, but look at what happens to societies when things get too easy for too long, they crumble and fall under the first bit of pressure. So being the disgustingly optimistic person I am, I look at the state of the economy in this light: It's just a culling out the refuse period. In the famous words of the medieval Persian Sufi poets "This too shall pass" . . . . eventually. ;)

Jun 29, 2010 05:42 PM
Charles Buell
Charles Buell Inspections Inc. - Seattle, WA
Seattle Home Inspector

Jason, your "five months" may have been a little off but I still bet things will turn around prior to our learning anything.

Jun 29, 2010 06:16 PM
Missy Caulk
Missy Caulk TEAM - Ann Arbor, MI
Savvy Realtor - Ann Arbor Real Estate

Jason, I remember that post. I also remember when I first started blogging here, Michigan was already in the tank and it was hard to read posts of so many stable markets, then it changed. Now some of the agents who hated short sales are now selling them like hot cakes, they learned to survive...just like those pesky cockroaches.

 

Jun 30, 2010 01:12 AM
Amy Salisbury
Leading Edge Properties - Charles Town, WV
West Virginia Realtor/Jefferson/Berkeley

Jason, I remember being very frightened that we were facing another Great Depression...we haven't had it that bad, but it has been tough.  Yet here we still are!  We have evolved and survived, and continue to put one foot in front of the other.

Jun 30, 2010 01:22 AM
Alan May
Jameson Sotheby's International Realty - Evanston, IL
Home is where the hearth is.

aaahh... this so explains the flies.

 

 

Jun 30, 2010 01:56 AM
William J. Archambault, Jr.
The Real Estate Investment Institute - Houston, TX

Jason,

"When awaking this morning, I was on the can..."

Why were you sleeping on the can? 

You might want to try Imodium AD.  Of course it limits scatology.

Cockroaches always survive like politicians, passing through other people's lives doing nothing useful and leaving a trail of defalcations.

Hope you sleep better tonight.

Bill

https://www.imodium.com/page.jhtml?id=imodium/include/3_0.inc&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=diarrhea&utm_campaign=Diarrhea&gclid=CMug38b9x6ICFQqysgodCGMv5A

Jun 30, 2010 03:19 AM
Jenna Dixon
Momentum Real Estate Group LLC - Marietta, GA
55 & Over | New Constructions | Horse Farms

What do you know?  HA! Jez kiddin'

I find I am a much happier active rain "commentner" trolling my blog subscriptions than hanging out on page 1.

Commentner-See Alan May's blog for definitions of unfamiliar hillbilly lingo!

Jun 30, 2010 02:37 PM
Lane Bailey
Century 21 Results Realty - Suwanee, GA
Realtor & Car Guy

I made the same mistake...  Maybe it wasn't us that made the mistake...  It could be possible that we would be back on the economic ski lift except for the wrong moves being put on the markets... 

Jun 30, 2010 03:25 PM
Gary Woltal
Keller Williams Realty - Flower Mound, TX
Assoc. Broker Realtor SFR Dallas Ft. Worth

Two things Jason. One, no one has a 100% accurate crystal ball. Welcome to the human race. And two, things DO end, not may end, but a definite REAL end. The good news to that downer if you perceive it that way, is a NEW BEGINNING always forms. Words from Obi Wan Kenobe for your day  : )

Jul 01, 2010 04:49 AM