Many years ago, when I was a sweet, naïve 21 year old woman, I worked for a very mean man. Bob loved to ridicule his employees in public. His favorite thing was to ask, “When you assume things, do you know what you do? You make an ass out of u and me.” After only one year, I simply could no longer watch this man abuse his employees so I quit.
Years later, I realize that there was some wisdom in what Bob had to say even if his tactics were mean and abusive.
A few years ago, I worked with a millionaire investor. He traveled from California to Indiana to buy an apartment building. It quickly became obvious to me as to why the man was a multi-millionaire.
He refused to get a hotel room—but rather got permission to sleep on the floor of one of the empty apartments. He refused to rent a car. Instead, he walked to a garage sale, bought a bicycle and a baseball hat and rode his bike where ever he needed to go. McDonald’s was his restaurant of choice. He dressed in Hawaiian shirts, Bermuda shorts and sandals.
I watched his interaction with others and it was no surprise to me that he received very little respect where ever he went. People assumed he was a homeless person and not due their respect.
Flash forward to today. My ATM card would not work. I will spare you the boring details, but it took over an hour and a half to get the problem corrected. For at least the first hour, it was obvious to me that the bank employees assumed I had forgotten my pin number. They seemed very impatient with me. I could read in their faces that they considered me to be lacking upstairs.
Once they determined the problem was with their ATM, they fell all over themselves trying to make it up to me. I have not decided yet, but I might be switching banks.
We should not make assumptions. We should not assume first time buyers are not informed simply because they have never purchased a home. We should not assume a buyer who has purchased several homes knows or remembers everything there is to know about the purchase. This list could become very long, but I think you get the idea.
When we ASSUME things……
Buying or Selling Indianapolis Real Estate? Call your Indianapolis Real Estate Agent, Pat Haddad!
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