For our Active Rain Challenge, Anna Banana Kruchten CRB, CRS, Broker, Instructor asks: What changes have I made in my business and or in my personal life?
When this question first came across via the Active Rain Challenge, I immediately thought about my business changes and wrote a post about it; clearly, I would be remiss if I did not share my personal life changes as well.
On March 13th, 2020, the Governor of California shut down the state. The clock was turned back and brought me to my childhood in Communist Hungary, standing in line for limited supplies of food and other essentials that the government controlled - every aspect of life, business etc. “ Fear” was introduced at every level from politicians, news and social media. The message was always the same: Fear for your life, fear for your family.
Thanks to the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Army Ranger and Airborne Schools and my parents, I have been well trained to be aware of danger and how to manage anxiety, stress, and panic. I understood when and how to manage my own apprehensions and started trying to come up with some solutions to the instantaneous changes to our way of life.
Leadership by Example: First I wanted to help lead Diane and let her know that everything will work out and we will get through this together. She was much more affected than I was as her daily office routine, interactions with co-workers and friends and her volunteering at Lange Foundation were stripped away from her in an instant. Since I do the shopping and cooking anyway, I understood what needed to be increased in our in-home inventory. As we all discovered, certain items quickly became in short supply and this in turn necessitated multiple-store shopping. It was like a scavenger hunt to get toilet paper, paper towels and water just to name a few. Thanks to Ron and Alexandra Seigel for giving me the invaluable tip when we were approaching toilet paper desperation when Trader Joe’s got their shipments. Thus, sadly I did not avoid standing in line at o’dark thirty for toilet paper which is not what I visualized when I came to this country as a legal immigrant.
Be Resilient: In order to get through this challenge which is unlike anything any of us have ever seen, we had to communicate that supplies have been replenished, not focus on the number of different stores it took to get them. Amplify the positives instead of focusing on the negative. In my opinion, they should do with the pandemic as well. Focus on the number of recoveries, not just alerting us of the number of deaths.
The Biggest Adjustment we Both Had to Make: Working from home! Our home is very moderate in size. We now need to share the square footage and be mindful of each other’s working environment. I have been working from home for 15 years or more so our challenges are very different. Diane gave up the structure of an office routine, while I was not at all used to having her during the working hours.
We have had honest and open discussions on adjustments and how to be considerate of each other’s feelings, needs and emotions while being empathetic to each other’s moods and needs. We both understood that all of this will take a long time to overcome and a team effort. Our part was and continues to be managing a bad situation and making our lives comfortable as we slog through this. At the same time, we try to be of help to our neighbors as well, those who have lost their jobs and/or live alone. When I look around I realize that while I personally feel challenged, there are many others that in a much more challenging situation than I am.
To summarize, I think I improved on my cooking skills since the restaurants we frequented were shuttered for so long. Our wine store had an overflow of excellent wines whose prices were reduced when the restaurants closed, so we had a real unexpected treat there. Being book lovers, this has given us the opportunity to read more books since we try to stay away from the TV as much as possible (although we are now enjoying October baseball). We are probably even more appreciative of our physicians, veterinarians, and dentist. And we are very grateful that we have both kept our jobs while many have lost them. I am grateful that Real Estate even with Social Distancing is highly active.
Wishing you a safe and healthy life and I look forward to your comments.
If you are looking for a knowledgeable, focused and goal-oriented Realtor in the Beverly Hills area who will help you achieve your Real Estate goals, please reach out to me directly!
If you are looking for a pet friendly Beverly Hills Realtor who can handle and sell the most difficult properties that no one else could, please reach out to me directly!! If you are considering buying or selling a home, a luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu, feel free to contact me at 310.486.1002 ( m) homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com I contribute a portion of my commission to local animal rescue organizations.
Endre Barath,Jr. Realtor at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties DRE# 01238708
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