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Are you the NEXT American Idol?

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with R & D Art

I am sure that some people will skip right over this post due to the title. With that said, for the ones that read this post, you will understand why I titled it this way. Last night I was sitting in the office working when the television comes on in the living room. Lo' and behold, American Idol was on. Now, I am not a big fan of this show, but I am a big fan of music. Toward the end, I heard them introduce Mishavonna Henson. It was easy to recognize a name like that. Mishavonna was a contestant last year and did not make it through the challenge; let's dig in deeper here.

Mishavonna might not have won last year. However, that has not stopped her from tasting some success. She is a very talented singer. She still makes mistakes that keep her from being the great singer that she can be. Her biggest plus is that she is just 18 years old, so she has many years ahead of her.

In our world, clumsy mistakes can cost us our careers. I see it yearly, monthly, weekly, and sometimes daily. Whether it is a huge mistake that can cost thousands of dollars or a mistake that costs nothing more that anguish. Either way, making mistakes is a part of being human and something that has to be dealt with. The issue is more pressing when we make the same mistakes over and over again. This is where the real issues surface. At some point, competence comes into play.

In our business there is no, "There is always next year". With most customers, this is a one shot deal. What makes it even more important is the fact that we are not just working for the deal that is in front of us; we are also working for the 1, 5, 10, or however many referrals that this customer will be directly and indirectly responsible for us getting.

The customer is knocking at you door, holding on the line, or sitting in the lobby waiting for you. Are you ready for them?

 

Comments (11)

Kathy Toth
Ann Arbor Market Center Keller Williams - Ann Arbor, MI
Ann Arbor Real Estate Experts - Kathy Toth Team

Excellent analogy!  One thing about real estate, we can't afford to be like Mishavonna and keep making the same mistakes over and over again.  One thing is for sure.  If she really wants to make it in the music industry, she needs to learn from her mistakes so she can get better.

Feb 26, 2009 05:25 AM
Danny Thornton
R & D Art - Knoxville, TN
WordPress Guru

Kathy, I agree with you.

Feb 26, 2009 06:11 AM
Rich Dansereau
Positive Real Estate Professionals - Knoxville, TN

This is a great post. Though I really like Mishavonna's voice not many business professionals get a second opportunity. This is indeed a really great analogy!

Feb 26, 2009 07:12 AM
Simon Mills
Mills Realty - Toluca Lake, CA
That is a great segway! People make mistakes it is how we learn from them that make us better. It amazes me how many agents try to go at it alone in the begining and really hurt themselves in the long run. Get a mentor to show you the ropes. It may cost you a little in the begining, but the long term benefits will surely last you a lifetime.
Feb 26, 2009 07:46 AM
Carol Smith
Casmi Photography - Mebane, NC

It's all about having your 'game face' on and knowing that play book forward and backward. 

Feb 26, 2009 11:29 AM
Anonymous
Gary

Exactly what do you think Mishavonna's "mistake" was. Enlighten me, please. This girl performed flawlessly. Had she been more controversial she may have been what the producers wanted for their ratings. If American Idol was still a singing competition she would most likely be the next American Idol. What you look at as a mistake, I look at as a very calculated act by an 18 year old girl to get her name out to over 30,000,000 people at the expense of the highest rated show on television. Most of you only wish that you could be as resourceful.

Maybe you should stop patting yourselves on the back long enough to take a lesson from her.

 

Make no mistake about it, you could learn something from her kind of "mistake".

Mar 05, 2009 07:26 AM
#7
Danny Thornton
R & D Art - Knoxville, TN
WordPress Guru

Rich, you are correct about that.

Simon, learning from ones mistake is what it is all about.

Carol, that is correct.

Gary, you are obviously a fan of Mishavonna's. The mistake that she made was in her selection of the song and how she performed it. Weather you think so or not, apparently America agreed because she did not make it past this episode which makes my point. BTW, no one said that the girl was not talented. And as far as anyone patting themselves on the back, I am not quite sure what you are talking about. This article is about learning from your mistakes.

Mar 07, 2009 04:02 AM
Anonymous
Gary

Danny,

I'm a little closer than a fan, but that's beside the point. With all due respect, you are obviously not as familiar as you think with the reality behind reality shows. The contestants "choices" are incredibly limited. The songs that she would have preferred to perform "may have been" nixed by the producers. Song choice not withstanding, it had more to do with screen time leading up to the performance show (regarding which, btw, she had absolutely no choice, so can't count as a mistake). America was highly influenced by the airtime given to the contestants who created controversy during the audition episodes and Hollywood week. Her "mistake", then, was being professional and not getting caught up in the "drama queen" mentality that was so coveted by the network. We are all quite proud of her for that. It is her professionalism that will get her far in this business...a lot of people can sing.

Please understand that I am a fan of analogies, but this one is more akin to "do you take your lunch to school, or do you walk home?" One thing has absolutely nothing to do with the other, since you can't factor in circumstances of which you are not knowledgeable. I probably would have used an analogy of a pitcher who keeps throwing the same pitch to a batter, even though his history with the hitter indicates that the pitch is more often than not "knocked out of the park". That truly is making the same mistake over and over.

One other thing that puzzles me. You say that her name caught your attention when announced from the other room because you had heard it the previous year. Like I said, I am closer to the situation than simply being a fan, so I know this for a fact: they NEVER said her name during American Idol 7.

Mar 07, 2009 05:26 AM
#9
Danny Thornton
R & D Art - Knoxville, TN
WordPress Guru

Gary, the analogy here that you are not getting is that this is all about choices we make and the effects they have on us. That might be something you missed here by being to close as you keep saying. I am sorry if this article struck a nerve with you on the fact that I said nothing more than what the judges said when she sang the song. I do not need to know reality shows to know that she was not force to sing this particular song. And I actually did not say that I recognized the name from American Idol 7.

Either way you look at it, our business is about the choices that we make. THAT is what the post is about. Mishavonna was just the jumping off point.

Mar 07, 2009 08:26 AM
Anonymous
Gary

Danny,

Try not to assume that I "don't get" something. I do get what your original analogy was; I am simply saying that you are wrong (btw, the word you were looking for is "affects", not "effects". You may also want to put a “d” at the end of “force”, and another “o” on “to close”). Her experience has opened doors that you could not possibly imagine. And though she did make it to Hollywood week last year, the combined total of 2 seconds worth of screen time she received did not let her "taste some success". I'm not sure what you meant by that. So the fact of the matter is that by making some changes that the judges wanted from last year, she made it quite a bit further this year and has now made a name for herself. Would she have liked to go even further? Absolutely, but either way she laid some very important ground work. And although you did not say in your post that you recognized her name from season 7, it was certainly implied.

Why don't you consider this? Start a new blog with Mishavonna as the example. However, it would be a lot more inspirational, not to mention accurate, if you were to use her experience as an example of perseverance. You could actually include the fact that she won the 2009 Fine Arts Festival in North Carolina for female vocals over tens of thousands of other contestants. You know, in almost 30 years in music I have never seen an artist do so much for their career in such a short amount of time as I have with Mishavonna over the last year.

I also don't understand why you keep saying that she made the wrong song choice. I do not simply take the judges’ opinions as gospel truth, they have their favorites going into these performances and are not about to let another performer ruin their plans. Did she pick the optimal song? Perhaps not, but that doesn't mean she picked the wrong song. Did you know that 2 days after she performed, Train's original version of "Drops of Jupiter" was #15 on itune's top 100 pop downloads and #40 on itune's top 100 downloads over all? As of 2 days ago it was at #84. With a peak like that immediately after she performed and a drop that fast in 2 weeks, I can only conclude that it was directly affected by her performance. Someone was impressed, don't you think?

I know that your original post was about choices and how they affect you. But you implied that Mishavonna's choices were not only mistakes, but repeated mistakes. A better example of repeating the same mistake may be someone who continues to defend an analogy that has been disproved. 

Mar 08, 2009 03:52 AM
#11
Danny Thornton
R & D Art - Knoxville, TN
WordPress Guru

Gary, thanks for the comments.

Mar 08, 2009 12:32 PM