I have a confession to make. It goes against the grain of social media “only post your wins” culture. Most of the time, I don’t win.
I don’t get the appointment. I don’t make the sale. I don’t get that next property under contract. In any given day, I probably only have success 10% of the time.
And most people who are playing at a high level in real estate, or any industry really, are failing more than they are succeeding as well. A hall of fame baseball player gets out 7 out of 10 at bats. Stephen Curry misses 57% of the 3 pointers he takes.
I really love this speech by Roger Federer that he delivered to the graduating class at Dartmouth this year.
https://youtu.be/_ILk8Yai3Wo?si=hJXKtMYlWrBRLQLe
I think he really captures the mindset around this phenomenon. As he says, he only wins 54% of the points he plays. Each point is the most important thing he does as he is playing it. But once it’s done, it’s in the past and he moves on to the next thing.
When I’ve been asked, how have you had success in the real estate industry, I tell people this. It’s because I’ve shown up consistently to do the work for going on 11 years now. Compared to others, I’ve never had outstanding skills. I don’t use scripts, or fancy presentations.
I just show up and work. Every day. Even a little bit on weekends or while I’m on vacation. For the last 10 years.
So when you see that we sold another building or home, got another investment property, or what have you, remember that to get there we probably lost out on 100 other deals. I don’t dwell on those 99 deals as losses. And I celebrate our 1 deal, then quickly move on. Because I have a legacy to build for us and our kids.
In real estate sales or investing, you’ll have more days when you have absolutely no results for your efforts than days that you do. The important thing is that you show up and do the work.
You won’t see results right away. You may not even see them in a couple of years. 5, 10, 20 years down the road however, you’ll have something really special.