This is a Tough Business!
Nobody knows your business like you do. Accountant, carpenter, mechanic or engineer, it’s pretty hard to explain how you spend your day to someone not of your “work world.” I get a lot of that too.
I’m in real estate sales, and sales is a tough way to make a living. So is driving a truck, waiting tables, washing cars, and pulling the midnight shift working security—all jobs that I’ve worked in the past.
Every job was the same.
Every job has hard workers and slackers, phony kiss-ups and trusted allies, mentors and mental cases. I’ve had several bosses who fired me and we’re good friends to this day. Others, not so much.
The worst job has great days and the best job sometimes has gut-twisting, teeth-grinding, terrible days. And some jobs are pretty much 50-50, but you love it anyway… or need the insurance.
There’s a small but loud human contingency who think real estate is “easy money” and that those in this field don’t work too hard. This same voice might tell a CPA, “all you do is input a bunch of numbers, the computer does all the work!”
My business is just like any other—some can do it, some can’t. Some who do it are good, some not so good. Long-term success is nearly always attributed to hard work and solid business practices. There are no free rides and there is no easy money.
What I do now is a lot like when I was waiting tables. People are touchy when it comes to their food and their home. If you’re attentive, know the menu, treat everyone with respect and fairness, and don’t rush the entree, it’s usually reflected in the heft of the gratuity… unless when it’s not because the kitchen ran out of the special and the busboy dumped an appetizer and the customer got drunk…
Those food workers have it so easy.
