As a home inspector, it seems like we’re wired differently than other people. We can’t help it, we were born that way. For as far back as we can remember, we’ve always been inquisitive. We’ve always asked questions. We’ve always wanted to be given a reason why. And if you’re anything like me, your mother probably told you “Because, I said so” more times than she cares to remember.
It’s that natural curiosity that sets us apart from everyone else. It’s part of who we are. It’s part of what we do. It’s what helps us do our job. It’s what helps us take care of our clients. It’s what sets us apart as a home inspection professional.
But what is it, exactly, that defines a professional home inspector? How do we go from being just another flashlight jockey trying to scrounge up business to being one of the most elite inspectors in our area? What must we do to become the go-to: the inspector that agents call whenever they’re family members are buying a house? And once we figure out the secret formula, is there anything we can do to speed up the process?
Being the best in their field is something that many strive for in their chosen profession. Very few individuals decide that they’re content being average. Most of us hope to one day conquer the mountain, reaching the pinnacle of our chosen profession. The question then becomes, do we keep grinding in obscurity until we reach the top, or do we work hard to perfect our product, tweaking here and upgrading there, until we’re ready to roll out a finished product?
Many business-owners wrestle with this question on a daily basis, trying to figure out the best path forward. For some context, we can refer to a story told in the book Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland. It involves a teacher who, wanting to try an experiment, divided her pottery class in half. The first half was told they would be graded solely on the number of pots they made over the semester. The more pots they produced, the higher their grade. The second half of the class was instructed that they only had to make one pot the entire semester, and they would be graded on its quality. If they made a perfect pot, they would get a top score in the class. By the end of the semester, the pots produced by the group that had made many were much better quality than the group tasked with making only one perfect pot.
This story clearly illustrates that in order for us to get better at a task, whether it’s making pottery, riding a bike, marketing a business, or doing a home inspection (or using our home inspection software), we’ve got to be willing to practice. We need to put ourselves out there. We cannot be afraid to take chances. We have to be willing to place ourselves in difficult positions. It’s imperative that we embrace the possibility of failure. It’s a given that we will make mistakes along the way, and we need to take advantage of those learning opportunities to get better at what it is we do.
We’ve got to combine the confidence to be humble with the ability to improve, knowing that while we’re sometimes going to screw up, we’re going to improve our skills at the same time. We’ve got to be self-assured enough to make those mistakes, all the while realizing that those mistakes are going to eventually turn us into a better version of ourselves.
Perfect is the enemy of good.
Voltaire
The fact is that when we start our career as a home inspector, we simply need to be doing some type of inspections. Whether it’s doing partial inspections for banks, insurance companies, or FEMA, doing discounted inspections for someone other than a home buyer, or giving away inspections for free, we need to be doing the work. Even if it’s just inspecting the houses of your friends and relatives over and over again (until they finally ask you to leave), the simple act of doing those inspections will increase the quality of our product.
Even though we’re told that practice makes perfect, we’re never going to be perfect at what we do. No matter how long we stay in our career, no matter how smart we think we are, no matter how much we practice, there’s always going to be something new to learn. We’ve got to strive to constantly update our knowledge and our skills.
And what better way than to practice.
Would you like to get an email every Friday where we share the newest things we’ve discovered about home inspections? CLICK HERE to sign up.
Want to be an Influencer in Your Field? Share This Post!
Thanks, Joe
