Unless one of us happens to be the luckiest inspector in the world, bad things are going to happen to us during our real estate career. There is no way around it; we deal with humans as part of our job, and humans are notoriously fickle (some more than others). This means that, given enough interactions, at some point or another, the shit’s going to hit the fan.
While minimizing problems is certainly an essential part of running a successful business, the important thing is not figuring out how to keep every bad thing from happening in the first place (that’s impossible); the most important thing is simply being cognizant of the fact that bad things will happen and ensuring that we’re mentally ready for the accompanying fireworks.
Unfortunately, the first time something bad happens, we all tend to freak out and fall victim to overreaction. We get a bit overzealous in our own defense and (quite often) end up making a mountain out of a mole hill. The reality of running a small business is that no matter how careful we are, issues are going to arise. They’re just part of the program and we can’t avoid them. We can, however, learn how to better deal with them when they do arise.
It seems strange, but the longer we are in business, and the more we become accustomed to dealing with complaints, the less it seems that each one matters. Imaging running the gauntlet; it hurts each time you get struck, but somehow, as you go along, the blows seem to hurt less and less. Oddly enough, running a small business is almost like going through exposure therapy for criticism.
It seems to be a natural, human response to lament our problematic situations, and many people are quite proficient at it. Some of us are even likely to derive some type of twisted pleasure from the fact that we get to complain about the predicament we find ourselves in! (I’m certain that we all know someone like this: a professional martyr…)
To a large extent, we get to choose the things that we must suffer in our lives. Being an inspector is certain to cause us occasional problems; we cannot deal with that many different people without coming across some of the “unusual” ones. But we’ve made the decision that the benefits of our inspection career outweigh the incidental difficulties, knowing that the upside of helping people is worth the occasional stress that comes along with it.
It’s important to remember that, by and large, we have the ability to choose the situations that we find ourselves in. Many of us spend valuable time curating musical playlists, figuring out what shows we’re going to watch over the weekend, or lining up the events that we’ll do while we’re on vacation, but all too often we fail to exercise that same level of control over our everyday experiences.
We have the power to curate our own lives.
It’s a shame that we often fail to use it.
Confidence is always in direct proportion to preparation.
Daren Martin
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Thanks, Joe
