MEASURING YOUR SUCCESS
Undoubtedly people measure success by many different standards. I have heard people crediting someone for their successful career when in fact; they performed far below average in their field. In reality, I think they were actually giving the individual credit for working the same job for a long period of time or working for the same company for so many years. They were just trying to be as gracious and respectful as possible. They didn’t consider that misusing the word “success” was such a big deal, but to someone who has truthfully performed at an extremely high production level, misusing the word “success” can be very demeaning and offensive. So is success measured by production level, amount of income produced or expertise in job skills; all, neither, or more?
Success simply means an outcome or result; a degree of measure of succeeding; a favorable termination of a venture; and the attainment of wealth, favor or eminence. These definitions come right out of Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. In order to have success we must first succeed at a particular thing. Thus the real word we need to define is “succeed” which according to Webster means to go up, or follow after. It also means to turn out well, or to attain a desired object or end. I consider myself as having a successful real estate career. I have worked in the industry for 44 years and during that time I averaged closing more than 53 transactions a year for each of those years. I have also been recognized for setting other records within our industry. When compared to my fellow agents, I excelled in some areas while falling well beneath the standard in other areas. Having said this, one doesn’t have to set records or attain the highest level of closed transactions or defeat all others at any one particular thing in order to succeed at what they do. A lot of my competitors were much more successful than me in a lot of different things. That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t successful.
I think most people gauge success to the standard of income produced. Personally, I didn’t set out to become the highest income earner from real estate in my area. My initial goal was to earn above average income so that I could live a joyous life style. By attending many sales seminars and reading all the motivational material I could get my hands on, I learned that if I did the right things on a continual basis, success would follow without it being a top priority. Let me explain.
We must hold ourselves accountable for everything we do. We must evaluate everything we do as to its level of importance in the overall scheme of our work. By asking ourselves, “Is what I’m doing right now the most important thing I could be doing to help me reach my goals?” Another important question to ask is, “Am I doing all I can do to become the very best that I can possibly be?” If the answer to either question results in a “no” we need to eliminate wasted time and focus on the doing the things that will help us reach our overall goal. Not only is this proper time management; it is also the wisest business decision you could make at the moment.
If we are committed to doing everything within the realms of possibility and we consistently strive to reach our annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily goals; we will have done the best that we can do and in my opinion, you have reached a level of success. You will never succeed as long as you don’t personally believe you have given it your very best. You’re standard for measuring success comes from within.
Should you have specific questions concerning various issues, please let me know and I’ll research the answer for you. I also want to encourage you to subscribe to our “News & Updates” weekly report so you can stay abreast of issues that might affect you when buying or selling real estate. If you haven’t visited my website, please go to www.AlabamaRealEstateInstitute.com and view previous articles.