If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there!

Russel quotes so much wisdom from his wise old grandmother that if he wrote a book with that title, it would surely be a best seller. You don't have to buy a book, his words are free...just continue to read his wonderful blogs.

If I'm not actually working for a Client doing whatever it is that s/he hired me to do, then I can virtually guarantee you that, in some form or fashion, I'm learning, teaching, writing, or helping others.


Please make your comment on Russel's blog. If you are not a subscriber...you are missing out big time.
Margaret

Via Russel Ray, San Diego home inspector (Russel Ray):

If you don't know where you're going,
any road will take you there!

My wise old grandmother helped me start my first business when I was ten years old, and one of the first things she said to me was, "If you fail to plan, plan to fail."
One of my favorite music personalities, George Harrison of The Beatles, said it a different way on his CD Brainwashed (2002, posthumously): "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there."
Such sentiments can apply to both business and personal life. I've always been a workaholic, sometimes out of necessity, sometimes simply because I thoroughly enjoyed what I was doing. Although still a somewhat pejorative term, to me a workaholic is simply someone who is addicted to work, either out of necessity or because of a severe love of what s/he is doing. It often applies to the self-employed, many times out of sheer necessity to make an honest living.
I currently consider myself a controlled workaholic, a term that, to the best of my knowledge, I coined in 1987. A controlled workaholic is a workaholic who has to plan his personal life to keep his business life from overruning it. So in 1987, when I was forced to become 100% self-employed rather than relying at least partially on an employer to pay me a salary, I conscientiously decided to control my workaholism rather than letting it control me. That's when I fell back on what my wise old grandmother had taught me almost a quarter century earlier: Plan.
I have four attirbutes that sometimes create havoc in my life:

1. a love of learning,
2. a love of teaching,
3. a love of writing, and
4. a love of helping others, sometimes even to the extent that I'll do it free or otherwise let it hinder my ability to make a living.

If I'm not actually working for a Client doing whatever it is that s/he hired me to do, then I can virtually guarantee you that, in some form or fashion, I'm learning, teaching, writing, or helping others.
The founders and operators of ActiveRain have realized that their points system can easily create workaholics out of people because competition is the whole basis of capitalism and a free-market enterprise system. It's probably the whole basis of society, civilized or otherwise. And competition can sometimes interfere with other aspects of one's life. That's why ActiveRain limits comment points to 250 per day and blogging entries to a maximum of 2,250 automatic points per week.
ActiveRain and blogging should not be the only arsenal in your marketing attack, but if you subscribe to it, and I do, it should be a persistent and consistent weapon. But that's true of any weapon in your marketing arsenal.
If you haven't started planning yet, well, it's never too late (something else my wise old grandmother told me). In addition to planning what you'd like to accomplish for the rest of 2011, plan what you're going to do each day, each week, and each month to reach those goals, and I'd be willing to bet that you actually do reach them.
Every day that you fail to plan puts you one day closer to your plan to fail, and if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there!

Any road will take me to see
Belinda Spillman and Will Hamm in Denver, Colorado

Twenty most recent posts

1. Unlocking the secrets of your home — ....but there weren't any birds!
2. The Music Chronicles of Russel Ray — Only the lonely.... pretty woman crying... it's over
3. Opinion — 100 things YOU can do to help the world!
4. Opinion — Quit bitching and start contributing!
5. Opinion — It's funny that some people don't want big government until they need big government
6. Pay It Forward — Would you like a glass of Google juice? It's good for you! (part 11)
7. Unlocking the secrets of your home — Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
8. Unlocking the secrets of your home — Complaints are like ActiveRain blogs: They happen!
9. Picture of the Moment by Russel Ray Photos — An unhappy Client means a few hours of happiness at the San Diego Zoo!
10. Unlocking the secrets of your home — Here a crack, there a crack (part 9)
11. The Music Chronicles of Russel Ray — Just a bunch of fluff
12. Flower Fiesta — Flowers for Easter week
13. Pay It Forward — Just a spoonful of sugar helps the Google juice go down....
14. Unlocking the secrets of your home — Here a crack, there a crack (part 8)
15. I've had it!
16. Unlocking the secrets of your home — Here a crack, there a crack (part 7)
17. Nature Handbook — Handle with extreme care
18. Opinion — Why did we change?
19. The Music Chronicles of Russel Ray — Martha, My Dear!
20. Picture of the Moment by Russel Ray Photos — Picture of the Moment - How to sneak up on a sleeping cat

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My Future Years Will Be the Best Ever! A book review on The Cat Lover's Book of Days

My future years will be the best ever! - A book review on "The Cat Lover's Book of Days"

Russel Ray took time out of his busy schedule to write a book review on "The Cat Lover's Book of Days" This book was written by my good friend and publisher, Peg Silloway. You don't have to be a cat lover to appreciate this book, but it helps. If you are a feline lover or know someone who is, this is the best gift for under $25. You can even ask Peg to personally autograph a copy for your all your special clients, friends, family or real estate professionals.

Via Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray):

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

Recently I wrote a book review on Real Estate the Right Rome Way, written by our own ActiveRainer Margaret Rome. The publisher of Margaret's book is our own ActiveRainer Peg Silloway, a cat lover. Margaret pointed the way to Peg's book, The Cat Lover's Book of Days, and I bought a copy, which arrived Monday although I didn't get to pick it up from the post office until yesterday. What a wonderful book!

I've seen cat calendars for each year, but never a book of days that is good for every year because only the dates are in the book, no years. There is even a page for February 29 when it arrives!

I'm trying to write a book review, but Zoey the Cool Cat is not cooperating. She thinks the book is hers:

Here's the best picture I can get of the book right now:

If there is a cat lover in your life, including you, you can't go wrong with this book.

There is a list on pages v-vii of all the cat people who lent their cats to Peg's brilliant project. I can't wait until January 1, 2010, gets here so I can get my daily dose of cat history, cat lore, cat laughter....

Here are twelve fun cat snippets gleaned from the book, chosen totally at random:

1. January 6 - An original poem by Peg Silloway herself:
   "My cat
   Is fat,
   And that's that."
2. February 9 - "To err is human, to purr is feline." - Robert Byrne
3. March 16 - "There has never been a cat who couldn't calm me down by walking slowly past my chair." - Rod McKuen
4. April 25 - "Even overweight, cats instinctively know the cardinal rule: when fat, arrange yourself in slim poses." - John Weitz
5. May 24 - "Cats always know whether people like or dislike them. They do not always care enough to do anything about it." - Winifred Carriere
6. June 17 - "In a drafty room, indeed the cat makes a superior kind of paperweight!" - Carl Van Vechten
7. July 24 - "A kitten is in the animal world what a rosebud is in a garden." - Robert Southey
8. August 27 - "There is, indeed, no single quality of the cat that man could not emulate to his advantage." - Carl Van Vechten
9. September 28 - "Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want." - Joseph Wood Krutch
10. October 15 - Most cats will find a high perch whenever they can so they can look down on their domains and see what their humans are up to.
11. November 21 - "I put down my book, The Meaning of Zen, and see the cat smiling into her fur as she delicately combs it with her rough pink tongue. Cat, I would lend you this book to study, but it appears you have already read it.... Don't be ridiculous, she purrs, I wrote it." - Dilys Laing.
12. December 4 - "You're nobody until you've been ignored by a cat." - Anonymous

After looking through this book but not reading it, I ordered three more copies as gifts for my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law, and a Realtor here whom I know has several cats. I know that I will be ordering more throughout the coming year. Don't run out, Peg!

Order your own copy by going to Peg's Cat Book of Days web site. Tell her Russel Ray sent you her way.

Disclaimer: I have received no consideration from Peg Silloway or Silloway Press for writing this review or recommending that you buy a book.

With my Cat Lover's Book of Days, I know that my future years will be the best ever!

Don't Let Unimportant People or Unimportant Things Become Important

Don't let unimportant people or unimportant things become important

Back in October, Russel posted.. After 54 years, I now know my personality type, thanks to Margaret Rome ..and I thought that was the review of my book. To my surprise and delight this review appeared today. My friend took the time to devour, digest and almost re-write Real Estate the Rome Way. What an honor to have this special man on ActiveRain and in our lives. Thank you, Russel, for caring and for sharing.

Via Russel Ray, San Diego Marketing & Business Consultant (Russel Ray):

Book Review: Real Estate the Right Rome Way, by ActiveRain's own Margaret Rome

Need a great book for the Realtor in your life? Are you the Realtor in your life that you need a great book for? How about a great Christmas present for that Realtor in your life?

Occasionally a book makes its way into my library that is a joy to read — it speaks to me, it is written well, I don't have to read 100 pages before getting something out of the book. Such is the case with Real Estate the Right Rome Way. I had just turned the cover when I found some words that spoke directly to me:

Okay. So maybe that doesn't count, but it should!

If I don't count the first five pages — Acknowledgments, Preface, and Contents — the eighth line of the book hit me with the title of this post:

"Don't let unimportant people or unimportant things become important."

If only I would have had that sentence in the first 38 years of my life, and without knowing it, I have had to practice that every couple of years with certain home inspectors who like to try to make themselves important to my life or my business. Not gonna let it happen.

Although this book has only 189 numbered pages, the main text is 174 pages, but they are 174 of the most informational pages I've read in many a year. There might be two or three pages that don't now have yellow highlighting on them.

One thought that I really liked, and which too few people in any business believe, is that they don't need the business. As Margaret says,

"When you're ready to meet with the sellers, go in to the appointment knowing that you can afford not to get the listing. No matter how big the listing, no matter how important the sellers could be to your career, you do not need the listing. Be ready to walk away without hesitation. That attitude gives you incredible power, and it shows. It's not arrogance, it's just the calm confidence that people want to be associated with."

In many cases, the more you try to get business, the less business you get. It's kind of like when you were young and wanted to find a girlfriend/boyfriend or get married. The harder you looked, the worse the prospects. As soon as you quit, there s/he was.

Margaret brought up a very valid point if you're a smaller company, a newbie, trying to compete against the large, well-established company that often thrives on volume. Quite often a deal that falls through is of no consequence to that large company. It's just a cost of doing business. To you, the smaller company, the newbie, the loner, that deal falling through is, indeed, a consequence. That encourages you to look for non-traditional, unique ways to get the deal done.

Of course, there has to be something "wrong" with the book, right? Well, what left me a little perplexed was the question of being flexible. Margaret tells the story of an advertising firm that wouldn't work with her, her way. They wanted things in their format, just so, and that wasted her time, so she pulled her ads. Interestingly, though, she goes on to say, "I've always felt that they lost more by being inflexible than I did by not having those advertising outlets." While that may be true, it's a two-way street. The cost of that advertising firm working Margaret's way might have been too expensive, so they felt that she lost more by being inflexible than they did by having a set format for all their customers. Now I know Margaret is not inflexible, because just a few pages later, in a different story, she says, "By being flexible and adjusting to his needs and the opportunity, we both came out ahead." Obviously it comes down to what's important in the overall scheme of things.

Twelve other things that I learned from the book or knew but think they are well worth sharing, and this could easily have been a list of 100 or more:

1. WIN - "What's important now?" I've practiced this for many decades with my Top 10 list, but the acronym WIN is so much more powerful. Next time I have to make an important decision, I know I will WIN.
2. I'm a Type E Manager. You'll have to read the book.
3. "The Four E's" — A get by giving philosophy based on Educating, Enlightening, Encouraging, and Empowering. Hmmm. I might have to send this book to some of our politicians.
4. A very powerful thought for discussing commissions [I've modified it for discussing commissions with anyone]: "You tell me what you want, your bottom line. If I can get that for you, what difference does it make how much my commission is?" Yep, confidence.
5. Turbulence — You'll have to read the book. I'm such a tease, aren't I?
6. "Working solo does not mean working alone." Too many people think that just because they are a one-person company, they have to do everything themselves. That is so far from the truth. Think Power Partners and 1099 employees. They can be on your team.
7. When leaving a voice mail, start off with your name and phone number and end with your name and phone number. That way no one has to listen to the whole message again. Remember to speak slowly.
8. "There are things someone else can do that will be different but not different enough to make a difference in your overall success." Ah, yes, how we all want everyone to do things our way. It's just not necessary.
9. 944 — I'm still teasing.
10. Every day ask yourself, "What can I do for someone today?"
11. "Do every single thing with the hope of getting a thank-you note." You'll find that the more thank-you notes you get, the higher the balance in your bank account becomes.
12. "When you update your tech tools, do it because you'll improve efficiency or customer service, not just because there's something new on the market." Hmmm. I still have a phone that just makes and receives phone calls. Imagine that. Are you spending so much money buying, and learning, new technology that you forget to go out and get business?

And lastly,
"How is real estate like poker?"

Feel free to leave a guess in your comment, or just see page 146 in Real Estate the Right Rome Way.

You, too, can have a royal flush! Contact Margaret Rome for your own copy of Real Estate the Right Rome Way. If you're nice, she might even autograph it for you!