Over the past 22 years in real estate, I have facilitated hundreds of property transactions and met thousands of people along the way. After a while you become an amateur psychologist and can predict how a person will react when presented with a particular circumstance. As a company we do a lot of training to understand why people act or react the way they do. At our weekly training session we have an agenda item called “interesting character of the week”. It is a fascinating subject, and like life in general, we all learn as we go. We have a strong learning culture and really enjoy these discussions.
One trait that has become clear to us as being very important is a person’s general attitude to life. We get to meet with almost every economic demographic, from the very wealthy to those that are struggling for whatever reason. We have found that having a great attitude to life is not exclusive to any economic demographic. However, we have found that those with a predominately positive attitude certainly enjoy a higher quality of life. This in turn leads to a higher probability of financial success through their optimism and curiosity, their interest in other people and the increased opportunities that come their way because of this.
On the flip side, there are those who think that the nightly news is the everyday reality of life for everyone. They are watching for the next disaster to happen and warn anyone who will listen, that doom is pending so you better get ready to run and hide. They listen to talk back radio all day just so they can argue with announcer or other callers. When anything good happens they will say, yes but…and find a negative. Because of their attitude they generally don’t attract a large group of friends and therefore get presented with less opportunities. A tangible example of this is that we, as a business, construct many transactions by connecting the right people and creating opportunities. We don’t bother ringing this latter group simply because the probability of a successful transaction being created is less likely. Also we do not want to put our credibility or reputation at risk by introducing this personality type to another valued client, regardless of their financial capability. It is just the practical reality of doing good business.