The Group of 8

Watch out for the police

Seth Godin riffs today on the struggles to overcome those that fight to keep the status quo. In fact he believes it is nearly impossible to persuade those "status quo police". Yet there is a way to overcome the status quo.

Think of some of the past companies that have overcome the status quo police.

Apple's iPod, Nike athletic shoes, and Starbuck's coffee.

Last time I checked, those would be good companies to own stock in.

Are you a part of the status quo?

Or are you part of something that is going to revolutionize your industry.

Find the Right Agent

Before you choose a Realtor ask them "tell me about yourself". You will find quickly many Realtors will have no problem talking about themselves. Make sure they answer your questions.

How long has the Realtor been in the business?

What is the Realtor's best experience?

How does the Realtor keep in contact with past clients?

Ask for a copy of a previous feature sheet, how will they show your home?

A professional Realtor will be more than happy to answer these questions honestly. Choose the Realtor that makes you feel the most comfortable.

Most importantly, ask yourself what you want the Realtor to do for you. Do you want an expert or an order taker? Do you want quality? Do you want the cheapest fees no matter what? Do you want someone you would recommend to your friends or do you want a salesman?

Buying and selling your home will be one of the bigger decisions in your life, so you owe it to yourself to get the person that is right for you.

Balloons

Balloons have a maximum capacity. If you keep putting air in, the balloon will continue to get bigger. But, at that balloon's maximum capacity, the balloon will burst.

To keep the balloon from bursting, we can do one of several things.

1. Stop adding air

2. Let air out

Our lives are not much different. We continue to add to our busyness. We put more and more in our schedule. We continue to allow the urgent to push aside the important.

How close are you to bursting?

More importantly, what important thing in your life is not being done because you are tending to the urgent?

Make today the day you accomplish one important thing before you worry about the urgent.

Margin

At what point do we realize that our full plate causes the unhappiness in our lives? Do we fail at being content because we worry about the next thing we have to do on our list? Do we need more margin in our lives?

Margin is good. Margin can be defined as the extra space. We find margin in leg room flying first class. We enjoy the margin between us and other cars on a twinned highway. How much margin do we have in our lives?

Human beings are limited. How close are we running to our capacity? How much time do we have free? How much money is left at the end of the month?

What happens when we squeeze out the margins in our lives? What suffers? Who suffers? When we decrease our margins, we decrease our relationships. When we tighten the margin, we cause our own stress. Our focus becomes narrow. We become self focused.

We believe that if we don't push ourselves to and past the limit, we will miss out. We fear missing out on what is good. We all have the fear of not being of value. We all want our life to matter.

Yet, by pushing ourselves past the limit and losing all margin, we set our lives on course for failure. Success can not be obtained by losing our margins. What good is climbing the corporate ladder if we lose our spouse. What good is becoming well known if we lose our faith.

Let me suggest trying to increase your margin. What? Are you too busy to increase your margins? If we ignore our limits, life will force us to accept our limits. A cancer patient finds all the time in the world for her loved ones.

If your life is a book, how much white space can we see? How are you going to make sure your margins are within your capacity or are you waiting for life to force you to define your margins. I suspect it would be better to find our margins while we still have control.

Get rich slowly

Get rich quick. Sounds like a scam. An overused expression best saved for late night infomercials.

Recently we hear of stories of homes selling for more that double what they were bought for a year or two previously. Some of these stories are true. But, they are not get rich quick.

Get rich slowly.

The majority of the time when someone sells their home in this extremely hot market, they also have to purchase a property again in this extremely hot market. There are many reasons to buy and sell in this market, but not to get rich quick.

In his best selling book, The Wealthy Barber, David Chilton talks about this get rich slowly approach with home ownership. You buy a home today, make mortgage payments, and possibly add value by upgrades or further development.

At some point in life when you have the option of living in low maintenance condo or a retirement village in Arizona you will be able to sell your home. At that point, all the money you put away in the form of a mortgage and the amazing value of appreciation will be available.

Power of know

By rough estimation, one week of the New York Times contains more information than someone in the 18th century would come across in their entire lives.

Yet, people in the 18th century invented the piano, fire extinguisher, thermometer, steamship, submarine, bicycle, parachute, and soft drink just to name a few.

Obviously the power of what we know is more important that how much we know.

Tell me, what do you know that makes you valuable?