Reprinted from an earlier post on my realtor’s blog:
Coaching has been part of my life for the last 22 years. I am a 3rd generation coach. My grandfather was a respected community youth baseball coach and my father was a successful real estate mentor to dozens of realtors. I am a combination of both coaching youth sports for over 10 years and real estate for over 20. It has been a constant debate for 3 generations on how you could identify the people who would go on to greatness in either a sport or a business.
Personally, I don’t know how many times I felt some player or some realtor was “a Natural”, someone who I expected great things from in the years to come. In the end it was often the ones who I thought never possessed the “Natural” ability that became the exceptional ones while the one’s I had earlier identified faded away. Why did this happen.
Over the last 4 years I have researched this as a hobby (I love coaching) and had gradually came to agree with a concept know as “Deliberate Practice” or “Deep Practice” (google it). Watching youth sports and the competitve business of real estate the parallels for success were easily seen. In my earlier post I mentioned the new book, “The Talent Code” and it’s final verification of Deliberate Practice.
Success in any given field is determined by one fact. That is Practice. It’s really no wonder that realtors become their most successful after 10 years in the business. It’s simply because of the nature of our business to succeed you must follow certain methods of any selling system. 10 years to learn the vast skills a realtor must possess to be an expert in our field. Why do so few of us become these experts.
Well we now know that it is because very few people have the motivation to practice the skills neccessary for success for that 10 year period. The effort involved in those 10 years, the lack of early income, the constant need to refine and discover what works for our personality type and marketplace is overwhelming for most of us. On top of that the select few in our business who commit to really offering our clients the complete package is rare.
When any new realtor now comes to me and asks what do I have to do to be successful in this business I will have an answer that most will not like. The answer will be the same one my youth players will here and wish they didn’t. Most will choose not to believe it either. I know the truth.
Success in anything is built on practicing your skill for 10,000 hours in a way that ensures you are learning the neccessary skills that will be easily repeatable in competition. For athletes that comes in a game and for Realtors that comes at the listing or offer table. What motivates you? Is it enough to motivate you to complete 10,000 hours of practice?
It’s that simple, which means it’s that hard. There is no such thing as easy success! Just ask the little boy who started practicing golf at 3 how long it took Tiger Woods to put in his 10,000 hours.
Regards Ross
