Who Do You Work For? Who Works For You?

 Who do you work for? Who works for you? Who should you be working for? Who should work for you?

Are you working for your broker, or are you working for yourself and your family? Are you working for your creditors just to get through each month’s bills, or are you working for your future?

Who is working for you? Are you? Is your broker? Are your mortgage lender, title rep, home warranty rep, insurance rep working for you? Are they focusing on how they can make your job easier? Are they focusing on how they can make you look like a rock star to your clients? If not, why not?

As an independent contractor, you are in business for yourself, maybe though not by yourself. In our industry it seems that many believe that they work for their broker, and frankly many brokers feel they that the agents work for them as well. It seems to be that often in our industry that the Broker believes that they hire agents to work for them and as conduits to the agent’s clients to bring those clients into the broker’s firm. It is amazing how many agents seem to buy into that thought process.

Who should be working for you? How about after you, first and foremost your Broker should be working for you, aren’t you in fact their client? If not you should be. Shouldn’t your success be something that they are striving to help you achieve?  Shouldn’t your relationship be that you are in business for yourself, but not by yourself? How should that look? The Broker’s corporate culture should be agent centered; from the Broker down throughout the staff should see you as their client they serve.

What is amazing is how many are working in situations that really don’t serve their best interests, and even if they are made aware of it, decide to stay knowing it isn’t really serving their needs. Why would they do it? Many people, even who are independent contractors and are in business for themselves, still see themselves as employees and have employee mentality. They fear taking a risk, fear losing friends, fear making a change of any kind. There are a lot of people who prefer staying in a situation that isn’t good for them just because it is known and comfortable.  Are you doing it out of loyalty? Have you asked would they take care of me if something happened? Will they pay your kid’s college, or your retirement? If not, why be more loyal to them than you and your own family’s future?

This is like the story of Jeb and Clem who were sitting on Clem’s front porch rocking while Clem’s old coonhound kept moaning and groaning. Finally after listening to this dog for a couple hours, Jeb asked, “What is wrong with your dog?”  Clem said, “He’s fine, he’s just lying on a nail.” Jeb couldn’t believe it, “Why doesn’t he move?” Jeb, “It doesn’t hurt enough for him to move, just enough to complain about it.” Isn’t it amazing how many people are like that old dog?

This is not a new way for people to behave, in the 1850s Harriett Tubman was risking her life to keep going into the South and leading runaway slaves into freedom through the Underground Railroad. Of course it wasn’t underground and there was no railroad involved. It was moving by night walking north going from safe house to safe house. She carried a gun, but not so much to defend her and those she was escorting, but to either warn or shoot those who she was helping to escape who wanted to give up and turn back. She couldn’t have someone go back that could tell her routes and contacts. There were those who wanted to return to the “known” of slavery if she would have let them.

Even in the story of Exodus there was a reason that the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years. Keep in mind that the desert wasn’t that big; in fact it could have been walked across in a matter of several days. However, the Israelites and Moses wandered about for 40 years, why? It was because the Israelites kept wanting to go back to Egypt and to slavery where they knew what to expect and were used to it, God decided to not let any of them with “Slave” mentality into His Promised Land, he waited until that generation who had allowed slavery to be a mental state to die off before moving their children into the Land of Milk and Honey.

Hopefully none of us will be like that old dog, or one of Tubman’s or Moses’ followers who chooses to stay behind in a known lesser life rather than race for freedom and opportunity.