Change.... Love it? Hate it? Inspired by it? Paralyzed by it? Terrified? Motivated? What is your reaction to change in your life? The one thing that is a virtual guarantee is that Change is going to be a constant in your life, and that of everyone you know.
Our company at RE/MAX Ability Plus is going through many changes, it seems like daily. That is to be expected when you are growing like we are from 32 agents in 1 office doing about 100 million in business in 2008 to 130 agents in 6 offices on track for more than 400 - 500 million this year. REAL Trends 500 Magazine ranks us as the 37th fastest growing company by percentage of volume in America. Our biggest CHANGE currently is a Dream coming true, we are moving our Carmel office from one that has housed RE/MAX Ability Plus for the last ten years. It has been home to many of the areas top agents, but we are moving to a Brand New office in Carmel's Arts and Design District in the beautiful Indiana Design Center, the first Real Estate company ever housed in a Design Center in America. This new office is a physical presence of the Dreams we have been dreaming for years.
Even exciting change can make people feel uncomfortable, but sometimes feeling a bit uncomfortable is the very best thing for you. For years when I have been coaching people I challenge them to change things, even if it is the route the drive to work, maybe the parking space, something, mix it up get your brain reengaged. Far too many people are in such a rut they find themselves driving to and from work the same way, the same time, every day. Have you ever driven through a traffic light and then wondered if it was green or not? We often get up the same time every day, do the same routine, drive to work, drive home, over and over and over until we have become mindless in our actions. The only difference between a rut and a grave is that the ends are not closed. Jump out.
One of the most impressive athletic feats I have ever seen during my life was when Tiger Woods, who was the best golfer in the World, decided that to get better he had to completely relearn his swing he had been using all his life, and he did. He could have messed his old swing up and never learned the new one as well, but he took the risk to get better to push through a barrier his old swing had created. Whatever you think of Woods, that was courageous.
In our own company I am thrilled to witness some of our top agents challenging themselves in that same way as did Woods. They hit the biggest year of their long celebrated careers last year, but now have looked from the peak of the mountain they had climbed across to peek at the top of yet a higher goal and are dissecting their business to make changes to double their business once again. It is inspiring to watch and it is clear that those goals will be accomplished.
You must understand, CHANGE is going to come, you can choose to embrace it, become an agent of that change, or you can resist and be buried by it. With the advances of technology change is coming faster every day, we need to learn not to just keep up, but to jump ahead. The technology of the day used to dictate the very economic age they came to be known as, the Stone Age, Iron Age, Agrarian Age, Industrial Age, Technology Age. They used to move so slowly most people were born, lived their lives and died in the same economic age. That is no longer the case, adding to the stress many people feel.
For instance, in 1930 there were about 30 million American farmers, barely producing enough food to feed the 100 million Americans, by 1980 there were only 3 million American Farmers producing so much food that they were feeding the World and were being paid by the government to not produce on much of their land. What happened to those 27 million farmers? Many retired or died, their kids were forced to move to the city to find jobs, but since it happened over a 50 year time frame it made little disturbance until the last few years when we saw things like "Farm Aid" trying to help the ones who couldn't pay the banks.
Many of those first generation off the farm went to work in the Midwest working in the auto industry, in fact in 1980 there were 250,000 people making carburetors in Indiana and Michigan, however by 1985 almost all had lost their jobs because their skills were not compatible to building the Fuel Injector Systems that overnight had replaced the carburetors. Many of those displaced people found work in the vinyl record industry in Indiana and Ohio alone more than 150,000 people were working making records in 1990, the next year they were gone, as RCA and Sony had revolutionized the industry with Compact Discs.
The old idea was to learn a skill and be the very best at it for job security. Today, the best is to learn to learn how to adjust and change as change keeps coming. Those who are most adaptable are the winners in this new world.
At our company, I truly love the culture. It is all about change, all the time. It is about pushing the envelope to find where the newest sweet spot is every day. In other words, If It Ain't Broke Break It, surely there is a better way. Good is always the greatest enemy Great can ever have.
So Change!
