The Scottsdale Real Estate Files

“Boards don’t hit back.” 

Accompanied by a wagging finger and evident disdain, Bruce Lee’s classic line from Enter the Dragon is as prescient today as it was when originally uttered before his celluloid tangle with a showboating opponent.

The admonition was not mere gamesmanship, but a sweeping indictment of traditional martial arts indoctrination.  Grounded in, and to Lee’s way of thinking, chained by, rigid adherence to the unique forms and training patterns of a given fighting system, styles long defined fighters.  Karate, Kung (Gung) Fu, Jujutsu, Judo … the fighter himself was almost an afterthought.  Lee would contend that a fighter who blindly clung to any one discipline would never be complete.  Rather than evaluating personal weaknesses through true competition and honest assessment, the limited fighter keeps breaking boards and practicing the same forms, secure in the knowledge that his system is unassailably the system.

Bruce goes on to beat up the bad guys rather convincingly, and there is much rejoicing.  His concept of Jeet Kun Do (literally translated as “way of the intercepting fist”) would shortly thereafter explode upon the world.  At its core, the philosophy is simple.  No way is the way.  Take what works and discard what does not.  It sounds self evident in our results oriented world, but who doesn’t get bogged down in his or her own version of truth?  In how many facets of our lives do we feel pretty well squared away, with no need to seek alternative methods and new knowledge?

In 1993, I was a college kid transfixed by an event that would spawn a cultural phenomenon.  The Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, exposed the world to a scrawny Brazilian by the name of Royce Gracie.  Fighting opponents who outweighed him by over a hundred muscular pounds in some instances, Gracie demonstrated a seemingly invincible fighting style called Brazilian Jiujitsu.  A punching and kicking kind of nation, we were shocked to see this submission fighter convince his menacing foes to essentially cry uncle by tapping out due to joint locks and chokes that left us both confused and intrigued. 

Red blooded Americans turned out in droves to learn this new unbeatable style, me included.  Eventually, though, the fight game caught on.  Whereas Gracie fought a Savat fighter, a boxer and a shootfighter in that inaugural event, the later cards would see the combatants morph into a new breed of killer.  Current participants in this most grueling of sports are no longer one dimensional robots.  There are no more puncher versus grappler or judoka versus muay thai matchups.  These guys today train in everything.  American wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, sambo, BJJ, muay thai, you name it.  They are true martial artists.

Somewhere, Bruce is smiling.

So as I sit here, discontent with the contentment that invades certain aspects of my life from time to time, I remember the importance of gloving up and throwing down in the quest for personal truth.  I do not know everything there is to know about selling houses.  Through trial and error, I have learned what works for me, but there are always new ideas to incorporate and old gimmicks to abandon.  Something that all who endeavor to sell a house, a car, an encyclopedia or a soul should bear in mind when signing up for the formulaic series of tapes or the hour of power seminar circuit designed to turn you into the bully of your market’s pulpit:  It’s a start, but you must find your own way.  And for God's sake, as you subject yourself to the harsh lessons of experience during the endeavor for greatness, remember to keep your hands up and your chin tucked.

Boards don’t hit back, but reality does.

Paul Slaybaugh, Realty Executives

Choking out the competition since 1999

Not only is failure always an option, it is often the best one. 

Weightlifters will tell you that taking sets to failure, that point where you can no longer perform additional repetitions with good form due to muscular fatigue, is the path to increased strength and growth.

Shrewd businessmen will tell you that they seldom lament the deals they didn’t do.  Rather, the ones that got away, where there was a breakdown somewhere in the process, are often saving graces.  The failure to come to terms on ill-advised transactions saving them from future losses and aggravation.

In general, failure is the spawning ground of greatness.  There would be no need to improve without first tasting its bitter flavor.  What means do we have of fulfilling true potential in the absence of the adversity that draws it out into the open?  That challenges us to overcome the dreaded specter of defeat?

Too many times in my early life, I shied away from even participating in arenas where I didn’t immediately excel.  Or more to the point, didn’t believe I would immediately excel.  I feared failure.  I feared the ultimate revelation that even my best would prove inadequate to the chosen task. 

I still do to a degree. 

I like to write.  Until a year and some months ago, it was just another curio placed on a shelf of personal regrets.  With the standard methods of attracting new business beginning to languish with the sharp market downturn, however, I was forced to step outside of my comfort zone to secure new streams of potential buyers and sellers.  I began to actually write for an audience, opening myself up to the scrutiny and criticism that I previously avoided.

Lo and behold, I found a receptive readership in addition to new business.

I temporarily failed, I adapted and I rediscovered a lost love in the process.  Now, my business is steadily picking up while that of all too many colleagues continues to stagnate.

For those who are hanging onto their careers by the skin of their bicuspids, failure may prove to be a godsend.  You can use the opportunity to refocus your practices and ultimately improve your skill set.  And if you fail completely … perhaps Real Estate is not your true calling, or at least not yet.  There is no shame in that.  Fighting and losing does not make you weak.  It just makes you a fighter.  Regardless of where your professional journey next takes you, you have earned the newfound strength that you will take with you.  You are not a failure.  You simply failed. 

Know who make some of the best coaches?  Ex-players who never made it to the bigs. 

And what of the politicos who lack the requisite charisma to be electable?  Some become the biggest power brokers in the country, if not the world.

Every failing, a new beginning.

I relate the surging failure rate in the careers of Real Estate professionals due to my own myopic perspective, but it is a universal theme that translates to the hardships that are being experienced in every walk of life with startling frequency.

With people losing houses, jobs and wealth, we'd all do well to guard against mistaking a result for an inherent truth.  Acknowledge your defeat, but don’t accept that you are defeated.  The real test, and opportunity, begins at that point.

As they say in boxing, everyone has a plan until they get hit in the face.  You only discover your true constitution upon rising from the canvas.  So get up and fight.  And if you can't defeat the opponent in front of you, you can always get a gig selling hot dogs in the stands.

Congratulations, even putting yourself in position to fail constitutes the toe in the lake that many timid souls on this watery planet will never dip.