How is the psych ward this week? I hope it is good- it's good here!
Stopped into Skinhorse for a moment and read a bit . Nice. Thought I would drop you a note ot say thanks
Let me rant about work for a moment though ok?
End of a long day where I worked from can to can't and at the end of the day I look and wonder what the heck did I really accomplish today? I My memory here is a bit hazy but I think that there is a definition of work that has to do with moving things or something. At any rate, I am pretty sure that work by definition does not have to produce results, You know, if you spend the day digging a hole and the next day you spend filling it up you have worked very hard for 2 days.
Kind of pointless I think.
Makes me think and think some more!.
I have always taken pride in being a good worker. I start early and stay late. I move a lot of dirt! I am strong physically and bright enough that I can move the mental rocks around pretty well too! I am a good worker and if you are hiring workers then you would be lucky to have me.
Problem is that I realize more and more that the world is not made better by doing more work, My life is not better. My bank account isn't fatter. Hungry people are still hungry and the lonely ones are still lonely.
At the end of the day, what the world needs more of is people who are effective,
That is what bosses are supposed to be for I think. To help those who work to work on the right things in the right ways at the right times so that in the end, the work produces results, Interestingly, I have spent my life leading people and have always been good at helping them to get good results. Unfortunately, I often worked at it!
I want to quit working so hard. Every day I want to live in an effective manner- I want to know that I choose my actions, (I think they often look a lot like work) so that they produce results!
The farmer in Kansas who uses every conceivable means of saving work and increasing his effectiveness and planning for the highest possible yield and at the end of the year has earned a profit and fed hundreds if not thousands of people with his effort works just about the same number of hours as the poor Guatemalan beet farmer who breaks the soil, plants the seen, weed his garden and ultimately gathers his crop and trades with a neighbor to have just barely enough to eat. Hard work is not a virtue, It is the fruit of the labor that enriches the world. not the labor. That Kansas farmers effect is food for people and the profit that comes from being available to him and his community and family. Results!
The janitor in the hospital who swings his mop is working- it is not until he begins cleaning the floor that he is actually making a difference in the world. His fatigue is not a virtue and his sweat has no value. It is the clean floor that it the goal and ultimately what the patients through the bill from the administrators are wiling to pay for,
I know that brings up a whole bunch of ideas to be discussed regarding management philosophy and labor relations and fairness and equality and a whole lot of other drivel that is generally a tug of war between those who are willing to be held responsible for their lives and those that want others to be responsible for them but today I am not going to go there. Today I am just going to remind myself that results are the only things that really matter.
My business is absolutely full of opportunities to work without compensation. When you work without getting paid it is generally a pretty good indicator of how effective you have been. I am not yet sure how this will work but it is time to learn how to make those determinations and do the work that people want and need and prove it by being willing to pay for it. Societal norms lead me to to be polite and not want to just say right up front- hey! I do this for a living and I am a person who takes responsibility for himself and I want you to hire me to get results for you. If you don't want results, it makes no sense for me to work for you! I don't like to work for the sake of the labor, I work for the sake of the result!
Since I am a real estate agent, that means the following- results in the context of my profession are as follows: Either I help you to sell your home or I help you to buy a home. My mandate is to help yo to do so in a profitable manner that is legal and ethical, in the best time frame for you, with the most pleasant experience. I am paid to advise and encourage and to empower my clients. I should be a resource that gives them the knowledge, experience, systems, and structure to get the best possible result for them. In exchange for that result I get paid, If I am not able to fulfill my responsibility and don't get results, (home bought or sold) I don't get paid. Through out the process I would consider it an enhanced result if we each had a positive experience. Learning may be a result. Fun and friendship may be considered results. But it is vital that I always work from the standpoint that I am in this business as my means of adding value to the world and that I expect to be compensated for it, I owe my clients the best result possible and they owe me compensation for keeping my end of the agreement,
So that brings me back to where I started, too much work, too little result, How do I fix that?
In no particular order- I must start making it clear when I start working for someone that when I do work, it is with the goal of getting results. Business now, business later, referred business, but if someone is not either a potential client or a person who can introduce me to a client then why would I work for them and why would they want me to? It doesn't make sense!
Like the bunch of ideas paragraph above this also brings up the whole question of marketing and relationships and all those things that make up the process of getting new customers- I understand that some of those things must be done in order to get the opportunity to work with people who want me to get results for them. I also know that somehow I have to reduce the work put into that process until they begin bearing fruit.
Another thought- is there a way to identify and then present my service to people who are motivated to get results? Joe Realtor spends over 85 percent of his working time cultivating relationships through advertising, prospecting, marketing,networking, etc and only 15 percent of his time doing the things that he gets paid to do. Imagine if Ford or Honda or Chevy spent 85 percent of their efforts on getting customers and only 15 percent on the actual design engineering manufacturing and distribution of the car. That would be nuts!
So- back to my thought- I have had some success before in designing marketing systems that generate many leads and methods for culling quickly through them to find those that that are serious about doing something. Others can be fed to automated marketing and follow up that is much much more effective,
Having said all that, I also know that the solution I just talked about does cost money and unless I am working with more serious clients and getting their sales closed I cant afford to make the change to that system. Catch 22 so to speak
Perhaps the solution is to keep overworking but start to slowly put in place (as I can afford it) the systems that change who I am working with and the process by which I work with them,
Yep that's the ticket!
My goal continues to be out of the hole by the end ot the year. a full time assistant helping me to drive our effectiveness in getting motivated clients and serving our current clients better than anyone in town, and being physically and mentally and emotionally fit,
Work like a dog BUT be ever vigilant of how to increase effectiveness,
Build a team and transition our client generation systems,
Stop working like a dog and instead, just do those things that get results and the things that I want to do!
Have fun!
Spread the joy!
You know, I started out here by reading one of Ruth's Deep Thoughts- God is Good is God, I do love that idea, Whenever I have tried to talk about it folks get so scared that I am somehow demeaning God by saying that he may not just be a great big smart powerful human to the max. I tried for so many years to accept the idea that God was a big guy and he had a family of three and he used gold to pave with (which as soft as gold is would probably be uneven right at the beginning of the eternal dance thing) and was mad at us if we treated people badly but was pretty comfortable making humans flawed and then punishing them for it; It didn't work out for me.
God is Good is God, Good as a noun, I love that idea. All that is good is God and God is all that is good, The hard part for a lot of people is that it gets hard to be judgemental then doesn't it- when a really nice fellow loses his temper he ceases in that instant to display god and when a mean nasty fellow stops to help someone then danged if he ain't just a bit of god for that moment-
Ruth - I always enjoy reading you, I am better for it, Maybe just a bit more Good in me too!
Have a nice nite,
Mark
- sometimes I think it would be fun to be able to follow a thought without all the side trips and then forgetting where I started
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