I Didn’t Like The Question

by Russell Shaw

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

A few weeks ago I was part of a “Surviving In This Market” panel. I have been a part of this sort of thing many times, locally and nationally. A few minutes into the program I found myself irritated at the question being asked. I usually don’t even read the questions provided beforehand as I prefer my responses to be completely unscripted. I think I may have surprised everybody (even myself a little) with my answer to the question asked. There were four other panelists and I was seated at the end of the table, closest to the moderator. The other four panelists had answered the question and I said, “I’m not going to answer the question because I think the question is stupid.” The moderator was a bit shocked. Perhaps you can guess that I seldom concern myself with such concepts as, “If I say this will I be invited back?”. I’m a bit proud of the fact that no one will ever be able to accuse me of being hard to read.

I believe that asking the right question can lead to a correct and useful answer. I also believe that asking the wrong question can be destructive. Just asking a question can cause damage? Absolutely. For example, the question, “What is wrong with me” or any of it’s thousands of variations is never a good question. Never. That doesn’t stop millions of people from walking around and asking this of themselves on a daily basis. They may have varied the question but it is nevertheless that question in one of it’s many guises. How can I improve this situation? How can I make this area better? are not the same sort of question and I hope you can discern the difference. The problem of “What’s wrong with me?” (or any variation) is that one tends to start a list of possible items. Then they can indicate these various items to themselves. They may even “get help” from others who can also indicate their various wrongness to them. Just based on how much this “improvement technique” is practiced in the world today, one could determine how workable a technique it was by how much improvement occurred. Almost none is the correct answer. Almost none.

If a person has disagreements with what they are doing or where they are, they will tend to withdraw and not quite “be there”. Disagreements can stem from something actually being wrong in the environment or the person simply not understanding something they are in contact with. Either way, if a person has disagreements with where they are or what is happening they can be counted on to a greater or lesser degree to not quite be there. They aren’t all in. Being “all in” is pretty much a requisite for success in any area.

The question the moderator asked was, “What market was your favorite market?”

Each panelist answered with some market that existed in the past. The 2005 market, the 2003 market, were both answers to his question. I sat there thinking that until such time that each of the people on the panel (let along all Realtors) could control the market they would be better off not sitting in low volume sorrow wishing for those fabulous good times to return. For those who believe they can control the market, may I suggest that the workability of something like a rain dance may have more to do with the timing of when the dance is being held, rather then the quality of the dancing. How you respond to the market, now that is totally under your control. The statistics you or your organization wind up achieving, again – all directly under your control.

The question basically got each person to look over and find a time they liked better than now. The one and only place the person is (in time) and the moderator was encouraging them all to go into disagreement with it. I didn’t like the question. Imagine driving down a road with potholes and bumps and sharp turns while daydreaming of a nice smooth straight road. Fun, perhaps. Safe? Productive? Not so much.

“Happiness is power and power is being able to do what one is doing when one is doing it.” — L. Ron Hubbard