by Jeff Brown

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

I bet you look back at the end of each year to review, tally wins/losses, etc., measuring results vs first of the year expectations. That’s no doubt a universal experience. Did we lose the weight? Do the business? Learn the new language? Master that new skill? Become a better whatever?

This year you may wanna try something different — something that may provide insight more useful than a year’s review. Liken it to comparing stargazing to seeing the night sky through a powerful telescope. Instead of scrutinizing the last 12 months, critically examine the last decade. In fact, begin with the first decade of your adult life, examining each succeeding 10 year period. You have the perspective of having lived it, which will help.

Dad did this on the advice of his father-in-law, back in the late 50’s or very early 60’s. He told me of the life changing realization that hit him like a shotgun blast at pointblank range.

(Paraphrased) “I suddenly realized, with almost terrifying lucidity and coherence, that I could literally accomplish anything I wanted. It had a paralyzing affect on me for days. Not long after, I sat down with pen and paper to set long term goals, and I’ve never looked back.”

You may have more than a few epiphanic moments. I know I sure have. 2010 completes the fourth decade for me, so I can crank up my mental telescope to full power, while conducting postmortems on each successive decade. Like the galaxy, we all have a mental picture of the paths our lives have taken — by choice or otherwise. Yet much as the night sky is orders of magnitude different through the lens of a powerful telescope, so is looking at galaxy-sized blocks of our lives.

It shows how we’ve grown — or haven’t. What lessons we’ve yet to learn, and wisdom we’ve successfully adopted. But most of all you’ll see the truth — in big picture form. Forensically dissecting a decade of your life, or better yet, more than one decade, is a potential goldmine of information about the most important person in the world Read more

by Jeff Brown

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

I’ve always loved the Cool Kids (CKs). I’ve never been a cool kid, but the kinda sorta quasi-cool guy who seemed to think differently, while simultaneously remaining under most folks’ radar. I’ve been the poster boy for Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours principle, which says we don’t become excellent at something ’till we’ve logged that many hours doing it. The CKs in the ethereal world of 2.0 real estate come and go, but the ones who’ve remained, some hangin’ by their fingernails, are the ones still puttin’ in those first 10,000 hours in the fields. That’s hopefully a diplomatic way of sayin’ they’re still mostly theoretically based and not so much empirically experienced — but gettin’ there.

A few of these CKs are gonna rise one morning realizing they’ve figured out where that last piece to their particular puzzle goes. When that happens we’ll all benefit wildly. ‘Till then? Let’s stop fallin’ in love with all the ‘can’t miss’ marketing ideas tossed at us as if they’re just as reliable as gravity and Grandma’s raisin-bran muffins. It just ain’t the case. If so, most of these kids would be livin’ the life of Steve Jobs, a CK himself, who actually put in the 10,000 hours and leveraged it to the max. Then he kept adding more 10,000 hour blocks to ensure the excellence of results.

What I’m tryin’ to say, and poorly at that, is that the CKs need to keep plowin’ their fields without ceasing. It’s like gettin’ in shape. You begin with a jelly belly and become discouraged after a week cuz you don’t look like Adonis yet. Rely on the universal principles at work — the most important of which is putting in your time. There’s simply no substitute for that part of the process. When working out consistently for a year, our jelly bellied friend is now slim ‘n trim, and wearin’ tank tops whenever possible. 🙂 Meanwhile, the others who haven’t unambiguously logged the hours, day in and day out, failed — but they’re still CKs, right? Maybe. Maybe not.

I’m about to complete my eighth 10,000 Read more