Other Stuff Too

Stop Doing What You Don’t Love to Do

Gary Vaynerchuk.

Never heard of him?  It’s possible that you have, since the demographics of the readership of blogs like this one typically consist of like-minded individuals who are constantly looking towards the future, finding new ways to communicate and connect.  Most of the people I have met who are deep into the online world of entrepreneurialism know who Gary Vaynerchuk is.  But, if you don’t know who he is, read on.

I had the pleasure of attending a recent event which was put on by Keller Williams.  I was offered free registration by @FreedomWeaver and I took him up on it.  Introduced to Gary via one of his Keynote Speeches, I was instantly captivated by his charisma and direct, no holds barred, in your face approach to telling the world how business is changing, and who is going to succeed, and fail.

Gary does what he wants to do, and that started, as he explains, as a young entrepreneur in Edison, NJ where he ran his very own lemonade stand franchise.  Yes, I said franchise.  While his minions manned the stands, Gary watched the eyes of the potential consumer, and adjusted, finding the best place to market his product, which wasn’t a unique product.  What was unique was his fearless approach to doing business how he wanted, when he wanted.  He later applied his knowledge to the sales of trading cards which earned him $1000/week before he was 15 years old.  That’s $52,000/year people.  He goes on to talk about his entrapment in his father’s business at $2/hr for hours every day, to his discovery that he could apply his entrepreneurial skills to the business, making it extremely successful in a very short period of time.

After launching WineLibrary.com, and tv.WineLibrary.com, he has turned the world of wine upside-down, bringing the once snooty knowledge of fine wining to the average Joe.  Now, after pursuing his passion for wine without taking a paycheck for 18 months, “working his face off” as he says, he’s turned that passion into a thriving, very profitable business.  Now, with a New York Times best seller, he’s opening up his “secrets” to a world of people who don’t spend time reading online.

The point?  Gary realized that “there’s no reason you should be doing shit you don’t like doing,” and he started doing what he loves.

So if you’re still doing what you don’t love to pay the bills, take the extra time you have, no matter how inconvenienced you’ll be, or how uncomfortable it may seem (in other words, quit whining, it’s hard work) and start doing more of what you love.  Soon, you’ll find that what you love will pay you more than that job you hate, and you’ll wonder why you ever doubted yourself in the first place.

You can watch Gary’s latest Vlog post on his personal blog, or catch an episode of his Wine show at WineLibrary.com.

Dear FHA, Can You Please Sign Off?

Dear, David H. Stevens, Margaret Burns, and Bonnie McCloskey,

Nothing is more infuriating than a policy within a company that cannot be explained other than “that’s the way we’ve always done it.”

Digital signatures save everyone time.  A VERY LARGE AMOUNT OF TIME.  But in a world where a vast majority of the buyers are going FHA, with a policy that doesn’t allow digital signatures, many lenders are slowing us all down by requiring pen to paper.

Here’s why pen to paper is a stupid idea.  PHOTOSHOP.  I can extract your signature and drop it into any document I want and pass it off as genuine and it instantly becomes legitimate.  Not only can I do this, but I have done this, but only after receiving written permission to do so from my client.  No funny business here.

It’s been my only solution to FHA’s antiquated practice of requiring pen to paper.

Digital signatures have been part of the business world since 2000 and they’re perfectly legal.  There’s no reason we should be chasing people down, inconveniencing them, to acquire handwritten, less-than-secure forms of authentication.  It’s just ludicrous.

So, FHA, please stop this horribly annoying practice and bring yourselves up to speed.  We’re tired of the whole world moving faster than you, and you’re just getting further and further behind.  Drop the dead weight.  Loose the anchor.  Run like the wind and allow services like @Docusign to usher us into a world that should have existed 9 years ago.

Sincerely,

No Clocking In, No Clocking Out

This post was inspired by Jacki Semerau’s recent article at http://knowyourplace.blogspot.com/.

I was recently asked this question.  “Where do you find the time?  I have to be at work by 6:30AM every morning and I don’t get off until 6:00PM.”  It was in reference to the other set of activities that I engage in on a regular basis.  The activities that I always wished I could do when I was working in a cubicle in a prison cell called Corporate America.

If there’s one thing that certain, it’s that nothing is certain.  I don’t know who said that first, but it’s true.  Your job security is as uncertain as the day of my next closing, and in the world of real estate, I don’t get paid unless I sell a house.

So what is it about being in business for myself that is attractive enough to keep me from being stressed about the lack of regular income?

• When my body tells me to rest, I can.  Then I can be refreshed to continue to work in an environment of my choosing.
• When I am productive, I can take time off.  If the afternoon is filled with success, I can simply take the next day off if I wish.  I have nobody to answer to.  If I have more than 4 major tasks to do in one day, then I’m doing too much.
• I don’t waste time listening to my superiors ramble on about the company, policies, and procedures in regular meetings that go nowhere and accomplish nothing.  I can choose my meetings, classes, and gatherings whenever I want.
• I can toss aside non-productive, non-income-producing activities, like wasting time doing things that make no sense that people tend to do just because that’s what’s “always been done.”
• My value is inherent.  I don’t have a limit to what I can accomplish and I’m free to test the limits and breakthrough to new ground every day.  My success is a direct result of the time and energy I put into my work.  The last cubicle I sat in robbed me of 8 hours and my job only required about 1 hour of actual work.

I just enjoy working for myself way too much to be oppressed by the corporate culture, which is leaning more towards a model of independence as it is anyway.  Punching a clock is the last thing I ever think about, because I now know the value of my time.

The Coolest Wedding Entrance EVER!

I couldn’t pass this one up. Some things in life just need to be done better, and this is an example of how.  I know, it has nothing to do with real estate.  Well, they DO need somewhere to live.

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