Welcome and good morning to Mike Ferry TV the week of May 19th. The year is flying by fast. The following are a group of ideas that were sent to me, and they’re titled Life Rules and they come from a variety of authors. So, I’ll keep it short and to the point. But here’s ten of those rules that I thought would make good sense for real estate agents like yourself. And excuse my voice, there’s been a some type of a bug going around the Las Vegas Valley for the last four weeks, and it seems that it’s landed right here.

1) Learn from the past, but don’t dwell on it

So, rule number one, learn from the past, but don’t dwell on it. Probably one of the most common things that I’ve seen with professional realtors like yourself is they lose the listing, they make a mistake, a listing cancels or expires, the deal falls apart. And instead of sitting down and saying, let me take five ten minutes and learn what caused this to take place. They dwell on it for days and weeks and sometimes months, and a simple mistake can cost you tens of thousands of dollars. So, learn from the past, but don’t dwell on it.

2) Who you are now you wouldn’t be without your past experiences, both good and bad

Number two, who you are now. You wouldn’t be without your past experiences, both good and bad. We are a summation of the experiences that we have had. If you’ve had an experience with a past client that rejected you for some reason, if you’ve had an experience with a buyer that didn’t show up, no explanation, and then you found out what from somebody else, that’s an experience that we learn from. Some of those experiences are good positive. Some are bad negative. Get over it.

3) Difficult moments build your character

In either case, number three difficult moments build your character. Boy, that is such a great thought for all of us. In fact, that’s probably one that you should write down on a three by five card. Put it in your pocket, your purse and look at it and read it several times a day. Because difficult moments either build you up and make you stronger or drive you away and make you weaker.

4) Stay away from “I can’t catch a break” types of people

Number four stay away from quote I can’t catch a break. Types of people. I’ve never understood why you want to hang around with negative people. And you know this business has a lot of negativity attached to it. It just goes with being in the real estate field. If all the experiences could be positive and productive, it would be a wonderful business. But there’s still a lot of transactions that don’t make it. And if you’re hanging around people that have deals falling apart all the time, you’re going to get the mentality of maybe your deals are going to fall apart, which loses that desire to go out and do more deals.

5) In the middle of every difficulty lies an opportunity

Number five in the middle of every difficulty lies an opportunity. Every difficulty, I should say, lies an opportunity. Everything depends on how you choose to look at it. If you look at everything from a positive standpoint, if you look at everything from the standpoint of, I can learn from this situation. If you look at there’s an opportunity someplace hidden, sometimes in this difficult situation, you’re going to be way ahead of the game almost all the time.

6) Your strongest muscle and worst enemy is your mind

Number six is a great one. Your strongest muscle and worst enemy is your mind. Train it well, train it well. Train it well. And when you’re through training it, train it some more. Because the truth is, your mind really is a lot stronger than any part of your body. Because it tells your body what to do, what to think, what to say, where to go. So, think of your brain as being the operations part of our body, and the operations part is determining what we’re supposed to be doing.

7) Work until your bank account looks like a phone number

Number seven work until your bank account looks like a phone number. When I dictated that to Dee, our assistant, it put a big smile on her face, and I told her. I said it is a cute little quote, but if you work harder, your bank account gets bigger. But one of the things that seems to always be a challenge in our industry is controlling our spending and controlling our expenses. You know, you get a $10,000 check and a $10,000 check is actually not $10,000 to you. You have, in most cases, federal, state, provincial taxes that have to be paid. You have expenses that have to be deducted. The $10,000 check may be 5000 spendable. So, work until your bank account looks like a phone number.

8) To achieve goals you’ve never achieved before, you need to learn to do things you’ve never done before

Number eight. To achieve goals you’ve never achieved before, you need to learn to do things you’ve never done before. And I’m a classic example of that because at San Jose State College and I’ve shared this with you time and again back in 1963, 1964. As a freshman, I saw a fellow on campus doing a speech in front of a big crowd of people, and I watched in awe because it terrified me to think that I would ever be standing in front of a group of people. And then I ran and signed up for two speech classes, because I was so excited about watching what this man had done on the college campus. And I got an F in both classes and flunked out of college as a result. So, watch to achieve goals you’ve never achieved before. You have to learn to do things you’ve never done before. I had to make a very strong commitment that I was going to learn how to speak in front of a group and things to who, unfortunately, has passed away. Bob Neville got me speaking in front of groups almost every day as I was working as a title salesperson.

9) People often say motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily

Number nine. People often say motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily. And that quote comes from the great. And we’ve also lost Zig Ziglar. He would always say that with a big smile. And of course, the audience always laughed. But the truth is, it is the truth. Motivation doesn’t last.

10) We have to be a person that gets better results on a regular basis

And number ten on the list. Some people want it to happen. Some wish it would happen; others make it happen. We have to be a person that gets better results on a regular basis. And the better the results are the results of the actions and thoughts that we have. So, let’s look at these ten thoughts again. Review them a couple of times this week, and I will look forward to seeing you and speaking to you next week. And hopefully a lot of you are coming to the retreat in July. I’m going to film a little episode about what that’s all about a little bit later today for your review. In either case, thanks for being with us today.