I will start out by saying that this story, Wayne’s story, is not allegorical.  Wayne is not only a client of mine, but a friend. 

Within weeks of Wayne getting his real estate license, his wife moved out, took their daughter and re-located 400 miles away, his home burned to the ground and his car got stolen.   I’m completely serious.  His new broker/manager allowed him to crash on his couch until he could find a new place to stay and he would ride his bike to a neighborhood close by.  He would chain his bike to a stop sign, and start door knocking looking for business.  Door after door, day after day, Wayne would knock. 

He didn’t necessarily like it, nor was he especially good at it in the beginning.  But he was determined.  He started to lose weight, pick up business and gain confidence. 

In working with a small army of mega-producing agents, I have found that none of them are good at everything.  Each one of them has developed a mastery of one, possibly two, prospecting methods.  Wayne’s is door knocking.  He now works in one of the highest cost zip codes in the nation.  Surrounded my multi-million dollar estates he still will hit the streets when business slows down.  He has earned the ability to rest on his SOI, marketing, repeat and referral business, but he looks at his door knocking as a volume knob.  Business is good, he can cut back, business or the market drops, he can turn it up.  He can tell you how many doors he has to knock to get a closing.  He can do it in his sleep.  He is truly the best door-knocker I have ever seen.

Maybe your thing isn’t door knocking – that’s ok.  It doesn’t need to be.  But you need to have something you can fall back on to generate new business.  Something you can dial up or down depending on your business activity; something that you can use as a regulator.  I would encourage you to pursue something that fits your personality and get good at it – no, get great at it. 

This year the strong will not only survive but thrive.  The pros always make money – that’s why they control 90% of the market activity.  They don’t have an escape clause; they don’t have another choice of career.  They aren’t trying real estate.  They simply chose to do.