A Culture of Gratitude

In life & business, people either choose to view the world with gratitude or entitlement. Interestingly, this is a very binary attitude, as it's almost impossible to be simultaneously grateful and entitled. There are many benefits to viewing the world with gratitude, and many reasons to be grateful. We live in the most technologically advanced era in history, which is objectively the best time to be alive, in a thriving city that presents endless opportunities. After averaging out the ups and downs of the economy, we're in an incredibly resilient and opportunistic industry in which we are paid to legitimately help grateful clients.

When you view the world with gratitude, there are many benefits. It improves your overall frame of mind and helps you deal with adversity in a positive way. Gratitude allows you to view the opportunity in new situations, and when you view the world as an opportunity, you're empowered to always improve your own situation.

A good leader is grateful for their co-workers and employees. This is the opposite of the toxic, entitled "They're lucky to have this job" mentality. Good leaders recognize the contributions that every team member makes and realizes that the ship wouldn't sail as fast or as far (or at all) without everyone's contributions. As such, a good leader will culture an environment that rewards great work and a good leader will recognize everyone's great work and unique contributions.

Grateful co-workers and employees also recognize the contributions of their co-workers. As importantly, they recognize the opportunities that are presented to them. Adversity is a part of life and business, but adversity almost always presents opportunities. A particularly difficult week of work is an opportunity to prove value to a grateful boss, who will recognize that contribution and ultimately reward that contribution appropriately.

We're often presented difficult situations that we have to work through with clients. It's often in a buyer's best interest to terminate a contract after they discover more information about a property during an inspection. This can be deflating, as a good amount of work isn't monetarily rewarded immediately, and more work is now in front of the agent in order to earn a paycheck. If you approach the situation from a position of gratitude for the opportunity, it will allow you to provide excellent service first, earn more trust from your client, and ultimately earn a commission.

It's important to remember that some things in life and work are hard and some are easy. We've all earned an easy commission and we've all earned $5/hour on a deal. We've all had hard days or weeks at work (maybe months!) and we've all had an easy time. When you average it all out, we're incredibly lucky to be in this city and industry and overall, business is very good.