Interviewing a potential team member recently, she asked me: "Roberta, do you have a life?" Or, maybe she said, "Do you have time to enjoy your life" or something to that effect.
Yes, in fact, I do and I do. I'm so glad she cared and was sweet enough to ask.
Sometimes it may look as if I'm NOT having a life. Saturday and Sunday, it's usually down to the Type A individuals in the office who nod in appreciation of each other's 7-day-a-week work ethic. Others make a point of saying on Friday that they never work weekends and out they go to have fun doing something else.
True, sometimes I don't have that much fun because work is tiring, isn't it, and, at these moments in the car, when I can't listen to Jonathan Schwartz's American songbook on NPR or find a good country song on Sirius, I dream of simple pleasures. When you're out giving area tours and showing 20 houses a day and munching protein bars instead of having a good lunch and then writing and negotiating offers during everybody else's dinner hour, you do miss sunsets and lazy afternoons reading the New York Times. Two summers ago, I bought a hammock and situated it under a broad, leafy tree in my backyard. When I was in the car, I thought about that hammock no end. I managed to lie in it precisely two times. This past summer, I didn't think about it so much and used it for about 10 minutes. Things got too busy. Clients, after all, come first.
Today, just 13 days before the end of 2006, I actually have the day off. Well, three-quarters of it. I helped a very dear client choose interior colors for her house, but otherwise wasn't busy. I took a 2-hour nap. I helped my son study for a college exam. I made chicken stew. I shined silver candlesticks. And, in the recent past, aside from real estate, I've had a life producing two professional musicals. I've started a children's literacy program, Library in a Box, which brings me pleasure when my colleagues and I deliver new books to pre-schoolers. I had a life last week going shopping with my 25-year-old daughter. I'm having a great life being the first person to read and comment on my husband's first novel, now almost finished. And so on!
Real estate reality, as I told the prospective team member, is that one thing leads to another, but not by its own volition; you've got to move it ahead and that takes time. Resting on one's laurels isn't enough. Thinking ahead while doing tasks in the present is imperative if you want to excel and grow your business.
It may be hard for others to get this, but this is the creative part of what I do. The thinking about, writing about, and implementing business plans is the "have a life part." You can't really do it in a hammock, but so be it.
Coming soon: Roberta does Reality TV.
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