Lessons From The Dragon’s Den’s Robert Herjavec Part 19

December 22, 2010

So imagine how turned off you’d be as a broker if they you gave the sort of answer Herjavec’s friend gave to that promotion.  At first you might think they completely misunderstood what you offered them.  Your offer implied you’d take them under your wing and teach them on how to succeed at the job.  Of course you’d be willing to accept mistakes and failure initially, as long as the person learned from them and didn’t give up.  You’d certainly give the person a fair bit of time to make things happen.  If they weren’t right for the job then surely you’d give them their old job back.  You’d realize this person didn’t have a fraction of the self-confidence needed for the job and probably never would, no matter how much knowledge they might subsequently get about real estate.  So you’d probably never offer them the job again.

When it comes to real estate, “failing” at it really just means giving up on yourself.  This is little understood by the 80% or so who “fail” at the business within the first two years of starting because they either blame everything and everyone other than themselves for failing or they meekly blame themselves too much for failing.

Herjavec’s friend reminds me of a story called the Parable of the Talents.  The story is of a land owner who left his home to travel, but before leaving he entrusted his property to three of his servants.  The property is worth 8 talents, and 1 talent is a large unit of money. One servant receives five talents worth of the property, the second two talents, and the third one talent, according to their respective abilities.

Returning after a long absence, the master asks his servants for an accounting. The first two servants explain that they have each put their money to work and doubled the value of the property they were entrusted with, and so they are each rewarded.

Filed under: Inspiration

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