Stop Burning Bridges!

I'm just sitting in this kind of swanky courtyard area, on some AstroTurf as I began replaying a conversation from earlier today. I ate lunch with a real estate agent and a great friend of mine who's in title. We talked about a ton of stuff, but the thing that stuck with me that I wanted to write about is why do we burn bridges?

Because here's what it comes down to, right? It comes down to, I am so selfish, that in this moment I am so mad at you because you screwed me over, or you lied to me, or whatever the reason or whatever the case, or you were mean or rude, or disrespectful right? So I am so selfish that in this moment I want to feel better and the fastest way for me to feel better is to burn this bridge. It is to tell you off, it is to delete you from Facebook, it is to send you a scathing email. And I go, "Ah, man, I feel better. You deserve that. You deserve that."

And in the moment, I feel better, but then I get, a week later, a month later, a year later, and I realize, "Oh no, I might have to rub shoulders with that person again. Oh no, that person's opinion can be told to people and the story that they now can tell doesn't necessarily paint me in the right light."

So guys, here's why I'm writing this blog, it’s because I have watched so many of you, and I've been guilty of it myself... I've burnt bridges, and you have too. The reason this is so important for all my real estate people is you never get to avoid someone in real estate. You're always going to find yourself in the same room as them. There are always going to be people in the real estate field that do not do a certain type of transaction, or they prefer working with a certain dollar amount per house. So literally if you can be the guy or girl that everyone loves, you will be blown away at how that grows your business.

But for so many people, it's crazy how, I think someone's cool and then I say their name in a different circle and they go, "Oh man, that girl is a B." Or they say, "That dude, man what a jerk." And I go, "What?"

It's mind blowing to me. So I just want to challenge you guys to stop burning bridges, because you never ever know when that bridge is going to come back to bite you, and you're going to have wished it was there and it's not, because you burned it.

I'm going to end it with this. Years ago, I had the privilege of sitting under a year's worth of coaching from Michael Maher. Michael Maher wrote “The Seven Levels of Communication,” Michael Maher is the most referred real estate agent in the world at over 500 referrals a year. So during his coaching, he said this, "Would you rather have influence over 20 thousand people or one?"

And of course, my answer was, "Well 20 thousand, duh." And he said, "But what if that one was Oprah?" And I said, you know, "Can I take my answer back? I'll take Oprah, please? I'll take Oprah."

And I think that's so true in our lives. We never know which relationship is going to produce the greatest volume of opportunity that we've ever seen in our lives. We do not know, and we cannot predict it. And I will imagine and guess this, it will come from the most unlikely of sources.

Do not burn bridges, because you never know when that “Oprah” is going to show up and you kicked them to the curb too soon, or they heard around the grapevine that you're a certain way and they never reached out. Go love people, go serve people, go be about other people, and it is impossible for your business to not grow while you're focused on helping others. That is so true for me right this second in my business.

What bridge are you about to burn? Don’t burn it.

What bridges have you burned? Go start rebuilding them.

We reap what we sow. What do you have coming around the corner? Make the right choice!