Theory #1

Regardless of what seat you occupy at the commercial lease negotiating table, one of the most important things that you must bring to each and every negotiation, and to each and every interaction with your prospective or current client, is that of your “A” game. When it comes to the hierarchy on the totem pole of life for real estate professionals, there is what I believe to be an incorrect perception that some of us work too little and make too much money. Aside from that perception being out there in regards to more than one or two attorneys, this common misperception is often applied to that of a number of real estate brokers. Incorrect as it may be in more cases than not, for any of you who have ever worked 25 to 50 to 100 hours or more on a failed transaction, that experience in and of itself entitles you to each and every penny of any commission you ultimately earn on your next closed deal. The goal is, wherever possible, to control your financial destiny, as I would like to think that none of us sets out on his or her work day to specialize in a nasty little thing called “non-billable time.”

In order to convey a bit more eloquently than what I just rambled about, I give to you none other than Albert Einstein, who once said “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”

Playing off of Albert’s genius, for the 2nd leg of my theory, I bring to you none other than the iconic and ever loving rapper Snoop Dogg, who when it comes to pride in workmanship and making a difference, I choose to apply his wisdom to how I as a real estate professional interact with my clients, by heeding his advice, “If it’s flipping hamburgers at McDonald’s, be the best hamburger flipper in the world. Whatever it is you do you have to master your craft.”  

A number of years back when I was pondering Snoop’s words listening to a mixtape from 2007 or so aptly titled “Room for Improvement” by none other than former actor and then aspiring rapper Aubrey Graham (a/k/a hip-hop heartthrob Drake), strange as it may sound to some of you, upon examination of some of his song titles it occurred to me that in another life, Drake very well could have been a motivational speaker for real estate professionals.

As I was inquisitively focusing on the titles of many of his songs, what somehow came to mind was that if Drake in an alternative universe was giving his views of life, marketing and commercial leasing instead of yours truly, he would be telling you that you need to have an unquenchable thirst for life and for knowledge, the passion to make a difference for your clients, and that if you were going to do well at anything – including the negotiation of a commercial transaction – you need to build a firm foundation. Drake would then go on to tell you – in my Seinfeld like “Bizzaro World” – that in order to construct as a real estate professional – with a little help from Lionel Richie and his old band the Commodores – a “Brick House” of knowledge, you need to truly grasp the nuts and bolts of commercial leasing, so like Drake himself, you have to:

1. “Know Yourself,” and
2. have “Started From the Bottom” if you want to …
3. fulfill your “Dreams Money Can Buy,”
4. because if you don’t make yourself a student of your craft, you’re no longer going to have access to your “Hotline Bling,”
5. but more importantly, you will have to “Shut it Down.”
6. because you were going about your job by “Doing it Wrong,”
7. leaving your clients to be telling you “Look What You’ve Done,” and
8. as a consequence of you not being a master of your leasing domain, your iPhone will not only no longer “Light Up” with calls or texts from your now former customers,
9. but you will also find yourself pondering over and over again why you didn’t hear the advice posed by the question “How About Now?” when it came to mastering your craft and using your time more efficiently, or as John F. Kennedy once said while president, that you must “use time as a tool, and not as a couch.”
10. And with that lesson behind us my friends, “Hold On We’re Going Home.”