A friend of mine, let's call him Randy, went to his long-time physician and friend, let's call him Dr. Montana, for an annual checkup. Randy eagerly awaited the news of his blood work and physical. As a 55 year old male, he thought the results would be at least ok. However, Randy was stunned when Dr. Montana fired him.  

Randy asked the doctor, "I'm the patient, how can you fire me?" Dr. Montana replied, "I have been telling you for years as your doctor and friend, that you're grossly overweight, pre-diabetic, your diet is horrible and you don't exercise. You're going to be dead within three months and I don't want to be any part of it. You're fired." Suffice to say it was a wake up call for Randy.

As commercial real estate appraisers, what things do we ignore that we shouldn't? Are there warning signs due to our inaction that we are ignoring? I'm not necessarily talking about health (though it's one of my favorite topics,) but things in our career we know we should do, but we don't? For some it might be stalled out on the MAI track, for others it may be a reluctance to make the jump and start their own appraisal firm. For others it may be time to retire and move onto other life passions.

We tend to worry about the wrong things. The news is filled with horrible yet uber unlikely maladies that you will never experience in your lifetime. Yet we still seem to find time to worry about them. The odds are in your favor that you won't meet your demise due to Isis, Ebola or being on an airliner shot down over Ukraine. The more plausible, though much less drastic problems are somewhat in your control, your health. Here are the odds of leaving this mortal coil: Ebola is 1 in 1,967,150, Airplane Crash 1 in 8,335 vs. Heart Disease 1 in 7, Cancer 1 in 7 or Stroke 1 in 30. Stated differently, you're 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack.

A friend of mine who's a very smart and respected doctor is a rare physician that tells his patients the truth. One male patient of his kept complaining about back and knee pain, citing all sorts of maladies freshly found from a Google search. The doctor asked the patient, "Do you really want to know what your problem is?" The patient said "yes." The doctor said "look down, can your see your toes? No? That's your problem, you're fat!"

Too often in life, we don't want the truth. The "truth" can be annoying since it often involves effort and ultimately change on our part. It's more convenient to pretend, change the topic, hope it goes away, defer or attempt self-imposed amnesia. I think the long term viability of many commercial appraisal firms will require ongoing, consistent and varied sales activity.

Yes that dirty word "sales," it makes us appraisers cringe so much we have to pretend and call it "business development." I hate doing it, but what's weird is once I start, I'm like a heavy truck rolling downhill. Starts off slow and uneventful, but ultimately picks up steam and I almost like cold calls, setting up lunch appointments and general networking. Still can't bring yourself to "do sales?" Then hire someone that can, but makes sure you have metrics on their effectiveness.

Aristotle said, "We are what we repeatedly do." If you don't incorporate any sales in your daily or weekly activities, it will be a struggle for you. If you don't incorporate any exercise in your daily or weekly activities, it will be a struggle for you. Take baby steps and have a checklist of the number of any sales activity you do, such as cold calling new prospects, taking unsolicited inbound appraisal request calls or networking at various events. 

 

Just when we thought that 2014 could not get any weirder, Kim Jong-Un appeared in news headlines this week to ensure we get our annual dose of "strange" before the year comes to an end. According to multiple news outlets, including NBC, Sony Pictures Entertainment was the victim of a targeted malware campaign on November 24th that brought down U.S. based systems for a period of hours and also leaked several upcoming feature films online, including the remake of "Annie," which stars Cameron Diaz and is coming out in this month.

What does this mean for you? The FBI has issued a warning to U.S. businesses regarding the attack, which spreads itself through networks and compromises hard-drives on individual PC's, rendering them useless. There has not been any official release indicating that the malware used in the attack was a "new" type, although there are confidential details that are still under wraps. For small or medium businesses, this is good news and also a great reminder that adhering to best practices when it comes to your backup procedures and keeping your anti-virus and anti-malware software up to date are the best ways to protect your organization.

 

The attack is under investigation by the FBI and it is presumed to be retaliation from North Korea for Sony's production of the bro-mantic comedic film duo by Seth Rogan and James Franco, "The Interview." The film is an irreverent comedy chronicling the adventures of two journalists traveling to North Korea to interview Kim Jong-Un. Sony has commented that the attack will not affect or alter the release of the film, which will be in theaters this Christmas. Since the initial report of the film's release, Kim Jong-Un has threatened "merciless" consequences if the film is not banned in the U.S - although leaking "Annie" to the (surely vast) online Annie-fan-base-that-also-dabbles-in-media-piracy seems less "merciless" and more like throwing a water-balloon at a freight train.