The Dreaded Quota!

With the New Year comes new responsibility, and expectations!

This past Wednesday my weekly company meeting was one of victory and defeat? (Well, maybe defeat is a strong word.)

Before I get into the meeting let me give a quick synopsis on ME!


A 9-5 job has never appealed to me; even before real estate became my passion I could not fathom the idea of a "boss". Through my parents, friends and family members experience they seemed to be a nuisance. My father also always reminded my sisters and I that the ONLY way could prosper is to own your own business or be the CEO of another.


I’ve only had  two "real" jobs before. Alltel, where I sold cell phones and became the number 1 sales rep for our area, and Olan Mills, where I sold photos and became a top seller. I chose these 2 jobs because they were sales and sales are usually relaxed, and carefree. I learned early on that if I out sold everyone else I would become an asset to the company and a little harder to fire if I didn’t listen to any other rules.

I HATED doing anything other than selling! Having to compile numbers, record stats, clean up etc seem like a minion’s task. I purposely did not do anything but sell. Which worked, I got to just sell the product and the other, less important work got handed to another person.

Now I know that I should do the minion’s task, because they are a vital part of selling.


 Real estate is a very carefree job as far as bosses are concern. YOU agree to which brokerage you want to go with, YOU interview the broker and YOU agree to work with them. From my experience in regular brokerages they are very laid back and want you to sell, but if you don't it reflects poorly on you, and not too much on them. They can REQUEST you do something, but can’t reprimand you if you don't.

My dream, I thought.

With my new company I pursued them, and agreed abide by their rules. It’s a structured community who treats their employees like contract workers BUT strongly encourages certain things are done.

Ex. As a "regular" agent I make my own hours, whenever I get up I get up. At this company I have my own neighborhood and it has hours that say we are open. I am not forced to be here, but it is in my best interest that I am here for future clientele.

I think I got off topic enough; let’s get to Wednesday's meeting!

All before I never had a "quota" I would set a personal goal for myself and that was it. I was never told by a broker of what I should do. This year that is different.

I was given the task of selling 36 homes by my new broker. That may seem easy but let me put this into perspective for you.

My friend who was the number 1 closer for the same builder as me only closed 26 homes in 2010, in a brand new neighborhood!


During the Wednesday meeting I heard this number and completely shut down. I had personally made it my goal to sell out the rest of my neighborhood, maybe 20 or so more homes. Now I had to do 15 more?? In my head I loudly spoke "THAT SOUNDS GOOD!"

So after complaining to my parents, sister, friends, I decided to STOP! Complaining about this quota just got me more upset because I sounded like I was a self doubter! It had only been the first week of January and I was already telling myself that I couldn’t do something.

So instead of focusing on this number I'm going to focus on selling! If I don’t meet the number then oh well! Historically I have done well when I’ve had no pressure so I’m going to pretend like I don’t have any now and see what happens....It’s only the second week of January and 36 more houses to go!


*Oh yea, Wednesday was a day of victory because I won a month long competition at work for the most booked appointment and received a $250 gift card!! 

-Premature Millionaire

I'm looking forward to the memories of right now...

Laissez faire!


Up until 2011 I had been living my life with this old adage. Aside from its political meaning, this personally means that I attribute all my good AND bad fortunes to fate, or an uncontrollable series of events. This takes my actions out of the equation so when something doesn’t end up the way I would prefer it I could simply say "it was not meant to be". Up until now it has worked, not flawlessly but nonetheless. I recently decided that from now on I want to take ownership for the way things go whether good or bad.

With age MAY come maturity, but with failure experience is destined to follow. I haven’t failed, but I have stumbled (in my eyes). I will not dwell on things that I can no longer change, what's done is done (another adage that allows me to rebound from mishaps quickly).

So on the 31st of December I wrote down my New Years Resolution (my first). I don’t know what the "rule" is on sharing these resolutions so I will keep them to myself for the time being but I’m certain they will reveal themselves in the year as it passes. They are typical goals that are obtainable yet difficult. From work related, to personal fitness (have to throw that in!), to mental growth etc.

This New Year comes with many resolutions, hopes and promises of a better year.

I've never known first hand of the real estate economy in a better place but I hear this year will be better for all who are associated with this business. (A Realtor I know said that he and his wife previously closed 8 homes a month prior to the recession and in 2010 closed 1 home every 3 months-an indication of the times.)  The National Association of Realtors projects a 20% increase in new homes sales, lets hope they are right, lets hope they are right, being that that is my field.


This year feels like it will be an epic one for me, as far as my personal growth and career. I’ve never let the overall economy dictate what I am capable of so I don’t think I will start to now. I feel like everything has been in preparation for now, so while I won’t be cliché and say "2011 is MY year" I WILL say that years from now I will look back at these memories that I'm creating as being some of my best, but definitely not my last!


-Pemature Millionaire