It wasn’t one of my proudest moments. I was in the 11th grade.
3 of my buddies were trying out for the school basketball team. Now understand that none of the 4 of us were “jocks” by anybody’s definition.
I knew there was little to no chance they would make the team.
After they did their team tryouts, the results were announced on who made the team and the new roster was put on a large white-board in the school main lobby for all to see.
When I found out they didn’t make the team, I caught up with them in-between classes and said in a snarky tone, “I see you guys didn’t make the team..”.
One of them looked me square in the eyes and said something that changed everything for me from that day forward…
“Yeah, well Carl, at least we tried!”
Wham! There was that!
It was not normal for me to have said such a “jerky” thing in the first place, but the lesson I got back from him was invaluable.
If we try and don’t get, well, we have nothing to lose.
We didn’t have that “thing” we tried for in the first place, so by trying to get it, it doesn’t make it any worse if we don’t get it.
But if we try and do get “it”, well, we get the benefit without any of the risks (nothing to lose).
For instance, let’s say I call the listing agent on a deal I’m doing to see about them sending me their next buyer lead, if I don’t call I have ZERO chance of that happening.
If I call that listing agent with the “Just Ask” script, well, some will start referring to us.
So the worst case scenario is you ask and they say “no thank you”, the best case scenario is you ask, and they refer to you, and you make yet another $3,000 (or whatever your typical closing check is).
So worse case scenario: you have what you already have (none of his / her deals).
Best case scenario: You start cashing $3,000 checks.
So when my buddy said “At least we tried…”, it flipped a switch in me to start swinging for the fences. I never looked back and I’m so grateful for that day.
I’m reasonably sure he may not remember that day many years ago now, but I wish I could catch up with him these days and thank him for that moment. It’s made all the difference.
So what’s the take home message today?
Point to the left field fence and let’s take a swing of that bat and give it all we have.
Afterall, we have nothing to lose.
Talk Soon!