Changing directions



 I had started this post talking about the paperwork that I needed to complete in order to get my license reactivated and transferred to the new company, but before that little essay was polished, the transfer came through. Frankly, it gave me pause more than I realized it would. Suddenly, the name of the company I was working for was not my own. It’s been a long time since that was the case.


Those who know me well know that I am, to put it lightly, of the entrepreneurial sort. I like calling my own shots. Those who don’t, shall we say, respect me so much, say I have a problem with authority. Long story short, I don’t really like being told what to do, or how to do it. I would much prefer to make my own way in the world, making my own mistakes along the way and learning from them. I have always liked the freedom of being my own boss. Now, with this new arrangement, there is technically a new boss above me. Why would I do this?

In a word, efficiency.

Trust me, my new broker and I had a conversation about how independent I could be. It’s important to me to be able to deal with my clients as if I owned the business, because really I do.

Part of owning a business, of course, is making it run. There is only so much that one person can do before the time or money is depleted. The harder one works to make the business run, the less time there is to get the clients to work with. It’s a vicious cycle. Doing all the jobs is almost a guarantee that none of them will be completed well.

That can be very frustrating, when one has a clear vision of the business he hopes to build. The destination is always on the other side of a canyon, and the bridge is always under repair. That’s why I was so excited to come across this new firm, Equity Colorado. Their vision of what a real estate brokerage should look like meshes closely with mine, and what’s important is that they have already built it. All that was left for me was to join them, and let them take over all the back-office stuff that was consuming me. Now, I can focus on working with clients, which is what I should be doing. This new arrangement is like finding a brand-new bridge over the canyon, allowing me to get where I want to go with my real estate business.

Yes, it means that my name will no longer be “on the door,” but it means that now I can point my focus where it rightfully belongs. Sometimes, we just need to go a different route to get where we are going.



The hardest thing in life to learn is which bridge to cross and which to burn. -- David Russell