Proving is hard

Proving you’re a great agent is a rough go.

We work so hard to show people how great we are. If only they knew all the stuff we know, all the stuff we do, how much we care, etc. We also are doing this, sometimes, to prove to ourselves that we are worthy. It’s exhausting.

Actor Jason Bateman was on Conan O’Brian’s podcast sharing about being a child actor and how hard the transition was to becoming a successful adult actor.

He shared that in his 20’s he was often playing two roles when he went on auditions. The obvious one was the role he was auditioning for. What was not obvious at the time: the pretense he played walking into the audition. He was trying to be cool - but not too cool. He wanted the part - but didn’t want it too much. He realized that he was never being himself because he was always playing a part, and that was exhausting! Worse...it didn’t work!

Amos Tversky was an Israeli cognitive and mathematical psychologist and a key figure in the discovery of systematic human cognitive bias and how we approach risk. The work he did with Daniel Kahneman earned the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002. Tversky was often the smartest person in the room, with an uncanny wit and remarkable one-liners, one of which was recounted in Michael Lewis’ book, The Undoing Project.

“It is sometimes easier to make the world a better place than to prove you have made the world a better place.” - Amos Tversky

Here’s my point as a real estate professional: It is definitely easier to be a great agent than to prove you are one.

There’s well over a million real estate agents in the US. How many are going around “auditioning” for clients, neither being themselves nor getting the business?

Just be you.