How a Pile of Puckey Taught me to be an Optimist

I remember the day I become a positive person. I was about 7, and snuggled up on the back dashboard of my parents yellow and white Studebaker. Looking for animals shapes in the clouds as we rumbled through the hills of Mt. Shasta , returning from our yearly trek to Seattle.

My jokester Dad was at the wheel.

"Ya ever hear the one about the twins who both wanted a pony? "

"No, Dad.. tell it".

"Both twins wanted a pony in the worst way. Yearned for one. Would do anything just to get one. Once day they were brought to a barn door, chockful of horse puckey. (I'm sure he said shit, but Iet's pretend he didn't swear in front of a 7 year old.) The first twin started bawling. "Why that's nothin but a bunch of puckey.... WWHAAAAA I wanted a pony... WWhhAAAAAAA.....

"The second twin grabbed a shovel and started shoveling for all she was worth. Between huffs and puffs she gasped out 'With all this horse puckey, there's GOT to be a pony in there SOMEWHERE!!!!'.

"And that's the difference between an optimist and a pessimist", he said. "It's all in how you see things. You got a choice"

My little 7 year old brain latched onto that one. Hmmm, I'ld rather believe there a pony in there. You can choose how to look at things. The glass can be half full, or half empty.... Hmmm. I like that.

I thought of my Mom on our yearly trips to Seattle during the broiling valley heat. Wet dishrags tucked into the windows to mimic the air conditioning we didn't have. She'd say "It could be worse. Aren't we lucky we brought dish rags?"

Driving through the flammable fields of dry dead grass on either side of the road..."Don't you just love the shimmering golden hills of California? We're so lucky. Look how the breeze billows patterns into those fields. It's art, I tell you." Hmm... never noticed. Before.

Now I can't see a dry field without thinking of my Mom's viewpoint. And marveling at the beauty. It may have been a child's decision to make my Dad happy. It may have been a way to make teachers like me. Or to be like my Mom. Who cares. I made the choice. And it's stuck with me my whole life.

Now, every time I hear someone whine about the market, and how it sucks, and how much equity we have lost, I think of horse puckey... "Yeah, but think of the buyers who are being offered the golden ticket". Complaints of interest going above 5%???"You gotta be kidding.... it could be 8%.... 5's a gift."

It's all in how you look at it.

There's a silver lining to every cloud.

If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

And ya can't teach old dogs new tricks..... Now I'm stuck with it.

Life is good.

flickr photos by Jason0Morrison and VisualPanic

Bummed Out... Focus on 2020 Vision

Brad Paisley has a killer song out called "Letter To Me" where he writes a letter to himself at 17. He tells his young self it's not the end, now that he's been dumped by his girlfriend. Oh, and be sure to fill up the tank for your date with Bridgett... "on second thought that one turns out all right". Be sure and thank Mrs. Bringham for seeing the rough diamond underneath and polishing you til you shined. It's a tear jerker, for sure.

But his capper is the best part.. wait til you see you wife and kids.. you wont believe how great they are. These are nowhere near the best years of your life!

Now zap the message into our lives today. The economic situation we're in is only for today. It's temporary. It's just the crap we're going thru for now. We have great years ahead. We will look back on what we are going thru today and realized how much we learned.

* Our kids were able to learn that easy money doesn't last
* Prices don't go up forever and maybe our home is not an investment... it's our HOME.
* That you should consider ALL variables when you make a big decision, (like that you may not be able to refi when the ARM adjusts)
* We've learned to love board games and Family Friday Nights
* We've learned to be OK without our nails done (have you looked at a group of business women lately... plain nails!)
* We've learned it's pretty fun to go to Lake Tahoe instead of Hawaii on vacation... or to stay home and chill.
*We've learned to be open about our finances... which is unbelievable... that's good!
*We've learned to live within a budget... maybe we CAN clean our own pool.
*We've looked at our "conspicuous consumption" and questioned the "stuff" we've bought... who can believe what we have accumulated... mostly that we didn't need. And look where it's gotten us.

Fast forward to the year 2020. Do you think you will be looking at the same crap as today? Heck, no! It will be different! Things will change. You will have new grandkids, new spouses (if you are married and said "yay"... slap yourself), different jobs, different joys, new challenges, new talents you discovered, and a whole new and exciting world to discover. What we're facing today, is just for today.

So buck up, deal with it, and don't take it all so seriously. And go download Brad Paisley's "Letter to Me" on iTunes... it's only 99 cents. Then write yourself a letter from yourself in 2020 about how this stuff won't last. It's nowhere near the best years of our lives.

Flickr Photos by a.drian, dotbenjamin, zpinkster

Get Out of the Rabbit Hole, Before it Becomes a Sinkhole!

It was Valentines morning. I had just read two articles in the Sacramento Bee. One about a woman, employed a few months ago, who was just "evicted" from her car for failure to pay registration fees - it had become her only home after she couldn't pay for her rental. She's now homeless.


The second, about a family who moved to Boise after a job loss, hoping to scrape together the money to buy an old RV or trailer to live in, as they couldn't make ends meet. They were hoping to find an affordable trailor park.


I got depressed.... On Valentines morning, as my sweetie was frying up the spuds for a wonderful breakfast.

As my mind went down the rabbit hole of doom and gloom and "the end is near" thoughts, I fa
st forwarded to our losing our house when the entire economy collapses, that I never have another buyer again because they will all be living in Boise in a Happy Trails RV Camp. Life is over... the subprime snafu..... Blah, blah, blahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...... .Oh My God, STOP IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...........


I suddenly swerved to miss this mental pothole, which was beginning to look like a sinkhole.
Then I remembered.... I've got.....


Buyer "A" is biting at the bit to find a home for him and his sweetie - to get out of their cramped apartment. He has saved up over $30K to be ready for this... living at home with Mom and Dad.


Buyer "B" has a giant down payment ready, and is proposing to his sweetie today, then prepared to offer on one of 4 perfect homes we've found, once his soon-to-be-betrothed picks her favorite. His company has a huge pool of money available for employees to get home loans from.... They're pretty strong.


Buyer "C" can't wait to find his perfect home, with room for his 2 RV's, room for his live-in daughter and two kids, and a master downstairs - They are pre-approved and SOOO ready to go. We just need to find the home.


Seller "A" is relocating to So Cal in a few months, and counting on me to sell her home.
Seller "B" has moved to Arizona, and waiting for me to sell their home after the rehab is finished (It almost is)


GET TO WORK, YOU BOZO........


OK.... I'm back to happy land. I've quit licking my wounds about how miserable this economy is. It is what it is. Life goes on. This too shall pass. I can focus on the desperate situations out there (and there's a lot of them), or on the job to be done to help my clients. For the 10% (or whatever) of homes facing foreclosure, 90% are not. (I don't have the patience right now to look up the accurate stats, so just get the point!) For the huge number of homes upside down... the rest are not. Of the 70% of Americans thinking about the interest rate on their home loans, 30% don't even have loans! For every seller losing their home in foreclosure, there's a buyer getting a great deal on a first time purchase or an investment. It's all dependent on which side you focus on.

Every day we choose whether to be productive or whether to get sucked into negativity. Every minute we choose to go down the gloomy rabbit hole of "It's so awful", or HOP up into the sunshine of the positive.

I do peak into that gloomy rabbit hole periodically, but only enough to know I don't want to set up house there. I have buyers to help, sellers to help, homes to go find, statistics to analyse, classes to attend, systems to perfect. Hell, I've even got a song to finish writing for a talent show.

Life IS good... and sometime it's not..... but mostly it IS!

A Full Day of Motivation...

Yesterday I went to the all-day "Get Motivated" Seminar at ARCO Arena - the one with Colin Powell, Rudy Guliani, Michael Phelps, Steve Phelps, Zig Ziglar and more. It was awesome. People are feeling so down these days, I wanted to share some of the highlights for me.

Steve Forbes - "The world can only end once, and this isn't it". While this is a time of pain and loss for many, it is a time of great opportunity for others. Focus on the opportunity. During this time we will see small players rise to be the big players. Who had ever heard of Oracle, Apple and Microsoft before they became big? Those who sit and lick their wounds are going to miss the great opportunities that are out there.


Forbes also said to quit reading the negative news, because we then believe that's all there is. There are tremendous innovations coming, yet we don't read about them. He mentioned a bundle of fibers inserted in a straw, that has the power to sanitize filthy water by the time it reaches the lips. Life-changing for a 3rd-world country! There's good stuff out there. Let's focus on that.

Colin Powell -What a guy. Very funny... and loose. Whodathunkit? He says there is an emptiness after coming down from such a lofty position as Secretary of State ... so he bought a Corvette. It worked! Seriously, he says he leads his life looking through the windshield, not the rear-view mirror. And though he has met with all the world leaders and had a 747 at his disposal, he focuses on what's to come, not what he used to be. And he listens to his wife!


Zig Ziglar was the emotional hot button for the day. He got a head injury in a fall 2 years ago, and now has short term memory loss and vertigo. But that man has a smile permanently etched into his 82 year old face that lights up a room. With his daughter lovingly guiding him back to the story at hand, and away from his 3rd repetition of others, Zig spoke of how doing the right thing is always what has worked in his life. And how the way to have success is to help other people get what they want. He talked about how money will buy you a house, but not a home... a bed, but not a good night's sleep... a companion, but not a friend. He showed us his "Wall of Gratitude", with photos of those who have inspired and helped him along the way. While it was sad to see his decline, it inspired me to see an 82 year old icon still giving, and sharing his wonderful attitude. And still cracking jokes. When his daughter stopped him as he ramped up into his 2nd rendition of a story, he'ld crack "but there were 3 people in the 2nd row that were sleeping. They need to hear it again."

Rudy Guliani - Spoke about leadership. And he reflected on not letting failure get you down, because it is inevitable. "Leadership is about managing failure". In these times, with so many people being forced to let go of their dreams, this seemed poignant.

And fear? Who isn't facing fear right now... if not for themselves, for someone they love? "If you are not afraid, you should be in therapy", he said. "But use the fear to guide you to minimize your failure." Well said. Build up your preparedness for what you fear. Use it to motivate you, not paralyze you.

Guiliani also spoke of 4 hours of preparation for every hour of performance, so you are equipped to adjust to unexpected events. 911 was not specifically prepared for. But each of the emergency responses he ordered came from a portion of a preparedness plan they had in place for a different disaster. He was an awesome speaker.

And the highlight of the day?... Michael Phelps. My friend pulled her 10 year old swimmer daughter out of school for the day. She wanted to see her hero enough to sit through Rudy, Steve, Zig, Colin and other speakers on finances, the stock market etc. Not fodder for a 10 year old, believe me. But she finagled a front-row seat for Michael, wide eyed and full of hope. Michael spoke of how he trained every day for 5 years without a single day off. How he had wanted this forever, and how the nay-saying articles just became the backdrop in his locker that inspired him daily to do what "couldn't be done". He acknowledged making mistakes along the way, but that he has learned from each one. It was clear he is not one to let adversity stop him. He spoke of the race when his goggles filled with water, so he improvised by counting the strokes he had done a bazillion times. He knew where the end was. And he won gold. It was clear he has the attitude of a champion to take what comes (whether self-inflicted or imposed by fate) and make adjustments to what is. He proved Rudy right... 4 hours (or 4,000 in his case) of preparation will give you the knowledge to make adjustments when disaster hits.

It was an inspiring day... so pertinent to our life. In Sacramento, and the rest of the country, people are losing their homes, losing their jobs, making sacrifices. But, keep looking ahead, and face your fears. Shore yourself up to avoid catastrophe when that which you fear happens. And keep practicing and getting better, so you can shift and make adjustments when the unexpected happens.

Flickr photos by Photograham, xDaniel, GTM Photography, Parker Young Photography, xtrapopp, and Marcopako