Finding Your Big Why
Finding your Big Why is the first step to success.
As Gary says in The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, “High achievers always have a Big Why!” A Big Why powers your daily routine. It motivates you to do the activities and hard work that lead to results. A Big Why gives you purpose, a mission, or a need that in turn gives you focus.
Bigger than a Number
Maybe you’ve never expected the source of your fulfillment to come during working hours. Instead, your career might be means to an end. If you’ve read The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, hopefully you paid attention to the statement on the cover: “It's not about the money... It's about being the best you can be!”
It’s OK if you have a target salary, but your financial goal should be rooted in something deeper than just acquiring wealth for wealth’s sake. Do you need that money to fund your dreams of world travel? What about being able to send your child to the country’s top schools? Those aspirations are the basis for a Big Why that will fuel your fire for years to come.
Although “why’s” are often aspirational, a Big Why has teeth. Ask yourself hat happen if you didn’t achieve your goals. If your answer is, “Oh, I would just keep saving or spend a little less and try again next year,” then your Why is not BIG enough. You have more work to do. There’s no real reason to keep knocking on doors. But if your goal is to make more than $100,000 a year so that you can afford to pay your daughter’s tuition at Juilliard so she can achieve her dreams of becoming a world-renowned conductor and not going just isn’t an option, that sticks. That’s BIG. There is a consequence to failing. You must host those open houses.
Focus in service to a larger purpose can lead to extraordinary financial success as a consequence. In their 2016 research, Patrick Hill, Nicholas Turiano, Daniel Mroczek, and Anthony Burrow found that “our dispositional characteristics influence how we make daily and long-term decisions in ways that either facilitate or hinder our ability to accrue wealth.” The ability to form a sense of purpose was the primary characteristic these researchers focused on when measuring net worth and income. Participants who made purpose the driving force behind long-term decisions were better able to envision long-term goals, set occupational or personal objectives, and fulfill their financial goals. For this reason, whether you’re a rookie or a veteran agent, a Big Why will increase your productivity by helping have more focus. It may also have the side effect of making your life more fulfilling, too. After all, money is only good for the good it can do.
Unlock Your Passions, Find Purpose
What passion led you to real estate? Maybe your dream has always been to sell houses. You’re a salesperson at heart and have a passion for transactions. It gives you a thrill to see signatures on dotted lines.
Or, more likely, you choose real estate above any other sales job because a component of the industry brings you joy. Maybe you’re like Jay Papasan, and deep down you crave impact: to make a lasting, positive impression on individuals or the world. You love empowering people by teaching them about current market conditions or setting them on the path toward lasting generational wealth. Maybe you’re an outdoorsy type and your Big Why is spending as little time locked behind a desk as possible. Whatever the reason, your purpose is probably hiding in these passions.
If you don’t already have a Big Why, you can begin your journey to unlocking it by identifying the day-to-day activities that make you happy. Once you’ve identified these moments, do you notice anything they may have in common? What may they ladder up to?
To help you on this journey, you can download the above graphic here under “The Millionaire Real Estate Agent” tab.
You can use this model to organize your “whys” and place the most important at the top.
Crucial to Your Success
The truth is people can tell when you don’t have a Big Why. If you are caught up in whether someone says yes or no, if your only concern is getting a name signed on a dotted line and collecting a check, you’re not going to get very far. That’s because a “little why” won’t provide the necessary mojo to power a Big Life. A fiduciary goes above and beyond, and you’ll never be able to do that unless your heart is really in it. When you discover what your passion is behind getting someone into a home of their own, you can provide the service needed to be a fiduciary and get on the right path to achieving success.
Now, at the beginning this new year, there’s no better time to re-focus your priorities around a new or more powerful Big Why. It’s also a great time to go revisit and master business basics. That’s why KellerINK has completely top-graded its MREA Book Club materials and partnered with KWU Master Faculty to bring you a deep-dive into the core models, concepts, and habits from the Millionaire Real Estate Agent. Join us each Thursday at 3 p.m. CST starting Jan. 11 until Feb. 15 as we travel the path of mastery with MREAs like Gene Rivers, Linda McKissack, John Prescott, and more.
What’s your Big Why? Don’t have one? What steps will you take this week to try and find it? Let us know on our KellerINK Facebook page. And don’t forget to subscribe to our KellerINK newsletter. Interested in joining us for the MREA Book Club? Time block it on your calendar and register now!