realonomics

Circa 1989-90, I met Ron and Brad for a dinner meeting and some discussion about the future. I had been working as a real estate sales person in their company for several months and they wanted to talk about a new position they were creating within their company, General Sales Manager. It was a new position and they, for reasons unknown, spotted something in me that prompted cause for discussion and perhaps a plan for the future. Little did I know this was the beginning of my lessons learned from Ron.

As we sat around the table I was struck by the humble qualities that were obviously a part of Ron’s personality; later I would come to know these were, indeed, his very soul…his core. At the same time there was an equally obvious inner strength…a power, not created or sustained by showmanship, but by some mixture of midwest ethos, coupled with old fashioned virtue. It was easy to spot, easy to like.

Ron was my first Designated Broker. He and Brad were going to be my new bosses, or at least that was the intention. We crafted the agreement on a napkin, so to speak, and later converted it to a short 2 page document that was never reviewed by counsel and perhaps only once by any of us. Ron was easy to trust and that was the first lesson I learned from Ron; trustworthiness.

My next 4-5 years were spent working as the General Sales Manager of a growing company, learning how to “herd the cats” (real estate agents), set up budgets, manage cash flow, train, recruit, institute new MLS computer systems, move existing offices, open new offices and more. It was during this time that my observations of and encounters with Ron hammered away at my management psyche. Things were simple to Ron, not complex. Most things didn’t need a lot of analysis, especially problems with people.

On one occassion, I went to Ron at the end of a work day with a management problem that I believed was insurmountable and potentially disasterous. As I now recall the moment, whatever the situation was, it was further aggravated by my own emotional state of mind. Ron, after listening to me for ten minutes, simply replied, “go on home, have a Scotch, go to bed and tomorrow when the sun comes up things will be different” and with that he rose from his chair, notebook in hand, flipped off the light and said, “time to call it quits for today.” Ron was right…things were always different the next morning. And I have never forgotten this lesson I learned from Ron.

Ron taught me many other lessons too. They were always about me without him saying so; about how I was reacting, what I needed to NOT do…that’s right “NOT DO” in order to successfully manage a real estate company. Not doing something became for me the end game. To not do…another lesson I learned from Ron.

What does all of this have to do with the message and meaning of REALonomics, its quest for Model Perfect, its analysis of economic models and trends we face as owners in the consumer-centric era? The short answer is a lot.

To a large degree the real estate business and the execution of its business models is a management conumdrum. At the nucleus of every owner’s business model lies a set of core principles that align its operating planets. For Ron, without him saying so, it was always about alignment of ones own confident self against the essentially transparent issues of any moment.

For each of you out there let me share the abridged version of the many lessons I learned from Ron:

• Create business climates where trust comes easy and from the top first
• Make initial agreements on napkins then later, no more than two pages
• Wait until tomorrow morning, things will look different
• Look for the thing(s) you should “not do” - not doing is a kind of doing
• Keep the planets aligned to your own compus…your core

Here they are, the Lessons I learned from Ron. Trust, simplicity, patience, things not to do and alignment.

The principles I learned from Ron are too numerous to share in a blog. They cover the gamut from the simple to the complex…a-z…even north to south.

The owner’s economic model is not nearly as important as his/her core model. This is what I learned from Ron.

And, I ask, what have you learned and from whom? Please share it with the readers by commenting.

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