“No one has ever become poor… giving.”

-Anne Frank

There is something in the human DNA that makes us feel good when we give to others. Even the simplest act–opening a door for a stranger, letting the car in front of you merge in traffic, or buying a coffee for a friend—can be enough to change our mood, and the mood of those around us. As much as we are all different, the intention to give is a rewarding force that’s wired into each of us.

While years of practice and reinforcement can make it easy to remember to open a door for someone, our intention to give can easily slip when we head to work. Whether it’s stress, competition or the high stakes of daily performance, it can be easy to inadvertently leave our good intentions at the office door, and shift instead to the intention to receive.

Receiving vs. Giving
As real estate professionals, the intention to receive takes over when we begin thinking about our needs. We begin to focus on doing another sale, making another commission, breaking another sales record, making a lot of money, paying the bills, or buying an expensive car.

The intention to give looks entirely different. When you truly care about helping another family find their dream home, and you want to make the transaction as easy and as stress-free as possible, then your intention is to give. When you’re committed to helping a seller get the most amount of money for their home, with the least inconvenience in the shortest period of time, you’re intention is to give.

Where Trust Begins
What’s interesting is that intention itself is invisible—it’s neither seen nor heard. But it can be felt, and when it is, it creates another invisible companion that’s critical to sales success: trust. When people feel that you have their best interest at heart, they trust you. When they know you’ll do the right things for the right reasons, they’ll find themselves wanting to do business with you because of that invisible sense of trust—sometimes without even being able to explain it.

As one of my great mentors Jim Rohn said, though: We don’t get in life what we want, we get in life who we are.  Jim claims that success is not something to be pursued, but something that you attract by the person you are.

If the person you are is the sum of your intentions, then that means intention is something we can’t afford to leave at the door.  It can’t be just something we focus on when it’s convenient.  It’s something we need to do day in, day out.  It’s the difference between the good and the great.   

Until next time, make it count!

Richard