Opinion: Real estate success is paved brick by brick

At the height of the Great Depression In 1932, Ole Kirk Christiansen, a Danish carpenter, had fallen on hard times. With few jobs available, he began crafting wooden toys in his workshop to make ends meet for his wife and three boys. It was a humble beginning for what would become one of the most iconic and beloved brands by people all over the world.

In the early years, the company produced a wide variety of dozens of wooden toys—yo-yos, model airplanes, toy trucks.  But after a factory fire destroyed their wood supply and production facilities, the company began experimenting with a new type of material — plastic.  Two years later, a simple and versatile “automatic binding brick” was born with great success.

By the 1950s, the company began narrowing its focus, discontinuing non-brick toys until only the little plastic brick remained as its core product. It was this pivotal decision that laid the foundation for building a toy empire.

Those tiny plastic bricks became the ubiquitous toy that kids played with and parents stepped on for decades to come.

By honing in on its most popular core product, Lego was able to rise from being an “all size fits no one” company, to a toy empire that provides fun and familiarity for kids to build and create.

Within these blocks lies a big lesson for Realtors and teams — focus.

To achieve endless success, Lego discovered that its iconic bricks were all it needed to succeed, and Realtors must apply the same logic, finding motivated people to serve is the product.

Each week, I meet with the most successful Realtors in the nation. What I find separates the good from the most wildly profitable and helpful, is their flirtation with that tempting mistress— distraction. In a noisy industry full of pandering proptechs, influencer marketing, costly seminars and TikTok, it’s hard to be Lego.

The successful teams that are often trying to break through the messy middle, always tell me that ‘selling real estate is simple’.  But when it comes to leading people, I find that’s where they tell me that complexity really sets in.  So recently, at Livian Mastermind I asked Gary Keller what he thought about the simple differences between selling and leading.

His answer?  “It’s all simple.”

“Once you decide to succeed through others, you and your people are doing the same thing. It looks exactly the same.” Keller said. “How many agents hitting their goals, on your team, do you have to have to hit your goals?  Then, each day go look for motivated people that you want to help be successful. That’s it. It’s all simple.”

The road to success is simple for both agents and leaders. It is built one brick at a time by focusing on finding and helping motivated people achieve their goals while ignoring all of the other toys.

Eric Forney is vice president and director of industry relations for LIvian.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:
Eric Forney at eric@livian.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Tracey Velt at tracey@hwmedia.com