THOUGHTS ON LEADERSHIP: ALL IN

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me in Las Vegas for the 2019 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Sales Convention, which was a three-day-long extravaganza of education, networking and fun. The theme for this year’s Sales Convention was ALL IN, and throughout the event, we discussed the phrase to figure out exactly how it applies to our brand, our industry and our professional growth. As mentioned onstage, ALL IN must take on a higher and more noble meaning. Being ALL IN in real estate begins with being ALL IN with ourselves. We cannot help others until we know how to help and care for ourselves.

Caring for ourselves, however, doesn’t just include following a lifestyle that’s conducive to good health or creating a business that thrives in a competitive marketplace; it also means possessing the right kind of mindset that’s positive, selfless and constantly evolving. A person who cares for herself or himself always strives to exist in a state of continuous improvement. (Remember, complacency is the most insidious disease in the world. It just sits up on your shoulder and tells you whatever you’re doing is OK. Smugness comes before arrogance and arrogance is the precursor to disaster. Once you think you know it all, your slide to mediocrity has already begun.)

One of the most crucial ways to possess a winning and evolving mindset is to celebrate your wins. These celebrations, no matter how small, create inspiring experiences in your mind that propel you to find reasons to celebrate yet again. If you only focus on your failures and downfalls, they become the metrics by which you’ll measure your career, and no career can succeed when evaluated using failure as its guiding ruler. This is why to celebrate is to construct meaningful points of motivation that propel you upward to the attainment of your Wildly Important Goals. The pitfalls and stumbles aren’t calculated in a celebratory-based measurement system for success.

Sales Convention itself is a grand example of celebrating wins. We celebrate our brand, which means announcing new technology, new marketing, (like our brand-new Cabernet frames) and new franchisees. We celebrate diversity and a culture of inclusion that brings us together. We celebrate our collective knowledge during University sessions. We celebrate each other, with awards received for extraordinary accomplishments. And finally, we just plain celebrate, this year at the REVEL theme party and the Sunshine Kids benefit concert featuring Gwen Stefani. To see the 2019 SpokesKids smiling and dancing onstage with the superstar is what real celebration is all about.

In a moment of retrospection, this blog post itself is a celebration and written proclamation of my unending gratitude for the tremendous work done by the people who make Sales Convention possible. Vice President of Global Conference and Meeting Services Denise Doyle, her team, Corporate Magic Founder/CEO Jim Kirk and the Corporate Magic team put together an unforgettable experience in Las Vegas and continue to prove why Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices produces the very best events in the real estate industry.

Thank you also to all HSF Affiliates team members who traveled to Las Vegas to help us run this show. Every morning as I was getting my 5 a.m. coffee, I’d see our team members smiling on their way to their assigned duties. Our top franchise sales directors, attorneys and CPAs held up directional signs for hours; vice presidents checked in attendees at our networking receptions. There were no ranks at Sales Convention. Everyone from every department and level of our organization did whatever it took to get the job done. Team, I salute your willingness to serve our attendees.

So, what’s the message? Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Warren Buffett once said: “Most people go through life using up a very, very small part of their full potential.” And luckily, there’s an easy fix. If we commit to dwelling less on our losses and celebrating more of our wins, then we’ll forever be on the path toward leveraging our full potential, living a life that’s defined by being ALL IN.