Lots of books have been written about the secrets of success. Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: The Story of Success, professes that in order to achieve proficiency in a skill you must practice it for 10,000 hours. If that is the case, how do you explain the tech wizard who creates something in his parents' basement, and becomes an over-night success? I do not believe that the so called ‘tech wizard’ wakes up every morning to ritualize The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey.

There are exceptions to every theory of success, and by no means am I critiquing any of these successful researchers/authors. I am a huge fan of the science of success. In fact, I get a front row seat in the theatre of success watching so many of our top performers. Success comes in various sizes, shapes and tenures, and at RE/MAX Escarpment & Niagara, we are privileged to work with so many great REALTOR®s.

Our recent “The Real Deal" event included three renowned coaches - Kathleen Black, David Greenspan, and Mary-Anne Gillespie. It was interesting to see the different perspectives on how to be successful. Just look at their answers to the rapid fire questions (see chart).

December 2020 will definitely not be a traditional December. Celebrations this year will be different and the way we thank each other for helping in our success for 2020 will take a different shape, giving them new, impactful meaning in this unusual time.

So how do we plan for new success in 2021? How do we take the new trends that took shape in 2020 in our industry and apply them to the new year? I think the best way to describe the next phase of success is to just “work smart”. Never has this simple statement had so much meaning. Many of you have heard me make reference to myself as being ‘lazy’, but the thing is, I always try to find the fastest route between two points. This year, I’ve added another word to describe my working habits - ‘lazy surgeon’. Surgeons are the epitome of working smart. When you think of a surgeon they are very focused and work in very restricted circumstances. Not that the work I do is as important as a surgeon’s, but their focus has always inspired me.

Many people talk the good talk about working smart, but no one has articulated it better than Morten T. Hansen in his book Great at Work - The Hidden Habits of Top Performers. According to Hansen, when you work smart, you select a tiny set of priorities and make huge efforts in those chosen areas. This is a time to focus on your business, especially your lead generation channels, and target the most successful ones. Invest in what has been working over the past 6 months, and don’t become over confident about the momentum of the market. Most of all, do not be afraid to invest time, resources and the money that will result in the most success of these lead generating sources.

Morten goes on to say that it is important to focus on creating value, not just reaching preset goals. Many of us get bogged down in forecasting or setting goals based on just increasing numbers. Focusing on how to elevate your client experience goes a long way to building your business. And more importantly, making it a business which is all about attraction.

Think back through your entire career and start identifying some small and large things that had the greatest impact on your business. Remember the expression, ‘Do what you love’? Well forget it! That expression was created to make us all feel better when we achieved a level of success, so we could stop doing the things we hated doing. Ironically, those activities we love to hate are probably driving our business.

Hansen is a firm believer in identifying roles that contribute the most value to your business, and then farming out or delegating the other roles that just maintain your business. Let’s make the cornerstone of our 2021 plan all about not spreading ourselves too thin, and not obsessing over things we cannot control. Let’s make what we can control the obsession (whiners vs winners) by applying “intense targeted effort” on activities which move the needle in our businesses and our personal lives.

Here are five ways you can create value. (Some of you may disagree, and that's ok):

Stop the nonsense! - reduce activities which produce little or no value. Stop spending hours working on your generic news letter that you keep insisting people love to receive.

I want me more of that! - spend a focused amount of time on activities which produce high value. How are your rewarding your Superfans??? Put more resources into superfan recognition and reward the outcome you want from your superfans.

Deliver the unexpected. Create new systems and processes to bring about higher value.

Build up your 5 star ratings. Don’t just ask your clients to give you a great rating...compel them to.

Audit your successes and your failures and remember to build efficiencies wherever possible. Use online to enhance what you do offline.