Be the Bucket

Early in my real estate career, I joined a real estate team.

The man running it could talk. Fast, confident, the kind of guy you're agreeing with before you've thought about it. Big promises. Big energy.

Looking back, I should have known the difference right away. I'd already had two of the best bosses a man can have.

The first was a Kansas farmer. First time he put me in a tractor, my hands were shaking on the wheel. He didn't take over. He grabbed a five-gallon bucket, sat down next to me in the cab, and stayed there until I could drive it myself.

The second was a Navy chief. He watched me work one day. One. Then he went and put in paperwork to keep me in his division.

Neither of them gave a speech. They just showed up and did what they said they'd do.

The team was the opposite. I'm not going to tell you the details, because they don't matter anymore.

What matters is what I learned, and it's something you can use.

The first ten minutes

You will meet both kinds of people. A boss, a contractor, a coach, somebody you're about to go into business with. And in the first ten minutes, the microphone kind will always look better than the bucket kind. That's the whole trick.

So don't judge the first ten minutes. Judge what happens after.

Did they do the small thing they said they'd do? Did they stay in the cab when it would've been easier to leave? Did they go to bat for you when nobody was watching?

The bucket kind is slow to promise and quick to deliver. The microphone kind is the reverse.

And here's the part that took me longer to figure out: somebody is watching you the same way. Your kids. The new guy at work. The person who just moved here and doesn't know anybody.

You get to pick which one you are for them.

Be the bucket.

Now you know who you're dealing with

A ring in a beer bottle. A hundred-dollar dog. A farmer on a bucket. A sign against a tree. A woman named Margaret. One road. A morning at zero.

I told you at the start that if I'm going to help you with the biggest decision of your life, you deserve to know who you're dealing with.

Now you do.