The Art of Selling- When It Comes Down To Mind Over Matter

"Adversity doesn't build character, it reveals it" is one of my favorite sayings.

I've had many discussions over the years with folks who take the opposite view believing that when bad stuff happens it forges an intestinal fortitude that allows us to cope and carry on.  Perhaps both sides are right and it's really a "chicken or an egg" thing that can never be proven,  but in this crazy economic cycle were in right now I'm running into a lot of people who, by their actions when things get tough, must never have faced a single day of adversity in their life.

I'll try and make my point using weather as a metaphor without going to "Zen" on you, well maybe a little. 

Neither you nor I can control the weather.  When there is a snow day that shuts down everything, kids rejoice, while parents who need to miss work or scramble for child care do not. Rain is great when the farmers need it for the crops and devastating when the flood waters burst through levies. 100 degree days are fantastic for people to enjoy pool party, yet miserable when you are in the yard pouring a cement patio.

Weather in itself is neither good nor bad. It is up to us in our decision of how we choose to weather our personal storms and whether they leave us stronger and more resolute or weakened and cowering until the next one.

In the same way, as a seller today you must accept that adversities are going to come your way, just like the waves of the ocean. Expectations you have in terms of price might not be met.  The nest egg you were counting may have shrunk or disappeared altogether.  Appraisals can come in low killing your deal.  Buyers can fail to qualify even though you got the pre-approval letter at the time you signed the contract.  And more.  All you can really do about them is learn to ride them out, or sometimes simply wipe out, get back on your board, and start again.  What other choice is there really?

Which is why I believe that given all that our market has and will yet go through, if you are or will be in it, it is not really what happens to you that matters as much as your response to what happens and how you handle it that is the true measure of a person's character, and the ultimate arbiter of how good or bad things end up.