The Abundant Agent

In my organization, we combat the misquotation "money is the root of all evil" with the quote "money is good for the good it can do."  And that is true to an extent. However this also becomes distorted by a belief that a business becomes good if the business gives to charity.  However, as Jeff VanDuzer says, "a bank robber can tithe (the judeo-christian practice of giving 10% of income to God)." The bigger truth is that righteously earned money is good for the good it can do, and blood money will always be blood money.  You can't open enough orphanages to make right cheating your customers, abusing your employees, and defaulting to your vendors. A godly business already enriches the world around it, then doubles those riches by generous giving from the surplus.

We can smell something is off when this view is played out in reality. Imagine a world where a drug-dealer runs a highly profitable business. He runs an efficient organization with effective sales people,...

Self-Assessment--What Value is my Work

Who benefits from my work/ business?  Be specific. Think of who is directly affected (eg Bob the customer) AND who is indirectly affected (Bob’s family, Bob’s neighborhood, Bob’s employees).  It’s not just your clients and customers who benefit from your business and work. Think of your employees, managers, bosses. Consider your vendors, neighbors, networks. Don’t forget the non-human beneficiaries of your business--the earth, the environment, plants, and animals. 

Why is anyone paying me in the first place?  What is the value and richness of life that the people paying me get?  Someone is giving you money in exchange for something, what is it? By the way, if you sell a product, it’s NOT the product, it’s what the product does for them. No one, and I mean NO ONE, wants a car. They want transportation, freedom, status, nostalgia, something...but not a car. This is why new sales...

Understand your Value

One of the most influential ideas in the late 20th-Century became for many the final verdict on a centuries old debate about the purpose of business.  Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman wrote in his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, and more popularly in a 1970 article in New York Times Magazine, “There is one and only one social responsibility of business — to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits….”  And with that, the purpose of business for most became clear: profit, profit, profit.

But this is a lie!  

Lie #1- The Profit-as-Purpose Lie.

Now let's get something straight, a business MUST be profitable--this is a necessary condition. If your business isn’t profitable, we don’t need to spend too much time talking about your mission, because you won’t have one for long.  But profit is not the PURPOSE of your business. How do we know businesses don't...

Pulling into the driveway exhausted, I know I look the way I feel.  I started 15 hours earlier, arriving at the office at 5AM to call, email, and even fax banks on the east coast.  By the time I had sent client financial packages, offers and counter offers on all transactions, and returned calls and emails from agents, the noon hour was upon me.  A few appointments were in my calendar for the afternoon, so I ran through the Carl’s Jr drive thru and racked up a nearly 2400 calorie meal before racing off to show houses. Painfully, a particularly hard storm and earlier accidents tripled my 30 minute commute to 90. With a day that busy, I expect tiredness.  But this is not tired, this is debilitating fatigue. Why?

I come from a family of work ethics and resilience. Our family lore is filled with stories of working graveyard shifts, 3 jobs, and digging ditches in the rain. I know how to work hard. My parents required my brothers and me to work summers as...

Abundance starts with a core belief that there is more than enough for everyone.

We don't fight over scraps in the market, abundance thinkers ask how to make the marketplace bigger. Abundance thinkers look at challenges, look at perceived scarcity and say confidently, "Yes we can do it...Now, how are we going to?"

Do you believe that there is more than enough for you, your family, your business, your community...AND for everyone else's as well?

How do we experience abundance now?

So many of us our motivated and ambitious, which means we are thinking about and working toward a better future. Often this leads to a sense of lack. How so? We may find ourselves saying, "I'll be happy when..." "I will start doing that once I have..." Abundance thinking starts with NOW. Right now, we can be thankful and happy. Right now, we can do the things we know we ought to without waiting.

One example from a client of mine is health. He found himself saying, "I am so busy and financially we are strapped. I'll take care of my health when we have more money for a gym membership and I have more time when work slows down. When we exposed this as an area where he did not live in abundance, I asked, "If you had to take care of your health NOW, how would you do it?" He created a simple nutrition and exercise plan (mostly a healthy breakfast and walking daily) that he could start now, even before the fancy gym and full-time staff nutritionist and...

In the US, we celebrate Thanksgiving, this millenia old tradition of the host people of this nation. In our ongoing conversation of abundance, gratitude and giving thanks stand as cornerstone in developing a deep sense of abundance.

What do you give thanks for in your business? And in your life?

We live objectively abundant lives. From an historic and global perspective, most all of us have and experience more than enough-wealth, health, joy, and relationship. If we lack it is in the areas of fulfillment and satisfaction.

Presence is the solution to so much of what is missing. By simply paying attention to the overwhelming richness of our current lives, we can step instantly into abundance. We spend so much of our attention looking at what we do not have.

Today, take a few minutes to ponder what you do have and be present to the opportunities, people, and richness of life you have. This is abundance.

Where will you choose to be present today?

We exist to help agents, real estate and insurance, have greater abundance in their personal life and in their business. What is abundance?

Abundance comprises many things, most are intangible. In fact, the intangibles in your life--values, work ethic, mastery, skills and more--create the tangibles--wealth, houses, money, etc. 

This week, we are focusing on abundance for our business and personal lives.

What does abundance look like for you?

When we go to beautiful places, it's easy to see the abundance in life. Much of that abundance we experience results less from the beauty and more from our attention to it. 

Abundance, wonder, beauty are all available daily, right out our own windshield and front door. Attend to the abundance available in your business, your relationships and your life, and you will be overwhelmed by the wonder that abounds.

Where do you see abundance in your life today?