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“Be content with your lot; one cannot be first in everything.” (Aesop) from the Jack’s Winning Words Blog. Jack posted this the day after the Tigers had lost to the Twins for the Division title. I suppose it had better meaning for that occasion. The Tigers did have a very good season and posted an enviable record for the year; however, that is scant consolation for their loss in what was a great baseball game.

In life and in real estate this is a tricky phrase to properly position. There is value in being able to be content with what one has in life, yet one cannot help but to keep striving to be first in everything that one tries. Winning certainly isn’t everything, but trying to win is important. In many peewee sports the participants are told initially that winning isn’t the goal of participating. The goal at that level is to learn how to play the game. Yet at each match, game or event, you’ll see and hear the coaches and parents urging on the kids to win. It’s human nature. If the parents, coaches and kids of the losing team can be content with the fact that the loss was a learning experience, then so much the better.

In real estate, one must deal with the relatively high probability of a loss - a property that doesn’t sell and goes to some other agent, a listing appointment that doesn’t go your way and goes to some other agent, a sale that goes south and can’t be saved, an offer that is rejected and cannot be turned around. Fortunately there are also many chances for wins and lots of things to be content about. I suppose that I would really be a malcontent, if I worried all the time about being number one in my market.

There are agents who have been Realtors for 20-30-40 years in my market. There are large, multi-person teams in the market that I serve. I could work 24 hours a day, 7-days a week (i.e. a few more hours than I currently work) and never catch those agents. So I have to be content with what I can achieve. I’ve set my goals at a reasonable number of listings and sales per year and I’m working hard to meet those goals. Meeting them won’t make me number one in my market, but maybe it would help me be more content.

Still, I can strive every year to maybe move up a notch in the local pecking order. I can celebrate small victories, like my local Web sites coming up higher in Google searches than some of those big guys. I can find happiness in being found on the Internet and getting out of state calls because of my Web presence. Like a peewee player, I’m still learning this game (after “only” 8 years in the business), so I try to learn from my mistakes and losses and get better out of every defeat – and maybe that is a victory in itself.