But don't stop dreaming...

“The thing you have to be prepared for is that other people don’t always dream your dream.” (Linda Ronstadt)

Ain't that the truth. As I (we all) struggle through the current recession I find myself having to restart, re-energize and re-visualize (dream) what success will look and feel like, whether it is in real estate or in my other job selling office copiers/printers. People whom I call upon don't always share my dream (vision) of them happily buying a house or a copier/printer.

Right now I'm working through a campaign to sell new multifunction machines to real estate offices, which is something that I know more than a little bit about. I know where the savings are in those offices, but getting people to share my vision about how to achieve those savings hasn't been easy. Business people, especially small business people seem to be frozen into inactivity by the fear that things are still going to get worse rather than better.

The same thing is happening in real estate. People who want to move or maybe even need to move are holding off putting their homes on the market because they think that if they wait for a while home values will stabilize or maybe come back. While that eventually will be true, the timing on that happening is very much up in the air. In last weekend's paper there was yet another "We've hit bottom" article that quoted a hopeful local real estate broker as stating that he feels that the bottom has been reached in the Detroit-area market and that values will start back up soon. Having written such an article several times in the past, I'm now skeptical about whether or not we've hit bottom in Michigan. But, hey, one can dream. Right?

So, to paraphrase the words of another song - "Don't stop thinkin' about tomorrow...it'll be better than before." Don't stop dreaming. Just be prepared to deal with the fact that not everyone else will be sharing your dream and that's OK, too.