Making Money Is Not Difficult...It's Different

A couple of weeks ago, I was speaking to an audience and as I was coming to a close, I made the statement, “Making money is not difficult… it’s different.” I could tell that this sentence was for some in the audience an “ah-ha” moment, and for others, it was inspiring but wasn’t going to cause them to change anything in their daily routines.

What struck me was that the good majority of the attendees were impacted by that statement, but I also knew that statistically so few of them would actually do something as a result of hearing it.

I am a true believer that everyone reading this article made the amount of money that they DESERVED to make last year. That is either a good thing or a sobering thing for you to hear based on how satisfied you are with your last 12 month’s income. By the way, this applies to me as well.

Your income level is completely tied to the patterns that you practice in your life and business. If you routinely make $100k per year – you probably have $100k patterns.

It is this simple – you cannot put the ingredients in the oven for a pizza and expect a lasagna to come out. You don’t have to be a chef to understand that principle. Having said that, most real estate professionals would not be satisfied with what is considered to be the average income for an agent either. Did you know that the average real estate professional does 4 transactions per year?

So the real question is why do we continually act like and do almost everything that the agents around us do on a regular basis? We want different results and somehow expect to get them because we “deserve” them because we are better people or something like that. I promise you that you are not going to make more money in 2013 because you are a better person. You are going to make money in 2013 than your fellow agent because you develop different patterns.

Jerry Rice, the greatest wide receiver of all time, was quoted as saying that “today I will do what others won’t so that tomorrow I can do what others can’t.” That is a powerful statement and has so much truth in it.

Make a decision for 2013 that you will do something different to separate yourself from your competition. Making money is not difficult… it is just different. But it is also a direct result of your patterns, good or bad.

Jared James is the CEO and Founder of Jared James Enterprises, an internationally sought-after speaker and trainer. James built one of the fastest-growing real estate teams in the country, was inducted into the International Hall of Fame for one of the world’s largest real estate companies and wrote a best-selling book—all before the age of 28. As an acclaimed speaker, James keynotes events for major real estate organizations and conducts regular webinars and training for nationally known organizations like NAR, CRS, Yahoo Real Estate,Trulia and Zillow Academy and blogs regularly for RISMedia.