Stop Focusing on Your Production Numbers—Do This Instead

You know how much I love football.

So when Apple released The Dynasty, a new mini-series about the New England Patriots in the era of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, of course I had to watch it…

And what I saw was the same thing I’m always telling my coaching clients: you are NOT in control.

It’s easy to look at the Patriots’ record from that period—6 Super Bowl wins, 9 conference championships, 17 division championships—and conclude that they were obviously a cut above the rest of the league.

But when you go back through it in detail, you see how easily things could have turned out completely differently. 

Just look at how Tom Brady came to be the starting quarterback in the first place. He was not a stand-out college player. In the 2000 NFL draft, he was the 199th pick. The Patriots already had a star QB: Drew Bledsoe, who in 2001 signed a record-breaking 10-year, $103M contract.

But a few months later, Bledsoe got seriously injured, and Tom Brady had to step in. If it wasn’t for that freakishly bad hit, Brady might never have gotten that chance.

Later that season, at the end of a crucial playoff game, Brady seemingly fumbled the ball, which would have sealed the victory for the other team. But the referee overturned the fumble call based on a very obscure rule, which allowed the Patriots to keep the ball and win the game. If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have made it to their very first Super Bowl victory.

One injury. One referee decision. One tiny moment that’s completely beyond the team’s control ends up determining the result.

It’s just as true in business and in life as it is in sports.

You do NOT control the result. 

There are countless external factors that affect the outcome of your efforts, and they far outweigh the things you do control. 

Even a team as disciplined and systematic as Brady’s Patriots was at the mercy of those external factors. If that weren’t true, they would have won the Super Bowl 19 times instead of just 6.

In the NFL, success is measured by Super Bowl wins. In real estate, it’s home sales.

It’s a one-dimensional measure that you cannot control, as much as you’ve been programmed to believe you can. We’re all brainwashed with this idea that if we work hard enough, we’ll succeed.

Sorry, but that’s just not true.

There is nothing that can guarantee success because there’s nothing that can bring those external factors under your control. 

The only thing you can do is position yourself to be READY for when those factors line up in your favor.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: life is like the ocean. You can’t control the waves, but you can count on the fact that they’ll change from day to day.

You will gain NOTHING from trying to fight the waves. 

You will gain NOTHING from avoiding them.

The only way to win is by learning to surf—by going out on the water every day and figuring out how to read those waves and respond accordingly.

Yes, it is uncomfortable. Yes, you will fall down. But if you don’t push yourself to keep trying and keep tackling bigger and bigger waves, you will not improve.

It’s not about brute force hard work.  

Fighting the waves is hard work, but it will not get you anywhere.

I know because I see agents do it all the time. They run around chasing deals and trying to convince people to do business with them. 

That’s a great way to work hard and burn yourself out, but it doesn’t help you learn and improve over time. You can be in the business for 30 years, just repeating the same year over and over…and end up with nothing to show for it at the end.

Learning to surf means working smart. 

It means building the relationships, systems, and skills that will help you get better and better at navigating change over the long run. 

That’s what the 6 Building Blocks are all about: not how much business you do, but how you do business.

The 6 Building Blocks are uncomfortable, there’s no doubt. But the more willing you are to get uncomfortable, the more you’ll learn, and the more READY you’ll be to ride the good waves when they come along.

That’s what made Tom Brady stand out: his appetite for discomfort. 

If you watch Dynasty, you will be shocked at the level of discomfort—mental and physical—he put up with every day.

But he didn’t take it personally. He didn’t get upset about it. He focused on the bigger picture and the opportunity at hand.

And many times, the external factors did not line up in his favor…but when they did, he was ready to ride the wave.

Are you ready?