3 Lessons for Realtors® (and everyone else) from the Chilean Mine Disaster

As I'm writing this post it looks like the 33 men trapped in a mine in Chile since August are going to be rescued. They've survived underground at a depth of almost a half a mile down ~ removed from society, unable to see the sun or feel a loved one's touch ~ lost to normal. It is unimaginable. And only after the men are able to tell their stories will we ever know the challenges (physically, emotionally, etc) they had to face and overcome. Of course, doing real estate is nothing compared to dealing with two plus months of isolation under the earth. And yet I think there are lessons to be learned by realtors® (and anyone for that matter) when you think about it and spend some time considering the disaster. With this in mind I've come up with the following short list...

3 Lessons for Realtors® (and everyone else) from the Chilean Mine Disaster:

1. You never know. Everything can change in an instant. One minute you can be mining for minerals and the next minute ~ crash! The cave collapses and you're stuck. And some people live in the world that it'll only happen to the other guy. (Even I've thought it.) It's a sort of denial of reality. I'm not saying we should be overly worried about the potential for accidents. What I am saying is the knowledge we could lose it all in a moment's time (our business, our ability to do business) helps us to appreciate what we do have.

2. Put people first. And I don't know if any of the men were like this prior to the disaster happening, but what I do know is it can happen to the best of us. We get busy. We get busy with our livelihood, our jobs (whatever) and we begin to put people (our family especially) on the back burner. We say, "I'll play baseball with you tomorrow," to our sons, or, "I'll take you to the lake tomorrow," to our daughters ~ and then we're trapped in a mine thinking, "I just should have done that right then."

3. Work on character. A mine collapse with no hope of escape has a way of showing a person what they're "made of." To the degree that we handle things in the common, day-to-day of life (good or bad) will be to the same degree that we handle anything (adversity/hardship, prosperity/success).