Big Rocks First

So there's this physics professor standing in front of his class and he puts a big empty glass jar on the lab table. He then reaches under the table and grabs four or five baseball sized rocks and puts them in the jar. He tries to add another rock but there's no room for it. "Aha, the jar is full, right?" He smiles at the class.

The students, being freshman and knowing everything, respond "Sure!"

So the prof grabs a box of pebbles and starts dropping them into the jar. Most of the smaller pebbles trickle around the big rocks and fill in the spaces till they reach the top of the jar. "Okay now it's full!

The students hesitate and, this not being an Ivy League school, they're smart enough to sense a possible trap. "Well, sort of . . . maybe?"

"Excellent!" The prof now produces a bag of sand and pours it into the jar. The sand fills in all the spaces between the big rocks and the pebbles till it reaches the top of the jar. "Now it's full!" He grins and claps his hands.

The students--some of whom will become engineers and some CEO's and some IT guru's--nod and clap along with the professor. All but one, the student destined to become a successful real estate broker. She simply shakes her head and waits.

"Wrong!" The professor grabs a pitcher of water and pours it into the jar. At last, the jar is full!

The future broker has grasped the lesson. And her future success will largely be tied to her lesson learned, a lesson that can make anyone more successful, no matter their field.

Big Rocks First!

If we start with water, nothing else will fit. If sand, only water can be added, and even if we start with pebbles, there may never be room for those big rocks.

So what? you may be asking.

So what if those Big Rocks are in fact your most important daily activities? Those activities that our Peak Producers training--not to mention our basic real estate common sense--tells us are those activities we absolutely have to do on a regular basis--ie, make a Habit--in order to proactively generate referrals from our sphere of influence to build a consistent business? Pretty important rocks!

Yet all too often we find ourselves dealing with the pebbles--those details of transactions and serving our clients and responding to important calls and emails--that all too often fill up our jar so that we can't jam in a Big Rock even if we want to. While those pebbles are important in making our current clients happy, we all know what happens when we close all those sales and then look around and wonder where the next client might come from.

Of course don't even think about playing in the sand or splashing in the water--wasting time on needless emails or chatting with pals or checking out that new tennis racquet or carbon fiber bike! We may even miss a pebble or two if that's our focus and we all know how much time we waste every day.

The bottom line in terms of time management and productivity is that every day we can enhance our business and our lives by grabbing those Big Rocks first--prioritizing--those calls and cards and coffees and pop-by's with our A+ and A level advocates to keep the momentum of our business going and growing with proactive referrals. The pebbles can always fill in the gaps.

So grab those Big Rocks first!

David M. Hassler

VP, Director of Business Development