Keep Score!

I expect a certain amount of mindless drivel when I read newspaper articles. I've even posted recently about how the media claims the world is coming to an end, that we're running out of everything, and how the filthy rich are to blame for most of it!

It's the alarming new stories I read each day about how children are not allowed to play sports which "keep score" or "have winners and losers" that really makes my blood boil, though. How does this apply to you, my friend? Lemme 'splain it to ya…

Kids who are taught NOT to keep score will assume that's real life and grow up thinking that way:

• That their check ledgers for their checking accounts don't need to be kept up to date. (Isn't that just another way to keep score?)
  
• That the lender won't do anything more than tell them to "do better next time" when they're late with their mortgage payments.
  
• That profit in any form is a bad thing and that for one person to succeed, someone else had to fail.
  

The fact of the matter is that no one has put a fence around the moolah you can make in today's Real Estate market! No one has staked their claim saying, "This is all mine and you can't have any of it!"

The cashola you receive from properly buying and selling a property in pre-foreclosure (for example) is the direct result of the attention to detail, discipline, and know-how that you put into getting the deal in the first place!

• The seller didn't have to lose anything (in fact, you probably kept them from losing their home AND losing sleep over it, right?)
  
• The lender didn't lose anything except a non-performing asset.
  
• The closing attorney, title company, etc didn't lose anything (rather, they gained more business by handling the paperwork).
  

And of course YOU didn't lose anything either – you gained in experience, profit, and helping your fellow man all at the same time!

(And as an aside – that whole "everyone should be equal and share everything?...Yeah, that's Communism in case you didn't recognize it – and it's been proven not to work.)

So I urge you, dear reader to keep score! Make sure you come out on the winning team, that your business is a winning investment of your time and energy, and that you create winning situations whenever you can! (With the exception of your competition, but we'll talk about that next time.)

To your unbridled success,

Jim Canale