I don’t know about you but I’m really inspired by the Artemis II project. The sheer ambition of this effort was clearly (almost) unbelievable. The fact that the mission was so successful despite the challenges of onboard toilets was pretty impressive!
Yes, we may have landed on the Moon 50 years ago but think about it. In 2026, despite all the great troubles in the world, humans have chosen a team from the United States of America to do something really, really hard.
Why? Well, there are lots of reasons but I believe it is best explained by John F. Kennedy in his famous statement made in September 1962…
“We chose to go to the Moon and do other things in this decade, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to marshal and measure our best energies and skills, because that challenge is one we are willing to accept, not one we are willing to postpone.”
Well, that exclamation certainly pertains to the “why” but what about the “how”? Although in my opinion the “why” question is at the core of most business projects, the “how” definitely matters. In fact, it is important to give the desired results.
Which brings me to my next connected historical reference. A story that apparently occurred the same year Kennedy gave that famous speech on a visit to NASA.
During that tour, JFK apparently asked one of the building’s janitors what he was doing. The sweeper replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”
This story may or may not be literally true, but it certainly shows an important lesson that we can all learn from. Everyone on a team contributes to the overall success or failure of a mission and I mean everyone – whether they are aware of it or not! Their personal awareness of the importance of that contribution is important, even critical, to the quality of their work.
Which made me think…
In reality, how much of what we achieve as front line estate agents is really down to us as an individual as opposed to the efforts of the team around us?
I suggest that even so-called “self-employed” agents (like me at eXp), proud of our highly publicized personal and individual approach to clients, are surely only capable of working as part of a huge team.
Of course, this is more clearly true of independent single office and multi-branch operations as well as “corporates”, with their significant head office resources designed to support the front line.
Be it compliance, marketing, training, the person who creates our boards, the photographers, our software providers and even the much maligned conveyancers and property portals, they (and countless other partners and suppliers) all help to ensure that as estate agents dealing with sales or lettings we achieve our client’s objective.
However, sometimes – and I admit I may actually be wrong about this – I think agents often forget about this when accepting praise from a client for good work. I certainly do. It is much easier to accept praise and even believe that it was you as the front line agent who really achieved success.
So the purpose of this article is simply to remind you, if you need reminding, that selling or letting a property takes a team and we should all regularly share our appreciation for the very long list of people and suppliers who enable us to do our job. Perhaps, ask yourself this question…
When was the last time you actually thanked the person who makes and changes your boards? And I mean thank you instead of just paying the invoice. If the answer is “never”, you may want to review your attitude towards that person and indeed all your suppliers, because without them feeling valued and motivated, it is much less likely that you will be able to achieve your objectives as efficiently as you would like.
As always, feel free to disagree but I would urge you to remember the words of the cleaner who clearly understood his true value.
Simon Bradbury is a consultant who specializes in securing new referrals and runs a (very) small property agency run by EXP.