"You're Fired!"

BE WARNED: This morning's post will probably offend you (at first) if you belong to one of two select groups. Before you flame me with emails, you may want to print this one out, read it a couple of times and think about it. If you are still "ticked", go ahead and torch me :)

o.k. - now go to the bathroom, look in the mirror and say it: "You're FIRED!" You are now officially empowered to begin the process of firing some people out of your life.

Yesterday I spoke about not confusing activity for progress. Well today lets talk about this super-unrealistic notion of needing to "please everybody". And no, I'm not talking about going out of your way to be mean to people, step on ants, or pull the heads off the toys of little children - but I am talking about being firm and taking control of your life.

One of my favorite things to do is to work in the garden. A couple of years ago I created an outdoor room by planting some crape myrtles around the patio - everyone who comes over compliments them. But in order to get the desired effect every Spring and Fall I have to get out the sheers and cut off the new growth. I do this to create the look I want, and so the trunks I want to grow big and strong can. The same is true for roses, grape vines and your business. Every once in a while you have to "prune it up" a little, so what is left will grow big and strong.

As a business owner (which is what successful real estate investors are), you have to not only be prepared to fire some of your employees and vendors, but the same is true of your customers.

Yes, Customers!

Now there are two ways to fire anyone, including vendors and customers. Both are correct. And to get my point across, let's look at the man who has made "YOU'RE FIRED!" a household word, The Donald.

If you know anything about the APPRENTICE, you will probably concur that the way Trump fires people early on each season is different then at the end. In fact, the first "You're Fired" and the last one are very different, indeed. Let's look back at Season One, the easiest "You're fired" was the first one - David Gould - "Yeah, that was Easy!" ... and you thought it was Sam. David “who?” EXACTLY! Never been heard from since. No regrets, no remorse - simply GONE.

So, let's get to the "Sherman ticking off two groups of people" part. I have noticed that there are two particular groups of people who will find my philosophy on this topic difficult to accept: Women and Entrepreneurs, and if you happen to be both, I know I will be hearing from you later this afternoon - bring it on ;)

Society tells men to "tough it out", no matter what the situation, no matter what the emotions. Guys are raised to be "tough".
And have you ever noticed that only guys use lines from the Godfather Movies when talking about life and business: "Its only business, don't take it personally... we're taken it to the mats... Joey, Joey..." You with me? Women never use lines from the Godfather and women hate to "burn bridges" - the same can be said of Entrepreneurs.

Where in the world did we ever get this silly notion that we are not suppose to terminate relationships, and in some cases, as Burgess Meredith said in Rocky II, "permanent!"

Ladies, have you ever been on a date so bad that you came home, went on the internet and Googled "Convent"? And the really sad part was as soon as you walked in the door, you threw off your shoes on the way to the computer, and he had already left three messages. So the next day when you made the mistake of answering the phone, and it was him. How did you respond when he said, “I’d love to see you again – soon”. Did you tell him what he needed to hear, and you needed to say, or were you “nice” ? So, tell me what grief could you have been spared, if you had simply gotten out the blow torch and let it do its job!!??

For some reason, guys just don’t seem to have this problem. They tell it like it is, that is until they become Entrepreneurs. Then they too want to be loved, especially by their customers, even the ones who are two parts human and three parts leech. NEWSFLASH: Not everyone is going to “LOVE” you. So, get over it! Learn how to fire people, out of your life and out of your business. YES, including customers!

SO do you “torch” every bridge – no, not all!

Again, let’s look at Trump. At the last Episode of Season One, Donald had to make a choice: Bill or Kwame (truthfully the choice had been made long before the last episode) and in the closing moments, Trump looks at Bill and says: “You’re Hired!” O.k., so what happens to Kwame…??? Six weeks later he’s flying down to South America at Trump’s invitation to be a judge at the Ms. Universe Pageant. So what’s up with that – I thought the guy got fired??!! Yes, and no. Sometimes “you’re fired” means, “This is not working, and we need to do something different” and you leave the door open to try something again later in the future.

The challenge of being an Entrepreneur (and a woman too, I suppose) is knowing when to torch the bridge and when to leave the door open to try again. In either case, getting good at firing people out of your life is something you need to work on if you have any chance of being both in control and productive.

As a real estate investor and Entrepreneur, you are going to bring many people into your life and onto your team. You can not avoid this, investing is a team sport, and if you are going to win, you must build your team. Some folks you’ll keep, and many you wont. Your business is your garden and the sooner you take to pruning it, the faster and stronger it will grow.