This is my first post here on RETSO.com in my new capacity as Chief Curator, or the “Curation Bot,” at RETSO. I’m thrilled to be here, for sure. But I think it’s important that you understand something, because I’m afraid that if you don’t, you’ll come away with a bit of confusion about RETSO.com. Confusion leads to frustration, and frustration leads to disappointment.
I don’t want anyone to be disappointed, so I want to make sure that one thing is completely clear. . .
RETSO is different.
RETSO is not like other real estate conferences, and RETSO.com isn’t like other real estate industry information sites.
Rather than go into a whole boring litany of ways that RETSO is intentionally different, I’d like to distill it down to what I think is at the core of RETSO’s difference– mission and purpose.
The entire RETSO team spends quite a bit of time talking about mission and purpose. That dedication to mission and purpose is reflected in the quality of the RETSO product and the quality of the content you can and will find here on RETSO.com.
At the core, the mission and purpose of RETSO is to get better. To make the industry better. To make you better. To make us better.
I was reminded of the importance of this mission and purpose by a recent email I received from Chris Brogan. Chris has an email newsletter that he uses to send out interesting ideas for business people. A recent edition spoke to the heart of why we do what we do at RETSO. Here’s a quote from the email:
Dear friend, the “system,” such as it is, wants you to be pacified. It wants you to yearn for those things that you can grasp, but that do not upset any the system’s largergames is of the utmost importance. I mean this with all sincerity, and without any hint of the feeling that “The Matrix” is all around us or other conspiracies. But I know, with all that I know, that all systems of power seek to prevail within their goings on and that neither you nor I are invited to participate.
Here’s the secret: once you work hard to understand the systems, you can choose one of three actions: grind yourself against it and lose, or ignore it and seek a smaller system of your own, or disrupt it all and aspire to a much larger success and with it, a system of its own shall take rise, and then you will seek to protect and preserve this new system.
There are three Vegases out this glass: the one where we think we might gamble and win, the one we can’t see but can suppose and plan around, and the one we might one day conquer.
Now, some of you have read this and think I’m discussing Las Vegas. You’re lovely, and I’m so happy to have entertained you. But some of you have raised an eyebrow, have felt as if you’ve seen a twitch of a secret that didn’t immediately draw notice, and some of you have raised your chin in answer to the challenge of conquering and rising above the system. Most of you believe the goal is to have response #3. But it’s not true. So few of us will succeed with that tack. It’s #2: understand and plan accordingly. That’s the secret.
Does this scenario familiar? It should. The real estate industry is comprised of some of the strongest, most entrenched systems in America. From the highest levels, right down to the smallest brokerage firms. Our goal here at RETSO isn’t necessarily to destroy the system only to replace it with another system that we happen to prefer.
Our mission is to make the whole thing better. Every part of it. From the agents, to the brokers, to the executives to the associations and MLSs.
We seek to understand, and help you understand, all of the systems so that we can change them and make them better.
True, there will be instances where some old ways of doing things are worthy of destruction. There is always a bit of demolition that has to go on before renovation can begin.
At RETSO, we are committed to making things better, and we know that you are, too. I said it from the stage at RETSO (video below), and I’m dead serious about it– change will come; and it will come from the RETSO community.
You are the ones who will make things better. You are the doers. You can do this.
post photo courtesy of sun dazed via flickr cc
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