Auctioneers Life Lessons
This article will be the first in a series of life lessons I have learned over the past 50 years, yes I am now officially considered an old guy but in my mind and in my heart I feel 46 and I’m sticking with that age for the next 50 years. Throughout this series you will find that I like 4 letter words, they are just easier to understand for most of us.
Lesson One
A friend of mine asked me the other day if I had a philosophy of life that I had lived by over the years and I immediately quoted a friend of mine, Zig Ziglar, who’s favorite saying was: “You Can Get Everything in Life You Want if You’re Just Willing to Help Enough Other People Get What They Want”. While it is a well-known saying, I heard it for the very first time at age 22 and for me in my life, at that time, it was very profound. Over the years, I got to know Zig very well and he helped with many training sessions I conducted over the years. He will be missed.
Last week I heard another philosophy that I really liked and it went something like this. “The more experiences you have in your life the more you can share with other people” now for anyone over 50 I am sure you can relate and if your under 50 when someone over 50 speaks, listen, because we are trying to help you better understand how things worked in the past, if you want to change it that’s perfectly ok, but do us the courtesy of listening for a bit. History leaves clues!
Lesson Two
This brings me to my next life’s lesson. God gave you two ears when you were born and one mouth, which means you are to listen twice as much as you speak. When you are meeting a potential client for the very first time and they have a multi-million-dollar project needing sold—LISTEN. It’s all about them at the time, don’t start telling them how great you and your auction firm are or the latest big deal you just finished, just listen and they will tell you everything you need to know to get the auction. By listening to their hopes and dreams you will better understand what THEY want and then it’s your job to deliver those results.
Lesson Three
“Your income will be the direct result of the average combined income of the 5 people you hang around with most.” Another words, the people you hang with every day may be holding you back unless they are substantially more well off than you are. My father told me one time “If you’re the smartest kid in the class you need to go find another class” Pick the people you hang around with well, while they may be fun they will not help you reach your full potential.
Lesson Four
If you are the leader of your team, learn to ask “Why” 5 times in a row in order to get to the root cause of all problems. Example: We are out of money. Why are we out of money? We are out of money because we don’t have any auctions booked. Why do we not have any auctions booked? We don’t have any auctions booked because we don’t have any leads. Why do we not have any leads? We don’t have any leads because I didn’t do my job of prospecting this last month. Why didn’t you do your job of prospecting last month? I didn’t do my job of prospecting last month because I was busy doing other things that were more fun. Why were you doing things that were more fun? Because I am an idiot and should be fired!!!! You get the idea.
FAA Strategic Operating Plan 2017
On January 9th, 2017 your Board of the Florida Auctioneers Association met in Orlando and for 8 hours worked on the 2017 Strategic Operating Plan for the Florida Auctioneers Association. It was an exciting session with several new Board members adding to the long range planning process. The future of the FAA is very bright and we need your help to make it that way.
Staying relevant and delivering real value to our members was the major topic of the meeting. It is the desire of the Board to involve, as many member’s as possible this next year in all the committees and activities that are planned. If you would like to volunteer we would love to hear from you. Send me an email at and I will get your name to the right people.
Thanks goes to Myers Jackson, our 2017 President, for his tremendous leadership. We have a standing monthly meeting for 60 minutes to conduct committee updates and check progress. In addition, we have scheduled 4 regular Board meetings throughout the year. As you can see this level of work is way beyond the norm and your Board is working hard to make a difference for all members in 2017.