Lenders and Realtors in 2020: Humility Amidst a Record Year

The message to my team this morning, on the first day of 2021, was one of humility and honestly, I think our whole Mortgage and Real Estate industries need to hear it.

If this is catching you off guard, peep this timely excerpt from the awesome Rob Chrisman's blog today:

"Last year, as one industry vet wrote me, was “The Year Of The Genius” in mortgage banking. It seems that everyone is talking about record-breaking volume, margin, and income. “The industry’s ‘collective IQ’ almost doubled,” he said sarcastically. Everyone was smart, and if you are an MLO or lender who didn’t make money, well, when will you? Industry veterans know, however, that a prosperous year like 2020 can mask some imbedded risks..."

My message to #FairwaySTL today was this: When I think about 2020, the comparison that comes to mind is Surviving vs. Thriving.

To me, it's like Offense vs. Defense, and these two words conjure different traits.

Surviving: perseverance, toughness, resilience

Thriving: advancing, growing, being 'in the zone'

I have spent plenty of time congratulating my team for our record-breaking 2020 volume, and as I've scrolled through Social Media these last few days, I counted 39 friends (and counting) posting about having career years. Every single one of them was in mortgage or real estate. I have absolutely no problem with that. We all worked hard. There is little doubt at this point that posting about success can attract new clients and partners, I get it, believe me. But...

Clearly, macroeconomic conditions created a surge in Real Estate activity. That isn't news at this point, right?

So the truth is, we didn’t create that wave, we survived that wave. I don’t mean that negatively. As a team, we made growth steps…but the real job well done was our toughness, perseverance, and maintaining focus through chaos and all the unknown in the world. We handled the volume, we didn't inspire the volume.

We performed well, my friends, but we cannot forget how lucky we were to be in a position to do so.

Our CEO, Steve Jacobson, has a Bible verse that he is fond of quoting. Even though I don't happen to be a religious man, I appreciate it, and it resonates with me:

Before a downfall the heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor.

Proverbs 18:12

In 2021, I want us to thrive. I want us to lead, to show our partners and our competition the way. If we can admit--even amidst all of the valid reasons we have for standing up and yelling, "look what I did!"--that we were the beneficiaries of some of market factors and not just our own genius, doesn't that give us a better mindset going into 2021? I'm a huge fan of celebrating, but I'm ready to shake off the confetti and get to work, and get back to serving.

Our team has huge goals this year, and it’s going to take every one of us getting incrementally better this year to achieve them. That is why humility is so important for us right now--Lenders and Realtors alike. It's hard to improve and do all the things you need to do to get better while believing you're already the BEST. It's hard to accept feedback, take honest inventory of our processes and skillsets and work hard at growing while patting ourselves on the back.

So many leaders ask for more out of their people, but when I look at the job my team did last year, I can’t do that. So many of them gave so much. The only way to grow, then, is get to better together. If we do that for not only ourselves but for our teammates--and even for the industry at large, we can all enjoy more success in 2021.

Maybe even enjoy that success with less chaos than we had in 2020.

I think we could all appreciate that.