Prior to entering real estate and winning the Real Estate Apprentice Grant in 2004, I was in the healthcare industry. I had the distinct privilege of consulting an organizational turnaround of a hospital which was failing following the actions of a serial killer. Sound like a fictional TV show? It really happened! Through hard work, determination and a great team, the hospital was saved and transformed into a state-of-the art organization. One of the fascinating things I learned from my mentor was to "cube my time". Under enormous stress, we would concentrate on key priorities in 15 minute increments, then hourly, until the end of a long day we would go home, exhausted, knowing that we had done our very best. Slowly, over time, our efforts were rewarded with measured success.

The stress of this experience was nothing compared to being a new agent in real estate!

Over the past several months, I have become keenly aware of failure, or what I am now calling an "error rate" or "batting average". See if you can identify with some of my experiences:

• A buyer that you work with for 8 months to build a new home terminates one week prior to closing (oh, and the commission was your house payment)

• A listing expires that you spent hours of work showing, holding open house, agent caravan, and hundreds of dollars on advertising, signs and supplies

• A buyer that you have worked with for endless hours showing property, contracting on a contingency, terminates and buys a different house with another agent

• The closing that falls apart at the table

There is only so much time in the day and limited resources in a new small business. All of us look at the return on our investment of time and money. No wonder there is a 70-80% failure rate of new agents. Few of us are prepared for the time and expense of this business, only to loose a significant portion of our work. Not to mention the highly personal feelings that are involved.

That is why business coaches teach new agents to be a mean, lean, lead-generating machine! One goal setting formula that I have reviewed shows an agent that you need build in a failure rate into listings and buyers. For example, to sell 17 listings in a year, takes 20+ listing inventory, 40 listing appointments, and 4000 leads! Not only do you need to factor in failure, you need to make sure that you are focused on building relationships while learning to personally and professionally deal with the pain of loss.

So, now what? I started thinking about the overwhelming odds of success, and I suddenly realized that I am expecting myself to "bat 1000" all the time! I began to talk with my husband and business partner about sports analogies: If the best baseball players average .400 they are thrilled! Golf professionals hope to win a couple of majors a year. Football players just hope to not get killed each week!

As an agent in year 2, building a business that is still in the red, I "cube my time" and focus on:

• Increasing my lead generating systems: advertising, prospecting and networking
• Revenue generating activities: transaction management and closings
• Client satisfaction: repeat business and referrals
• Strong faith and daily gratitude

I hope this is helpful to those of you who are struggling like I am to build relationships that are based on integrity and trust, while at the same time you are borderline frantic about the bills and the deep sense of loss when there is a failure.

Be determined to succeed, keep your faith strong (confidence in your mission, your gift, your talents that are used to make the world better, and the higher power that adds a bit of mystery and wonder to everything you do!), and by "cubing your time" you will focus on priorities that will build the business brick-by-brick.

Have a grateful attitude for each day!

Kendra