"Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish."

Real (Estate) Success... "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." That's Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios, concluding his commencement speech at Stanford's graduation in June this year.

For months now, Jobs' wonderful speech has sat next to my computer. It keeps reverberating in my mind. "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future."

Isn't that how many of us arrived where we are today? Until recently, few graduated from college with the goal of selling or managing real estate. First they were accountants or teachers or lawyers or secretaries. But somehow they gravitated to their passion.

That's because change is healthy. Jobs talked about the value of his being fired after creating Apple. "The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."

Closing a real estate transaction always struck me as similar to being fired. You are starting over. You must create a new transaction. It's energizing.

This must be why the culture of real estate professionals is so strong. To some, the industry appears monolithic and static (see First Brokers, Then Investment Bankers, Oct 4 Dispatch). But, actually, real estate derives great strength from its army of individuals continually forced to change or die.

As Steve Jobs says, "Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent." ... So live well today.

Road Warrior... When you read this e-mail, I will be in Nairobi, Kenya, visiting my brothers who drill water wells in the Southern Sudan. I guess that I'm practicing what Jobs preaches! Today's issue and Thursday's were queued up before I flew to Africa. After Thursday the Dispatch will next be published on Tuesday, Nov 29.

-- Peter Pike