The Obstacle is the… Airport

Have I told you that I am not a fan of airports? 

This week I made a domestic flight for a lunch meeting. I can’t say that my business has suffered due to my reluctance to get on a plane, however I will say that I may have missed a trick or two. 

When I last travelled, I wrote about my challenges and how I reframed a trip by telling myself how much I love being in an airport (I am not convinced it worked). 

This week, by the time I had battled past two minor accidents on Auckland’s motorways, the extra time that I had allowed myself had evaporated. When I got to the check in counter (because I couldn’t find my ticket), my ticket had not been allocated to the flight (there had never been a ticket – Air NZ’s issue, not mine). It was all a bit stressful. 

‘Forget it, it’s not meant to be, why do I do these stupid things’ I said to myself. 

Still, of course I got on the flight and got to where I was supposed to get to in time for lunch.

I thought the lunch meeting was with a high performing salesperson. However the meeting was ‘hijacked’ – two other salespeople turned up too. This put me on the back foot for a moment.

I will be honest. I had been fascinated by the approach and the mindset of the person that I was meeting with. When I floated the idea of lunch, my primary objective was to connect with someone I felt was a natural leader with values that aligned to mine. Anything else was going to be a bonus. 

This was to be lunch, and only a pitch if things went that way. 

I discovered soon enough that the meeting that was to be less a sales type of meeting and more of a get to know you kind of thing, had become very much a sales type of thing, and the stakes had doubled. 

They wanted to be pitched. 

I have been browsing through Ryan Holiday’s book ‘The Obstacle is the Way’ and this is the kind of thing that comes to mind when I reflect on these situations. I think again of one of the Tony Robbins quotes that have stuck with me. The moment you think you can’t do something, take immediate action to prove yourself the opposite is true. 

Life rarely serves us up with an easy deal – it’s not every day I have a chance to pitch for over $2 million of annual gross commission. Certainly things coming easily is not something those of us who have had to work hard and take risks ever expect. The good stuff comes to us by walking through challenges. 

If I was unable to take the lesson from this experience, to realise that getting on the occasional plane needs to become part of my strategy, then I will never learn. I won’t be getting on a plane for every meeting, I won’t even do every meeting face to face. Even in Auckland. Even in Rodney District. But WILL be more open to the chance to seize those opportunities when they arise. 

The lesson for us all is to lean into those bits that we don’t like every now and again. Bringing it back to our real estate work, here are a few quick ideas that I know many struggle with:

• Door Knocking
• Daily Phone Calls
• Vendor Feedback (the kind they don’t want to hear)
• Open home callbacks 

I think we all know that the opportunities lay on the other side of the one thing that we are afraid of doing. I think we kind of know that The Obstacle is the Way. 

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Back to the airport issue…. 

I think that solution for me is to really allow myself much more time. I am not one of these travellers that can languidly walk up to the check in at the last minute and feel relaxed. I got back to the airport for the flight home early – early enough to write this blog – and make sure that the lead up to my flight home would be a stress-free one.

But also maybe with some practice I will get better at it, I certainly hope so.