David Letterman kept a stack of cups in his dressing room – each one represented a completed show.
What matters is what you’ve DONE – not what you intend to do.
He’s not counting down and removing cups the way you would cross things off a to-do list.
He’s simply tracking what he’s completed and doing so in a way that reveals the progress he’s made.
Most of us spend more time looking at lists of things we haven’t done (and feeling bad about it) than looking at lists of things we have done (and feeling good about it).
It’s a subtle, but important difference.
Lincoln said that success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. I think that sums up the commercial real estate broker business in a nutshell! To be a great commercial real estate broker, you need to be a rational optimist. That’s someone who believes the future can be built better than the present, but only if you do the work to build it.
Every day feels like nothing but bad headlines. Higher costs, more taxes, more stress, more frustration! But over the past 12 months, some important things have happened.
- Violent crime has dropped – dramatically. We’ve had the largest decline in murders ever recorded – down 20%!
- Traffic deaths are at the lowest levels in years.
- Suicide rates are stabilizing – and improving for teens.
When you are being pulled in so many directions emotionally, it is really easy to give in to the temptation to go numb.
A Decelerationist is a person who instinctively pulls the handbrake on progress. They are the natural enemy of rational optimism.
One of my core beliefs is that how our children grow up shapes how they see the world. I don’t want them to be poisoned by an anti-innovation mind virus. And, it’s a global virus to be sure:
- Europe now rakes in more dollars fining U.S. tech companies than from taxing its own tech firms.
- Ireland’s state-owned energy company plans to decommission its own wind farms. All because they failed to file an environmental impact report in 2003. But wait…the project might be saved because tearing them down will also require an environmental impact report!
- The U.K.’s newest nuclear power plant spent $700 million to prevent fish from getting in the water intakes. Forecasts expect the system to save 0.083 adult salmon per year. If I didn’t laugh, I would cry.
Speaking of brain drain, I saw it reported that California is losing one taxpayer every 104 seconds. The fastest of any state in the union. This is not a red vs. blue issue. This is a real estate valuation issue. Because real estate values only go up in places where more people are moving in than out.
As of this morning, we are facing an $18 billion deficit and the Legislative Analyst’s Office predicts it could reach $35 billion annually by 2027-2028.
Nick’s Numbers
Well, the University of Michigan Sentiment Index made a turn for the good. Bouncing off its December lows, it would appear to be heading in the right direction. More importantly, it was broad-based across income distribution, educational attainment, older and younger consumers and Republicans and Democrats.
If you would like an analysis of your property’s value or discuss what you should be doing concerning interest rates or inflation and their impact on your business, tenants, or property, I’d be happy to talk. (Nick Zech, 858-232-2100, nzech@cdccommerical.com).
I fight all year long for a zero-email inbox. However, it really hit home this month when I archived 2025’s deleted folder and realized I had deleted 102,165 emails in 2025!
I also have a new rally cry for 2025 — “Balance All Budgets!” I think this is the source of most of our problems and if we all lived within our means — federal, state, local, schools and at home — we would all be better off.
I was excited to see one of our biggest deficits, the U.S. trade deficit, get cut nearly in half to its lowest since 2009.
As the great American NFL Football season comes to an end this month, I’d like you to consider how things might be different if we ran our schools like we do our football teams. Hope you enjoy the story…
What Would Happen If…
We Ran Our Football Teams as We Do Our Classrooms:
Everyone would have the right to equal playing times so that all could develop their athletic skills equally.
Cooperation would be more important than excellence. Competition would be frowned upon.
Since star athletes are already talented, they would not need special coaching or conditioning. They could help teach other athletes since “to teach something is really to learn it”.
We could “coach to the middle.”
We would strive to develop well-rounded athletes. Thus, the star quarterback would take a turn sitting on the bench as a trainer. The student of lower analytical skills would get a turn as quarterback. The out-of-shape student who hates physical activity would get the opportunity to play running back.
Coaches would be expected to understand when jobs, family trips or homework interfered with practice time by adapting game plans to accommodate multiple interests.
Coaches would be assigned to parking lot supervision duty immediately before and after games and during half-time. If athletes had questions about game plans, they could meet with coaches in the parking lot. Coaches would have to plan their plays before or during supervision duty.
Coaches could not demand too much of students lest they create stress or interfere with many other interests and priorities.
If the team had a losing season, new philosophies of coaching would be developed. Each new philosophy would discard all previous philosophies. It would require a two-hour training session and supply the coach with a pocket folder crammed with philosophy and objectives. Coaches could plan their strategies between supervision duties and games.
We Ran Our Classrooms as We Do Our Football Teams:
Teachers would walk into class enthused and fired up with the importance and relevance of what they were teaching.
Students would be in class because they wanted to learn and they would respect the teacher and put all their energy into the class. Classes would be more important to them than their jobs or football practice.
Parents would jam the schools asking the teacher how to help their students excel.
Students wouldn’t dare miss class or skip doing homework lest they be dropped from the academic team.
Students would develop a sense of teamwork and cooperation fueled by their love of learning and challenging of each other. Students would take pride in their classes and demand that classmates give their best.
Students would clamor to be “student of the week” or make the honor roll. Other students, teachers and the community would enthusiastically and supportively be involved in student learning.
We would have rallies and bands and cheerleaders for National Merit Scholars and honor students, and they would not feel uncomfortable about receiving the attention because this would be every student’s dream.
Every night the 10 o’clock news would devote a full 10-minute segment to education issues and highlights. The morning radio stations would compete for the educational audience.
Newspapers would devote several pages (or a whole section) complete with pictures to academic activities.
We would demand excellence in the classroom and teach cooperation and patience on the playing field.
Our society would clamor to build and equip learning facilities because everybody would recognize the value of well-educated citizens to the business community. Could you imagine academic NIL money????