Just Do It in 2020

Without a doubt one of my favorite times of the year is the Christmas/New Year season. We get to celebrate our Savior’s birthday, spend time with friends and family, eat and drink a little too much, and get away from work. In my case, I also use this time of year to review the previous year and draft a plan for the year ahead.

I was looking for some motivation this year, and I had the good fortune of a friend sending me a link to this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R9c0RAz678 (I highly recommend you watch it, if you’re  time sensitive skip the first 3 minutes). This is about the winning edge that Art Williams used to build a successful business allowing his associates to become millionaires and himself a billionaire. Art is from humble beginnings in Cairo, GA and went to local universities Mississippi State and Auburn. He started out as a football coach and then became a struggling salesman. He went on to found A. L. Williams & Associates which became the largest seller of term life insurance in the country. He essentially made term life insurance famous by bringing it to the masses.

Art’s speech in the video above really resonated with me. I liked it so much I took some notes during the speech and shared it with our team. Art’s keys to winning in business are listed below. He effectively communicates them, and I believe they are all true. Maybe you can use some of his ideas and motivation for a prosperous New Year. I sure hope so, and we wish you the best.

  1. Must have mental toughness
  2. Must be enthusiastic
  3. Got to have dream
  4. Must believe I Can vs. I Can’t (remember the paddle)
  5. Being controversial is ok: what is not ok is average and ordinary
  6. Must have total commitment
  7. Treat people well and love them
  8. Establish the right priorities: God 1st, Family 2nd, Business 3rd
  9. Must have a heart of a champion: always do a little more
  10. Somebody in the organization has got be a great leader
  11. Losers Almost do it, WINNERS DO IT!

Let me close by making three bold commercial real estate predictions for 2020:

  1. There will be a regional headquarters announcement in our metro area. This will be a white-collar company with at least 500 jobs. A blue-collar job announcement does not count here.
  2. Overall, we will see construction prices and real estate values continue to increase. Therefore, the market will remain a sellers’ market.
  3. The Parkside district in Birmingham will continue to make the push to be the most culturally dynamic and densely populated area with the highest priced real estate and lowest vacancy rates in the entire state of Alabama. We will see numerous major announcements to match this prediction throughout the year.