Page 60 - The Way to the Top

One savvy couple had a pair of cellular phones and were calling each
other back and forth as they dashed through the buildings looking at

apartments. It was the first day I saw cell phones in use. When they
decided on an apartment they liked, the husband ran to the table while his
wife kept looking, just in case. As he signed the contract, he called his
wife on her cellular phone and said, “Honey, we got one, you can stop.”

One man rushed back to the contract table announcing he liked the C

line of apartments in the building. “It doesn’t matter which floor, I just
want to buy a C, any C.” When we told him that all the C’s had been sold,
he decided he liked B’s too, “any B.”

We started the day with eighty-eight apartments that nobody wanted and

our company near bankruptcy. By day’s end, eighty-eight proud new
owners were celebrating their good fortune, and we had eighty-eight
checks to deposit and had earned over a million dollars in net
commissions. I continued to build my business until 2001, when I sold it
for $70 million.

So, the best lesson I ever learned in business was from my mother:

When there are ten buyers and three puppies, every dog is the pick of
the litter.

When there are ten buyers and three puppies, every dog is

the pick of the litter