As a property student, I was lucky enough to be given an opportunity to work part time for one of Auckland's most well known developers. At the time, my focus was probably more on enjoying my time at University, rather than looking to learn as much as I could from this role. I was young, seemingly bulletproof and had an answer to every question or situation I was put in.
In this post, I'll share this exchange which led to a moment of clarity in which I realised that I didn't have all the answers as I had previously thought. With the benefit of hindsight, I made what is now clearly, a very basic mistake and one I should not have made.
The conversation
I can still remember sitting down with the GM of this property company and we had a conversation which went a little like this.
GM: "How much is the weekly rent for each carpark?"
Me: "$100 a week."
GM: "Right, so... if we charge rent monthly in advance, how much will each monthly payment be?"
Me: "$400 a month...."
At this point if you are an owner of property and can't see the mistake I've made in the conversation above, then we should really have a catch up and talk about the management of your assets!
Tip 1 There's a difference between a calendar month and 4 weeks in a month - don't make this mistake!
Tip 2 Treat each conversation as an opportunity to learn something new.
Tip 3 Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime.
Learnings
This humbling exchange right at the start of my career, is one of many lessons which I have learnt and absorbed. Who we are today as professionals can be directly attributable to the lessons we learn along the way.
It's no secret that I love rugby and I was fortunate enough to watch Steve Hansen during a live interview, where he explains the value of experience versus learning from your experiences.
“...you've got to be careful when you start talking about experience... because sometimes just because you've played for a long time, you might have learnt a lot of things that you don't want to learn... or you may have learnt nothing along the way...”
Check out his interview below...
Is experience alone enough?
Steve Hansen's commentary around experience compared with youth really resonated with me. I don't think it's possible to simply state the number of years someone has within a particular industry without also looking at what they have learnt during this time.
Looking back at my own career within property, I have been fortunate to have worked for and alongside some fantastic individuals, employers and mentors. Being able to tap into the wealth of knowledge of these individuals and organisations has shaped me as a professional.
Final Thoughts
I take great pride in being able to say that not only do I have 20 years of direct property and asset management experience, but I have continued to learn and improve during this time. It is this very drive which has allowed me to bring what I consider to be a truly unique offering to the property and asset management market in Auckland.
If you would like to have a quick chat to see whether AssetPro might be of use to your own or someone else's property portfolio, please feel free to reach out to me!