Silver linings. Published in the Surf Coast Times

In life, stuff happens. It just does. Most of it is out of our control. But it still happens. What is important is how we react and how we bounce. This is both in actions and in attitude. Most businesses work in a competitive playing field and the industry we work in is highly competitive. If you work hard things often go your way, but also the ability to deal with it when it doesn’t is just as important as being gracious when it does.
I read a fantastic book once written by legendary bookmaker Bill Waterhouse (now 94) called “What’s the odds?” Bill used to take on Kerry Packer, accepting huge bets from him and taking the risk that he would come out on top. Sometimes he did and sometimes he didn’t. Bill was a huge believer in luck. His thoughts were that if luck was against you despite you doing everything right, you would often still have a bad outcome. But he said that if you kept doing everything you knew you needed to do, that when your luck changed, it would change in your favor massively and, he said that he had seen it many times through his long life. The trouble is many people don’t push through to allow themselves to bounce back hard enough.
It will be very interesting to watch what happens in the Wye River community now that the fire is out. The time of resilience is dawning. Some will bounce, others will say it’s all too hard and try and sell to move on. This was the example after Ash Wednesday 33 years ago. Many of those that folded regretted it later. What followed after Ash Wednesday was that the local economy boomed with all the rebuilding. There were enormous amounts of work available, all the suppliers in the area boomed, there was need for accommodation and businesses to feed and service all those working and living in the area. It was a silver lining to a calamitous event.
Looking at this example and generally in life, it appears that the silver lining seems to be an elevated metaphorical phenomenon. In that – unless you are prepared to bounce back high enough after a negative event, you will never encounter it.
If we can ever be of any assistance in any real estate matter please do not hesitate to call.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *