When the market is tough -- as it has been for several years -- mortgage pros need all the encouragement they can get
By David Lykken
Special to MPA
I write a lot about persevering in difficult times. I feel like it's a message that lenders need to continually hear in order to get up everyday and go to work. When the market is tough--and it has been for several years--we need all the encouragement we can get.
In April, we experienced a huge dip in retail sales. When we see measures like this, it makes us worry about the state of the economy going forward. How are we going to sell mortgages if people aren't spending money?
I heard an interesting story recently about the time the British introduced golf to India. Whenever games would be played, the monkeys would swoop down from the trees and steal the golf balls. At first, the golfers tried keeping the monkeys out by putting up fences. Of course, that didn't work. So, what did they do? They changed the rules of the game. The new rule: play the ball where the monkey drops it.
That moral of the story is that, sometimes, we've got to roll with the punches. I think we sometimes get caught up in thinking about the glory days and reminiscing on better times. It's better to simply accept hardship as the new normal than it is to let the challenges keep us from doing our work. Even when the economy does improve, there will always be monkeys causing disruptions. Let's stop trying to keep them out and, instead, just make them a part of the game.
David Lykken is 40-year industry veteran who has been an owner operator of three mortgage banking companies and a software company. As co-founder and Managing Partner of Mortgage Banking Solutions, David consults on virtually all aspects of mortgage banking with special emphasis executive leadership development, corporate strategic direction and implementation as well as mergers & acquisitions. A regular contributor on CNBC and Fox Business News, David also hosts a successful weekly radio program called “Lykken On Lending” (www.LykkenOnLending.com) that is heard each Monday at noon (Central Standard Time) by thousands of mortgage professionals. Recently he started producing a 1-minute video called “Today’s Mortgage Minute” that appears on hundreds of television, radio and newspaper websites daily across America.
