What you can learn when I make a fool of myself

I recently went to the Albemarle County Fair with Kari, my brother Bryan, and my mother-in-law Patsy.  We all like fairs, and one of the great things about living in an area that is as rural as ours is that during this time of year, there is a county fair close by just about every week.

One of the things I did while at the fair was try out this really interesting ladder game.  Basically, it was a rope ladder strung out across an inflatable platform.  At one end of the ladder was a bell.  The object was to climb the ladder and ring the bell.  Sounds simple.  It is, except for the fact that the ladder is attached to one point at the end that rotates freely.  This means that the ladder very easily flips over, knocking you off.

My brother went first.  He didn’t make it.  Being a brother, he challenged me, of course.  I gave it a shot.  Before I did, however, we asked the guy who was operating the game how many people actually do it.  He promptly jumped on the ladder, climbed right up, and rung the bell.  It looked pretty easy he did it.

So then, I got on.  Here is the result:

How does this matter to you?

Aside from the fact that you probably got a good chuckle out of watching me repeatedly fall over, this whole experience relates to business as well.

When a lot of folks look at technology, they look at it like most folks would look at the ladder game– impossible.  They watch others try and give up, or try and fail, and they think that it must be too hard for them, too.  Then, someone comes along and makes it all look easy, and it gives them confidence. Enough confidence to try it out, at least.

So, they do what I did.  They try to duplicate what they have seen others do, and maybe it doesn’t work out just right.  Maybe they fall down a few times, and then they just give up.

Don’t just give up

The fact of the matter is, though, that I know the ladder can be climbed; just as I know that technology can benefit real estate professionals.  I watched the carnival guy climb right up that ladder, and I have watched more than one real estate agent reap the benefits of things like blogging, twitter, Facebook, etc.

I am sure that the carnival guy didn’t climb that ladder on his first try. I couldn’t do it in four tries.  But, if I could put in more time and effort, I’m sure I could do it.  The same is true of technology. 

Because one of the professed benefits of technology is that it will make your life easier, people expect it to be easy.  That isn’t always true.  It usually takes some combination of effort and time for you to really see the benefit of using any given technology.  It certainly takes time for you to appreciate the benefits.

So, give it a try, and don’t give up on it.  I mean really, what’s the worst that could happen?  It’s not like your family is going to stand around with dozens of strangers and laugh at you.

(If you want to see some of the photos from our fair experience, they are on my Flickr page.)