Loopy lessons

Some pieces of accepted business wisdom are more at home at the bottom of the garden – with all the other pixies and fairy tales. Here’s a few gems… KIRSTY DUNPHEY

By Kirsty Dunphey

Never listen to the person in business who tells you…

Don’t hire people smarter than you

As Zig Ziglar eloquently recaps, when you hire somebody smarter than yourself, you prove you are smarter than they are. One of the best lessons I’ve ever been taught in managing people is that A-grade manager’s hire A-grade people, B-grade managers hire C-grade people. If you need to be the smartest person in the room at all times, get used to your business growth stagnating and constantly hearing the words “if I want something done right…” come out of your mouth.

Don’t share your knowledge within your industry

I was always asked by other real estate agents why I’d get on a stage (or go to lunch) and share everything I knew about real estate and about my business. Wasn’t I afraid that people were going to copy me?

Number 1 – if you’re doing something exceptional, people will find out regardless, that’s the beauty and the downfall of word-of-mouth, nothing sensational stays a secret for long.

Number 2 – people don’t implement every great idea they hear, as much as speakers would love them to, it just doesn’t happen.

Number 3 – when you share a great idea, you don’t lose it, you just multiply it, and if you do it properly the person you’re sharing it with may have some great ideas on how you can improve your idea.

You don’t have time to learn

It’s simple really. Don’t learn, don’t grow. Don’t grow, go backwards.

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at 20 or 80. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” – Henry Ford

You have to be ruthless to get ahead

I have my own theories on different success styles but the more I meet successful people, the more I meet amazing, kind, generous, sharing people. In speaking to two different groups of real estate agents in New Zealand last week, the overwhelming response when I asked who was the person in their industry who they’d most like to become more like, was an agent by the name of Alison Aitken (a gun, but also incredibly well respected because of her ethics, standards and values).

Kirsty Dunphey is one of Australia’s most publicised young entrepreneurs and is the founder of www.reallysold.com – a tool to help real estate agents create advertisements. The youngest ever winner of the Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year award, Kirsty started her first business at 15, her own real estate agency at 21, was a self-made millionaire at 23 and a self-made multi-millionaire at 25. For more information on Kirsty or either of her books – Advance to Go, Collect $1 Million and Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can, or to sign up to her weekly newsletter head to: www.kirstydunphey.com

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