Mortgage Folks, What Are You Worth?

Michael Jordan doesn’t get paid millions of dollars to play basketball, Michael Jordan gets paid millions of dollars to have people come WATCH him play basketball.”

I heard this quote several years ago (when MJ was playing) and it puzzled me at first, but I knew there was something there, I just couldn’t wrap my brain around it.   Little by little I started understanding it and it made complete sense to me. 

I’m talking about this now because just today I listened to someone say “Does he PLAY for the team or does he PERFORM for the team?” (talking about sports)   Then he substituted the word WORK for the word PLAY, and the first quote came back to me, and it made even more sense to me. 

The analogy was dealing with self worth, job security and career security.

If something happened to the Chicago Bulls when MJ was playing and he was no longer a Bull, how long do you think he would have been without a basket job?  It was his marketability, he had career security.

I’ll see if I can put my own twist on this to relate it to the mortgage business.

Being a Loan Officer is one of the few careers where it can be said you get paid exactly what you’re worth.  In other words, your income is directly based on what you do or have done.  Very seldom can you sit in an office and expect business to just walk in the door and fall in your lap.

Oh sure, some LO’s are in offices where all the marketing is done for them, the clients are brought to them and bingo, a closed loan.  That’s fine and dandy, but what happens when this flow stops?  If you don’t produce for a month or two, regardless if it’s your fault or not, what happens?  You either quit to find something else to earn a living or your employer will “help you quit”, if you know what I mean. 

*I’m talking from experience on this one folks, I was once a sitter waiting for business to find me as well*

So now, does the term “does he WORK for the company or PERFORM for the company” make sense?  

People are not going to come to you for their mortgage because you’re a mortgage professional, people will come to you because they heard of you from somewhere else, hence from your performance.   Oh, let’s make something clear, I’m talking about referral business, not necessarily brand new business. 

If you have performed well in the past, your reputation will follow you, regardless of where you go.   Matter of fact, in this business, if you’re well known, you can write your own ticket to just about any place you want to go work.  

In other words, you don’t get paid because you do mortgages, you get paid because people WATCH you do mortgages.  (you doing their mortgage is what I mean).  Does that make sense? 

Yes, I know this article is one of those “thinking man’s” articles, but I’m attempting to make you think about your net worth in the market place. 

If you have net worth in the market place, you have career security.  That means you don’t have to worry about job security.  You have created something for yourself that will attract people to your business.  You don’t get paid to do mortgages, you get paid to have people WATCH you do mortgages.