I read a great article on Business Insider that reviewed Tom Corley’s 10 ways in which rich people think differently. I couldn’t help but think how closely this applies to the real estate industry. Tom’s book can be purchased here, but before you do so, let me review four of these points and how they so closely relate to those who are successful in real estate and those who are not.

Rich people believe their habits have a major impact on their lives

What habits do you stick to every day to improve your success in selling real estate? Do you set aside 30 minutes or an hour every morning to make important phone calls? Or do you just wait for people to call you back? Do you make it a habit of reading real estate blogs every morning to stay up to speed on the latest trends or technology that can help you become more effective?

Rich people are willing to take risks

This point resonated the most with me. How often do you take a risk to improve your business? The most obvious risk in our industry is the infusion of your own cash into your business. Spending money with the hope it creates a return in the form of improved sales is risky, especially when you don’t have a ton of it. Have you invested your money, or time, lately to improve how you do business?

But remember who you’re competing against, whether you’re in a real estate development as part of a sales team or on your own as an independent agent, there are other successful people trying to beat you. Successful people who have huge databases of friends and clients, who make new friends all the time through being socially integrated in their communities, who invest in new technology to help their business grow, who practice proven sales techniques and make a habit of doing the things that failures don’t like to do.

Rich people value relationships for professional and personal growth

Do you make a habit of maintaining relationships with past clients? Corley talks about “hello calls” and “life event” calls and how making them leads to building and maintaining relationships, something that is critical to success… especially in real estate! Do you make a practice of keeping in touch and turning clients into friends?

Rich people love meeting new people

Rich people believe that being liked is important to financial success and they love meeting new people. Of course we all know that in real estate, the more people you know, the better. Do you make a point of meeting new people?

It’s my guess that you answered “yes” to the four questions above. This is why you’re successful. But if not, now you have some things to work on. The irony here is that the most successful agents or sales people will continue to improve the items even though they already answered “yes” and the unsuccessful people won’t.