Try & Fail. Fail To Try?
Who remembers the Cabbage Patch Kids? For those of us who weren’t a child of the 80’s, here is a quick history lesson about the phenomena that swept the world and dominated many a list to Santa!
In 1976, the young art student Xavier Roberts began crafting fabric sculptures based on the 19th-century German technique known as “needle molding.”
Two years later, Roberts got some friends together to renovate a turn-of-the-century medical facility and start the BabyLand General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia, where people could “adopt” one of his so-called Little People. These handmade dolls had soft faces (as opposed to the hard plastic ones that would be sold on the mass market) and were sold with birth certificates, unique names and certificates of adoption.
By 1981, the growing success of Babyland General Hospital had been documented by national publications including Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal. The following year, Roberts’s company, Original Appalachian Artworks, Inc., agreed to let a major toy manufacturer, Coleco, reproduce a version of the handmade soft sculpture. The result was a smaller doll with a vinyl head, and an “adoption fee” of around $30. Now known as Cabbage Patch Kids, these dolls soon became a legend.
By the end of 1983, close to 3 million had been sold and demand was outstripping supply. The dolls graced the cover of Newsweek, after becoming the most successful new doll introduction in the history of the toy industry. Sales of the dolls and of Cabbage Patch Kids-related merchandise–including diapers, clothing and cereal–topped $2 billion in 1984 alone.
As a little girl, my sister and I also were “mothers” to a Cabbage Patch doll each, except we always felt somewhat cheated as ours weren’t the authentic Cabbage Patch kids – they didn’t come with the signature on the bottom.
To make things worse for me, and it’s really amazing I turned out okay despite all these challenges in my childhood, my sister had the gorgeous kid with the red hair, and I had another not so desirable one. Talk about upsetting!
So, how does this all relate to the real estate market and industry? Well, it doesn’t, but I have this week, bid for and WON (I am still amused by this ‘won’ terminology because I’ve never had to ‘pay’ for anything I’ve ‘won’ before!) Authentic, vintage Cabbage Patch Kid circa 1982 in MINT condition on e-bay (this was in fact my first foray in to the ‘world of ebay’ but more about that some other post!). She has beautiful brown hair and she has been named ‘Annabella’ or ‘Bella’ as Milla likes to call her. Of course, Milla, has laid claim on her though she does know that it is ‘mummy’s dolly’!!! I am VERY impressed with this $32 purchase and feel like I have finally set the record straight from when I was young with my fake undesirable doll!
And, maybe there is a message in that.
You can achieve what you set out to, and rectify the wrongs or misfortune of the past. One bad property investment of either your own or a friend/family member of yours, does not necessarily mean that all the rest will be too. Its just about knowing what you want, knowing where to look for it, and then making it happen!
What it also suggests to me, as a business woman, is that from little things, big things grow. The most difficult and challenging thing to do in starting out in business or attempting to break ground in your industry is to actually take the first step. Who knows, maybe one day down the track I will look back on these early days of All Brisbane Realty and think to myself ‘wow, who would have thought we would come this far’, though what ever the outcome, there sure is truth in the saying that ‘It is better to try and fail than to not have tried at all. But if you DO fail, try, try and try again’. I’m sure Xavier Roberts of BabyLand General Hospital, Giorgia fame would certainly agree with this!
Procrastination 101
During the past week I have tackled a wicked enemy of mine – one that creeps up when I least expect it to take me by surprise. It’s called procrastination, and it tends to find me when I really need to get important things done.
Interestingly, it’s always the most rewarding tasks that I tend to procrastinate over. The things that will provide the most joy and satisfaction find me procrastinating madly. For example, our little girl, Milla, has her birthday party just around the corner, and her greatest wish is a Dora the Explorer cake. Do you think I was jumping with enthusiasm to make it for her? No! But that doesn’t mean I cannot wait to see the excitement on her little face when she blows out her birthday candles. 
Similarly, this week we were working on our REIQ Excellence Awards submission and, while we know how important it is to ourselves and our team to be acknowledged for our successes over the past year, I just couldn’t bring myself to go through those awards criteria.
I know many people who procrastinate when they know it’s time to list their home for sale and start the next phase of their lives. Is it really because they don’t know where to start, that they are afraid moving will be expensive, that their house won’t sell, or they won’t find somewhere else to live? Or are they actually afraid of letting go, and moving forward?
Procrastination is a funny thing and I am definitely not the only one affected by this beast. Perhaps we as humans are a little afraid of achieving, of taking that next step. Maybe we cannot acknowledge our own growth or we may feel like we are letting go of something important in our past. I know Milla is only turning two, but that’s one year closer to her becoming an adult, and one year of her childhood that is lost. And by us submitting those application forms, we are acknowledging that we are no longer Jason and Ann-Maree – two individuals trying to make it in the big world of real estate, but actually leaders of a committed and talented team who are well on our way to being the most recognizable real estate brand in Brisbane!!!
But maybe we have got the wrong idea and need to look at it from another perspective. We need to be grateful for the past and welcome the future too, because that’s our journey in life. There is never a moment like the present, and sometimes it just takes a little courage to take that next step.
I will submit those submissions to the REIQ and be proud of how far we have come, I will ice that Dora cake if it kills me, and hopefully all those would-be sellers who are waiting for a sign that the time is right will realise that the current market has never been more ideal!
Bonds on Break
During my years of involvement in the real estate industry, I have noticed that the market has a very funny way of turning around so rapidly that we all don’t even notice it until, often, it’s too late to make the most of any opportunity it presents. Or, in the best case scenario, we are scrambling around frantically trying to make up for lost ground. Even those of us for whom it’s our job to stay tuned to the market so that we can advise our clients find it challenging to predict what is going to happen.
In August, the Bond family – that is, (husband) Jason Bond, high profile New Farm real estate sales professional, myself, and two-year-old Milla, took off for a little break to one of our favourite chill-out destinations, the Gold Coast. We felt it was a well-earned break, having reached and celebrated All Brisbane Realty’s two year anniversary in style with our Bond themed party, and managing to successfully grow our business in size and profit despite a global economic downturn.
The initial plan was to stay for a week. We took all the essentials for a great holiday – swimmers, sunblock, hat, reading material, toys for Milla, laptop and iphones. Answering queries from the office by the pool and putting together contracts on the beach came so naturally to us that we decided to extend our holiday another week. Luckily the resort didn’t need our room for other holiday-makers. And, to be honest, at that stage, the three of us were prepared to camp out on the beach – who needs a room anyway when you are having such a great time?
Coming back from our holiday, I felt entirely rested and ready for what the rest of the year would bring. And I would say this was the exact moment the proverbial snowball rolling down the hill started to pick up speed. Suddenly, almost overnight it seemed, we started to receive an unexpectedly high level of enquiry and activity across all brackets. It would seem that, when it become apparent that the effects of the Global Financial Crisis were not as severe locally as elsewhere in the world, confidence lifted across many sectors, particularly the local housing market.
Local families decided at this moment to take advantage of what was a lull in activity due to a lack of confidence around the time of the Global Financial Crisis. Activity levels from buyers jumped dramatically over the weeks that followed and, more recently, many New Farm properties our office had listed were receiving multiple offers and some were selling over the asking price.
However, it seems that unfortunately many sellers have missed the boat, so to speak. There is not a lot of New Farm stock available, because most home owners have been holding onto their homes to ride out the quieter market. This creates a highly competitive real estate environment among buyers and at the same time, ideal selling conditions for vendors. But this window won’t stay open for long, so our advice to sellers is to get busy now!
