Failure Is The Opportunity to Begin Again More Intelligently-- Henry Ford

Henry Ford, originally uploaded by Brent Hageman.

This past week was, to say the least, not a good one. Thanks to the blunders of two other brokers, two deals didn't go through, costing me several thousand dollars in commissions.

The first genius, we'll call him Phil, was a broker from another company that had a furnished one bedroom that my clients, a brother and sister from Europe, were going to share for a few months. My clients were approved, leases were drawn and checks were cut to both the owner and Phil, the other broker. My clients were staying at the Intercontinental Hotel, so the sooner they could get into the apartment, the better.

At 9:00 p.m. the night before, Phil The Genius told me the owners were calling the deal off because they didn't want an NYU student living in the apartment, and putting a bed in the living room.

This is when I lost my mind. My clients were in their late 30s, and taking professional development courses at NYU. They were going to put an air mattress in the living room, not an entire frame and box spring. But Phil, whose listening skills rival those of Helen Keller, apparently, told the owners that an undergrad and her brother would be living in the apartment. He misrepresented them, ruined the deal, and decided to tell me this hours before my clients were supposed to move in.

Grrr.

The lesson from all this is that although I couldn't control Phil's antics, maybe from now I need to control situations a little more. Early on I noticed Phil wasn't getting things right, but I never thought he would flub the whole deal after they were approved. Maybe I should have listened to my gut when I first felt that Phil wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, and been more clear about who exactly would be in the unit, and who they were. Then again, they did fill out an application, so that should have made it clear enough.

Needless to say I will never work on anything with Phil again, and if I can avoid his company, I will.

By the way, I found the quote because I follow a guy called ABKing on Twitter. You should, too.