{"id":1757,"date":"2007-08-06T20:29:59","date_gmt":"2007-08-07T03:29:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1757"},"modified":"2007-08-06T21:11:35","modified_gmt":"2007-08-07T04:11:35","slug":"in-search-of-excellence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1757\/in-search-of-excellence\/","title":{"rendered":"In Search of Excellence"},"content":{"rendered":"

That, of course, was the name of a best-selling management book<\/a> that came out in the early eighties. It not so much defined my market philosophy as confirmed what I’d already learned from Nordstrom: Concentrate on excellence and rewards will follow. Concentrate on rewards, and you’re pretty much assured of being consigned to mediocrity. <\/em><\/p>\n

What’s been interesting to watch in the twenty five or so intervening years isn’t so much that nearly every business gives lip service to the tenet, but what’s happened to the definition of ‘excellence’. The education establishment meets failing test scores by dumbing down the tests. Grades are allocated not on merit, but on the perceived sensitivities of the students, just as soccer games are played without keeping score so as not to hurt anyone’s feelings. You can get an undergrad English Lit degree at the University of Washington without ever having studied Shakespeare. In the frenetic twenty-first “I want it now!”<\/em> century reading has become a chore, replaced by vapid visual stimulation and fifteen minute podcasts. Writing skills have devolved to YouTube. Joseph Conrad need not apply.<\/p>\n

So what? Here’s so what: Words matter<\/em>. Reading builds vocabulary, writing exercises its use. But not only is someone who draws on 150,000 words able to communicate concepts better than one who’s limited to the normal 50,000, but he or she is infinitely better able to conceive them in the first place.<\/em> I’ve said — often — that good writers invariably make good thinkers, largely because they do.<\/p>\n

All of which was going through my mind as I read this weekend’s BHB posts.<\/p>\n

Whew. Excellent.<\/p>\n

Before I started my own RE blog I searched the internet to see how others were doing it. Lots of people giving advice, most of it in the genre of Kris’ exquisite satire: Keep it short, be witty, illustrate cleverly. Most blogs seemed to keep diligently to that formula, but two things were apparent: that A) Most were blogging just to be blogging, and not to be actually saying anything; and B) the “Keep it short” formula was necessary to mask an inability to string words Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That, of course, was the name of a best-selling management book that came out in the early eighties. It not so much defined my market philosophy as confirmed what I’d already learned from Nordstrom: Concentrate on excellence and rewards will follow. Concentrate on rewards, and you’re pretty much assured of being consigned to mediocrity. What’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3,15,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blog-carnivals","7":"category-blogging","8":"category-carnival-of-real-estate","9":"category-real-estate","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12065,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/12065\/using-captcha-to-capture-idiotic-real-estate-agents\/","url_meta":{"origin":1757,"position":0},"title":"Using Captcha to Capture Idiotic Real Estate Agents","author":"Don Reedy, San Diego, CA","date":"May 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A CAPTCHA is a challenge-response test most often placed within web forms to determine whether the user is human. The purpose of CAPTCHA is to block form submissions by spambots, which are automated scripts that post spam content everywhere they can. Somebody's Got to Stop the Stupid Okay, a bit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Flourishing"","block_context":{"text":"Flourishing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/flourishing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1520,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1520\/excellence-is-ennobling-and-to-make-a-habit-of-excellence-is-to-lead-a-noble-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":1757,"position":1},"title":"“Excellence is ennobling, and to make a habit of excellence is to lead a noble life”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I said that, but I didn't include in the video I made for the Carnival of Real Estate blog: The link shown below is the same film in better-quality NTSC video.","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1756,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1756\/vale-carne-vale-recasting-the-odysseus-medal-as-a-carnival-of-real-estate-weblogging-excellence\/","url_meta":{"origin":1757,"position":2},"title":"Vale, carne vale: Recasting The Odysseus Medal as a carnival of real estate weblogging excellence","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 6, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm pretty fed up with the Carnival of Real Estate. It is what it is, and there have been times over the past year when it has blown tender kisses toward the sublime. But much too often it has chosen to rut around in the mud, and, in any case,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2656,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2656\/the-network-excellent-real-estate-agents-wanted\/","url_meta":{"origin":1757,"position":3},"title":"The Network — Excellent Real Estate Agents Wanted","author":"Mike Farmer","date":"February 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Dead or alive. Just kidding. How many excellent agents are there in your area? Well, first let's define \"excellent\" so that it meets my purposes. There are successful agents who were born in the right family and have \"excellent\" connections. There are sucessful agents who are excellent in the old\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3244,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/3244\/who-wants-to-play-the-projectbloodhound-game-teri-and-i-are-avid-to-inflict-some-excellence-on-a-few-hapless-volunteers-provided-you-will-pitch-in-your-own-unique-social-media-marketing-skills\/","url_meta":{"origin":1757,"position":4},"title":"Who wants to play the ProjectBloodhound game? Teri and I are avid to inflict some excellence on a few hapless volunteers, provided you will pitch in your own unique Social Media Marketing skills","author":"Greg Swann","date":"June 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Hunter Jackson came up with the idea of revisiting ProjectBloodhound the other night, and that was a stroke of pure genius. It gnawed at me as soon as he brought it up, and I wasn't alone: Teri Lussier was thinking along the same lines. Here's why: Even though we documented\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":332,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/332\/bedtime-links-lawyer-free-real-estate-zillowing-redfin-dancing-with-the-dinosaurs-the-map-to-mash-up-excellence-and-memorable-truths-about-real-estate-20\/","url_meta":{"origin":1757,"position":5},"title":"Bedtime links: Lawyer-free real estate, Zillowing Redfin, dancing with the dinosaurs, the map to mash-up excellence and memorable truths about Real Estate 2.0 . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Christine gives a nice run-down of seller-only agency as it is practiced in New York State. This is not very far from the way things used to be done in Arizona, except that, because of Article 26 to the state constitution, lawyers are not required to effect the transfer of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}