{"id":2164,"date":"2007-11-05T12:35:02","date_gmt":"2007-11-05T19:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2164"},"modified":"2007-11-05T12:34:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-05T19:34:00","slug":"the-odysseus-medal-becoming-and-remaining-a-professional-is-not-bestowed-on-someone-by-virtue-of-a-degree-or-a-certificate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2164\/the-odysseus-medal-becoming-and-remaining-a-professional-is-not-bestowed-on-someone-by-virtue-of-a-degree-or-a-certificate\/","title":{"rendered":"The Odysseus Medal: &#8220;Becoming and remaining a &#8216;professional&#8217; is not bestowed on someone by virtue of a degree or a certificate&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am buried. I have five houses in play and Cathy is on compulsory bed rest &#8212; on pain of hospitalization. I have a zillion little jobs that need doing around here, and I keep coming up with new ideas. For instance, I think it would be cool to promote the long list of Odysseus Medal nominees as a feed, as they come in, so that people can see what others are nominating. I say &#8220;sufficient unto the day&#8221; all the time, but, for now, I have to really mean it, because <i>I<\/i> can&#8217;t afford to get sick.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a classic joke:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Q: How do you get a professional poker player off your porch?<\/p>\n<p>A: Pay him for the pizza, cheapskate!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;ve never been a big booster of the idea of real estate as a profession because I tend to associate the word &#8220;professional&#8221; with people who lie about what they do for a living and live in Uncle Bob&#8217;s basement. Real estate is a business, on its best days, and someday it might grow to be an industry &#8212; if it ever dares to wean itself from Big Mother&#8217;s teat.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/WinnerTheOdysseusMedal.jpg\" align=\"left\" hspace=\"6\"\/>Bill Leider from Real Estate Shows has a different take on the matter, and he deploys it to take this week&#8217;s Odysseus Medal with <a href=\"http:\/\/res.realestateshows.com\/what-is-a-professional\/\" target=\"_blank\">What Is A Professional?<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When we shift the focus of the term professional from what we do to how we are perceived and treated, the definition and the entire concept of the designation &#8220;professional&#8221; changes.<\/p>\n<p>In that context of status and respect, what exactly is a professional? I believe that a &#8220;professional&#8221; is someone who takes what they do, whatever that happens to be, and transforms it into an art form. They make the mundane look magnificent. They make seemingly impossible things look drop-dead easy. They cover all the details, all the time. They master the subtleties. They silently acknowledge that they have a gift for what they do and they give that gift to the people in their world respectfully and compassionately. They know that they have never &#8220;arrived.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>They are never content with their present body of knowledge. They live with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2164\/the-odysseus-medal-becoming-and-remaining-a-professional-is-not-bestowed-on-someone-by-virtue-of-a-degree-or-a-certificate\/#more-2164\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am buried. I have five houses in play and Cathy is on compulsory bed rest &#8212; on pain of hospitalization. I have a zillion little jobs that need doing around here, and I keep coming up with new ideas. For instance, I think it would be cool to promote the long list of Odysseus [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"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":[21,3,6,5,23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blog-carnivals","7":"category-blogging","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","10":"category-the-odysseus-medal","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1835,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1835\/easy-nomination-form-for-the-odysseus-medal\/","url_meta":{"origin":2164,"position":0},"title":"Easy nomination form for The Odysseus Medal","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I built a quick and easy nomination form for The Odysseus Medal competition. You can continue to use the BlogCarnivals entry form, but I put this together to make it easier to nominate posts written by other people. The form lives at the top of The Odysseus Medal information page,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog Carnivals&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1907,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1907\/last-call-for-odysseus-medal-nominees\/","url_meta":{"origin":2164,"position":1},"title":"Last call for Odysseus Medal nominees","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I changed the graphic at the top of the page for the better part of last week, an homage to Kris Berg's excellent post, but I don't think anyone noticed. We have a bunch of great entries for The Odysseus Medal, but only you know what we're missing out on.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog Carnivals&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1961,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1961\/dont-forget-to-nominate-the-posts-you-love-most-for-the-odysseus-medal-competition\/","url_meta":{"origin":2164,"position":2},"title":"Don&#8217;t forget to nominate the posts you love most for the Odysseus Medal competition","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been occupied by matters funereal, but life goes on. The deadline for Odysseus Medal nominations is today at 12 Noon PDT\/MST. If you know of something worthy of recognition, your own work or someone else's, nominate it now while it's on your mind. Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog Carnivals&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1926,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1926\/deadline-looms-for-odysseus-medal-competition-act-now-or-weep-incessantly-sunday-afternoon\/","url_meta":{"origin":2164,"position":3},"title":"Deadline looms for Odysseus Medal competition: Act now or weep incessantly Sunday afternoon","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"There are already a couple dozen nominees for this week's Odysseus Medal competition. What are we missing? Only you know for sure. The deadline for nominations is Sunday at 12 Noon PDT\/MST, but if you know of something orbiting the skirts of perfection, your own work or someone else's, nominate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog Carnivals&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2216,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2216\/day-of-the-delay-of-the-odysseus-medal\/","url_meta":{"origin":2164,"position":4},"title":"Day of the delay of The Odysseus Medal . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm getting ready for the BloggerCon event at the NAR Convention and I've run myself out of time. I'll post the judging for The Odysseus Medal tomorrow morning. I'll leave the voting open for The People's Choice Award until I'm ready to post. In the mean time, although I've shown\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog Carnivals&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2046,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2046\/the-deadline-looms-for-odysseus-medal-nominations\/","url_meta":{"origin":2164,"position":5},"title":"The deadline looms for Odysseus Medal nominations&#8230;","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"...but you still have time. Cut-off is today at 12 Noon PDT\/MST. If you know of something worthy of recognition, your own work or someone else's, nominate it now while it's on your mind. Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blog Carnivals&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2164","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}