The memes keep coming through in their dozens, but now I have turned off notifications on my WhatsApp desktop – what a relief.   Don’t get me wrong, I love getting the memes and funnies, but they are distracting when trying to focus!  BTW, I have found desktop WhatsApp really useful for work - talking to remote team members and being able to send links to online docs. And then there’s the keyboard which is much faster too.

I guess to some extent, I always have always been easily distracted.  When I was at school my reports always had comments such as, “easily distracted”, “needs to pay more attention in class” and “has a habit to let his mind wander”!  Nowadays the report card might have been slightly more generous and said things such as “is a right angle thinker”, “able to multi-task” and “has great imagination”!

I was never a great student at school in terms of academic achievements, but always just about get through.  In retrospect I wish I had done my parents proud just once by delivering one glowing report, but never did.  

Quite conversely, Jonah and Noah have delivered exceptional results and reports throughout their schooling.  What a great feeling to attend to parents evenings, knowing you are going to be told what a pleasure it is to teach your kids!  Obviously they take after their mother on that side of things!  Unfortunately, the guys are somewhat in limbo just now – A-level exams have been cancelled and they are still waiting to hear how they will be graded for university access. 

After uni, my working career started in warehouse automation systems and fork trucks, moved to computer hardware and radio frequency ID technology and then on to transactional web sites and systems for financial services companies.  I was always in sales and marketing and employed.  After being made redundant when the dot com bubble burst (the VCs pulled out on Christmas Eve!), I set up two businesses – one in software services with a partner and the other in vending machines – more about those another time.

When I came to Spain I got involved in property.  Helping people find their dream holiday home is very different to the corporate sales work that I was used to.  For a start, people were buying with their own hard earned money – not spending departmental budget allocation.  This got my immediate attention and respect. 

Of course everyone has different tastes and place different value / importance on certain things when it comes to property, otherwise there would only be one type of house or, apartment – just imagine how boring that would be!    But I decided I would always say it as I saw it.  My policy is always to point out the potential negatives as well as positives of any given property. That buyers go in with open eyes and can decide for themselves whether a property is right for them.  I am sure it has cost me a few sales over the years, but at least I sleep well at night!

Curiously, I also realised that some of my apparent downfalls in school were perhaps some of biggest assets.  For example, not focusing or paying attention to one thing only, actually means I notice things that others might not.  Perhaps that’s just called being perceptive, but the fact I care enough to share these things and help people make better decisions is rewarding to me.

Question is, when I am going to be able to take out the next client to look at property?!!

Keep safe in these troubling times,

Anthony

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