“Knowledge of the self, is the mother of all knowledge..”

  • 10 years ago
  • 1

So said Khalil Gibran (look him up). As we listen and read the various panegyrics that have (quite rightly) been put forward about Tony McCoy and his record-breaking achievement of riding 4000 winners as a national hunt jockey, I do wonder what it is that makes people behave as they do and achieve success, or failure in their chosen field.  His sporting triumphs are indeed a tour de force and will almost certainly never be surpassed.  He is though only human with human foibles and characteristics that are not always attractive to other humans, ( never mind the horses).  Having stood at the wings of the last ditch down the back at Wetherby, or in the unsaddling enclosure at Southwell and listened to him holding forth, in his own inimitable way, it is not always a speech that you would wish to repeat to an impressionable young soul, (or an aging grandmother who has been round more corners than Sebastian Vettel).  But that is the point; having spoken with him several times over the years, he doesn’t want to be your friend, he wants to beat you, or ride your horse that can allow him to beat someone else. (AP, if you read this, it isn’t intended as grounds for a libel case).  Which segues neatly with my next musing on the behaviour of the human species.  Having been around the block almost as many times as the aforementioned grandmother, I am more than used to fellow estate agents traducing myself and my skills as an estate agent; not my skills as Cwmbran’s resident lothario, (but that is the subject for another blog…).  It does though still does irritate me when a member of the public accuses me of being unprofessional in my behaviour.  Of course, the customer is always right, to a point; but when a catalogue of evidence is produced to prove that certain actions did occur and the aggrieved individual still insists on claiming you to be at best, incompetent and at worst mendacious, it really does give me the Donald Trump.  Of course, we all screw up.  I have watched a certain A P McCoy fall off a seasoned handicapper,  (and before you ask, no, it wasn’t mine and I’m not talking through my pocket), but he falls off them less than anyone else.  That is the point.  To err is human, admitting to errors is a characteristic that not everyone chooses to display and to learn from one’s errors is, if not essential if you wish to achieve, but highly recommended.  Rather like not asking the horse at the end of the 3-mile chase in hock-deep mud to come up outside the wings at the last.  Stop looking for the picture to go above the mantelpiece, get over and have the picture of you receiving the winning jockey’s trophy.  Anyway, back to estate agency and property matters.  We all try to please the customer, after all we are in a service industry.  But after thirty years in the game, this week I have again had it made perfectly clear that to quote a friend of Mr McCoy’s, “there really is no helping some £$%*’s”.  If you can guess the friend, you might win a prize. Maybe.

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