Walk Like a Giant, Sell Like a Madman

6.3. Start Small, Grow Large

I've always had assistants to help me, right from the start. In fact, I helped pioneer the concept among Realtors. Even today, well over 50 percent of all Realtors in the nation do not have an assistant. The superstars, on the other hand, usually have several.

I hired my first assistant when I was just 18 years old. I would be working the floor, as we say in real estate, taking my turn answering phone calls that came into the office. The duty rotates in three- or four-hour shifts. I hated the duty, hated taking calls for other agents. If a buyer or seller called looking for a salesperson to work with, I wanted to talk to them. However, if a caller just wanted to leave a message for another agent, I'd tell them to call back later.

I'd get in big trouble with the other salespeople. I was the youngest person in the office, and I guess they thought I wasn't paying my dues. To step up to the challenge, I hired a high school student to help me after school and I paid her about $4 an hour. Her schedule matched mine. If I had 18 hours of floor duty one week, then she sat beside me for those 18 hours answering phones. She gave my calls to me and took messages for everyone else. That freed me up for what I did best—working with my clients. In addition, all the other agents in the office started receiving legible messages.

Unfortunately, even though my young assistant answered the phones and took messages better than just about everyone in the office, some of ...