09/20/2026
DASHBOARD CONFESSIONS | No. 04 💭
Things I’ve learned somewhere between the showing and the drive home.
There are three words that will save you a whole lot of trouble in life:
“I messed up.”
And somehow, they can be three of the hardest words to say.
Real estate has taught me that pretty quickly. 😬
There are a LOT of moving pieces in a real estate transaction.
Agents. Buyers. Sellers. Lenders. Inspectors. Appraisers. Title companies. Contractors. Deadlines. Paperwork.
Which means when something goes wrong, there are usually plenty of places to point a finger.
But one thing I’ve learned?
Being able to explain why something happened isn’t the same as taking ownership of your part in it.
Sometimes the email really did get missed.
Sometimes you should have followed up sooner.
Sometimes you could have communicated better.
Sometimes you made the wrong call.
Sometimes you thought someone else was handling it.
And sometimes…
you just screwed up.
I have.
I will again.
We all will.
The goal was never to make it through life without making mistakes.
The goal is to become the kind of person who can look at one honestly and say:
That part was mine.
No excuses.
No carefully crafted explanation that somehow leaves you completely innocent.
No finding someone else to carry the blame because admitting you were wrong feels uncomfortable.
Just ownership.
Because accountability isn’t about beating yourself up.
It’s about having enough integrity to tell the truth, enough humility to learn from it, and enough character to try to make it right.
And I think there’s a huge difference between making a mistake and refusing to own one.
One can teach you.
The other will keep teaching you the same lesson over and over again.
That applies to real estate.
Business.
Friendships.
Marriage.
Parenting.
Pretty much every relationship we’ll ever have.
We spend a lot of time worrying about being right.
The older I get, the more I think there’s something far more valuable in being able to recognize when we weren’t.
Own your part.
Make it right when you can.
Learn something from it.
Then do better the next time.
You don’t lose credibility by admitting you made a mistake.
You lose it when everyone in the room knows you did…and you’re still trying to convince them you didn’t. ❤️
Things I’ve learned somewhere between the showing and the drive home.
