January 22, 2010.
Am off today, to Vancouver, to attend the annual investment conference presented by Michael Campbell, of Money Talks fame. This is the equity side of investment choices, and it's always interesting to learn their "projections" for the coming year.
I attended last January's conference, too, and was surprised at the speakers (and they were from many different locales, both national and international) general ebullience about the market. Their projections did indeed come about, too, with a huge resurgence in the market, a far cry from the media "doomers" reporting of October, 2008.
It's always important to get out of one's own channel (in my case, real estate sales/connections, in a secondary home/discretionary marketplace), and to listen carefully to the processes of a complimentary though very different investment marketplace.
We are all living through a time of enormous shift. (I prefer the word "shift" to "change", as it implies a gearing up, on the highway of life, and so carries with it, for me, a connotation of forward momentum and positive energy).
There is no aspect of life unaltered by the internet world, and this definitely includes all business models. I think real estate, as an industry, managed to hold onto the old ways a little longer than the car industry, or the stock side of investment, or....you name it, real estate was late to the table of change/shift. (it's interesting that the owner of a large real estate franchise in the U.S., which is quickly gaining market share over some very well known brand names, has written an important book for realtors to read, and has called it "Shift").
It can be unnerving at times, when shift is painted onto our lives, with broad strokes...nothing escapes it. It's a bit like the world that Charles Dickens wrote about. The passing away of the Agrarian world, and the birth of the Industrial Revolution...depending upon which side of the shift you were on, it was either painful or challenging/profitable. We seem to be in this same moment, as we pass completely from the Industrial to the Information Age.
Our attitude to shift is very important. Some insecurity is good for us; it makes our creative juices flow. Otherwise, we'd be asleep!
Good to remember, too, that in change lies opportunity.
Especially today, with the level playing field that the internet has created.
Your thoughts? Always welcome!
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