Many of my regular readers know that besides my real estate and technology life, I am very active and love to ride and race bicycles.  It’s a good way to stay fit and it’s a fun way to get exercise and hopefully keep my propensity to gain weight at bay.  And I race a lot.

So far this year I’ve competed in 39 races — a mix of cyclocross and mountain bike races.  That is a lot of racing!  Those of you who follow me on Facebook have probably seen my pictures and realize that although I’ve only been racing bikes for a couple of years, I’ve been pretty successful at it.

My first year, I managed to win the North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia state mountain bike championships, and this year competing against experts I’ve won the South Carolina championship and placed second in North Carolina.  I can assure you, it is not because I am a natural athlete.

In fact, as I was driving home from my race in Winston Salem, North Carolina yesterday, I was thinking about my real estate and my cycling and realized that my success in cycling was for very much the same reasons I was successful in real estate.  I thought I would share the three principles that I’ve used in both with the hopes that maybe it will be helpful to my readers.

Passion.  I’m passionate about racing, and I’m passionate about real estate.  When I’m not thinking about one, I’m probably thinking about the other.  Passion is critical to success in anything.  If you are not passionate about doing real estate now, think back to a time when you were and try to find your passion.  If you were never passionate about real estate, you probably shouldn’t even do it.

Often passion can be built simply by spending time immersed in it.  Want to resurrect that passion?  Try doing some research of your local market.  Find the segments that are doing well.  Figure how you might be able to exploit those market anomalies.  Before you know it, your passion will return.

The Right Equipment.  One of the reasons I’ve done well in bike racing is that I started by getting the right equipment.  Not having the right bike is huge.  Even someone like Lance Armstrong could not do well on a Walmart bike.  You can be sure he would insist on riding the right bike!  Having a bike that is designed well and performs well is absolutely critical to good performance.

Similarly, in real estate, I learned very quickly that all our customers had gone online and that it was critical to have a technology that would effectively capture them there.  Using all of the traditional marketing was much like me trying to race on a Walmart bike.  Sure, it would work, but not very well, and I would lose.  If I wanted to succeed in real estate I needed to find a lot of customers, so I built my LCM technology.

Hard Work.  Today everyone is looking to win life’s lottery.  Get rich quick schemes are everywhere.  Many of you are approached with new multi-level marketing scams every week.  The fact is there is no shortcut to success.  The road to success is long and it is hard.  Only those willing to do the work will be successful.

I win a lot of races because I work hard at it.  I either run an hour or ride my bike for no less than two hours every day, except for my rest day.  Besides that I spend time maintaining my equipment, keeping it in top condition.  I eat healthy and I rest.  Bottom line: I work hard to win.  The same is true in real estate.

So how is your real estate practice doing?  Are you passionate about real estate?  Do you have the right equipment?  (If you don’t, please check out my LCM Gateway.  There is no better tool for capturing online shoppers.)  And finally, are you willing to work hard until you find success?  If you are, I will assure you, success will find you.

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Matt Jones is the founder and CEO of FavoriteAgent.com, nationally syndicated columnist, broker, and best selling author of LCM: The Secret to Success in the New Age of Real Estate, The Ultimate Listing Presentation, Traffic: How to Sell Fast and Net More, Becoming a Mega-Producer, The Science of Online Marketing, 10 Steps to Real Estate Success, 20 Questions: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Real Estate but Were Afraid to Ask, The Virtual Office Model, Max-Bang!, and The NEW Ultimate Listing Presentation. Jones' North Carolina-based company has been profiled by major media outlets as an innovator and a pioneer in the industry, and CNN's Pulse on America claimed FavoriteAgent.com is "changing the way real estate is being done in America." This article is syndicated in the following locations: iTunes, YouTube, Stitcher Radio, BlogMattBlog.com, RealBlogging.com, NewsGeni.us, TheCommissionCheck.com, RevampedAgent.com, and now Amazon Kindle.