In Dustin Harris' (“The Appraiser Coach”) blog post, “Knowing Your Why is the Key to Success,” the veteran appraiser reminds everyone how important that word “why” will be to them. Harris says he mentors a lot of appraisers from all across the nation and most of the time, appraisers ask him how to do something such as, how to get their business to the next level.

Questions range from how to be more efficient and how to be able to close the doors at 5 p.m. to how to have weekends off. 

“While the answers to these ‘how’ questions might provide some help, the more important questions are ‘why’ and ‘what.’  If I had to give them an order, I’d say that why is the most important and how is the least,” Harris said. “I’m sure you understand the difference between ‘why’ and ‘what,’ but people often confuse what and how. To make it easier to understand the difference, let’s relabel those. ‘Why’ equals the principles, ‘what’ is the practices and ‘how’ means the procedures.”

Harris reminds appraisers that their principle, the driving factor behind everything, could be more financial freedom and time flexibility.  This is their ‘why,’ it’s the thing that appraisers are working towards. Now, he says, comes the practice, what appraisers do to allow them to get closer to their why. 

“Maybe your practice is going to be 20 appraisals a week,” he said. “This would allow you to have the finances to support your life but also give you time to spend with your family.  Finally, you’re at the boots on the ground part, the procedures you’ll use to make those 20 appraisals possible. It is the hiring of a VA or getting some particular software type thing.

“Starting with the procedures is putting the cart before the horse,” Harris added. “You don’t need to hire that VA until you have an idea of what you need them to do.  You won’t know what you need them to do until you know why you want to do it. You have to start by knowing why you are doing everything you are doing.”

The veteran appraiser also said that most people actually have a why, they just haven’t taken the time to really think about it and define it properly.  Once they do that it makes a huge difference, everything shifts. Harris recently helped one of his coaching clients make a major life decision.  They were trying to decide between continuing to run their own practice or taking up a staff position they had been offered at a firm.

Harris spent several coaching sessions with this individual looking at figuring out their why, digging into what they wanted their future to look like. Determining why they were doing what they were doing was the key to making a decision.

“As a business coach it’s not my job to give you the what or the how,” Harris said. “I’ll help you with that, but it is more important that I help you decide what your why is. Once you find that why, you’ll know what you need to do and how you need to go about doing it.

“Don’t spend all your time working in your business, don’t focus only on what and how,” Harris added.  “Knowing why you are doing what you are doing helps you make the decisions that will move your business to the next level. Are you, on a regular basis, asking yourself ‘why’? It may change the way that you live your life.”