At NLR, We are winners not whiners.

“Winners never quit and quitters never win.” This famous quote from Vince Lombardi, Pro Football Hall of Famer, seemed the most appropriate way to start this next piece in our culture series – a spotlight on Molly McClure, Nebraska Land Broker and Auctioneer, who’s an all-around winner and incredible team player at National Land Realty.

Molly’s involvement in agricultural real estate and land management started over 10 years ago. In that time, she also graduated from the World Wide College of Auctioneering, and in 2014 received her Nebraska Brokers License.

For Molly, being a winner and not a whiner is a daily decision. “You either wake up and decide to be a winner, or you wake up and choose to make the day long and hard for yourself. It’s easy to get down and stay down… The beautiful thing about this business is that you can start your day over at any time of the day. If everything falls apart in the morning, you can whine about it, or you can choose to start your day over at noon and make the rest of the day great. Whining will get you nowhere fast and breeds negativity within your workplace.”

Choosing to be a winner every day, isn’t always easy, though. Molly explained a time when she chose to be a winner, not a whiner, and how her choice affected the outcome of the situation.

“I had this listing that was an incredible recreation piece. I had people lined up to buy the place… it was close to Omaha, and it was beautiful, one of those places you knew you could turn in a hurry. I showed it to this couple that was extremely interested. When I originally showed them the property, they informed me they were not represented by another agent, but after the showing, they chose to get representation, which was fine, but in my ‘green-ness’, I let this other agent take 40% of my commission for doing nothing more than writing a contract. I learned a valuable lesson from my Brokers after that. I had the ball and I let that other agent steal it. In other words, I should have protected myself and National Land a little better… There was no reason for me to give up 40% of my commission to her when I had done all the work, and all she did was write an offer… So instead of whining about it (although I really wanted to since money was tight at the time), I decided to chalk it up to what I now call the ‘price of education.’ Every time I leave money on the table or get somewhat sideways because I feel like I am getting shorted in a deal, I just tell myself it’s the ‘price of education.’ And what I mean by that is, I should know better next time. This type of attitude makes me feel like a winner. You can let that stuff get you sideways, or you can just come to the conclusion that you made a mistake, and you learn from it. FAIL stands for FIRST ATTEMPT IN LEARNING – it may be a loss or a failure, but if you learn from it, you’re a winner in the long run.”

Her advice to other brokers and agents on how to consistently be winners was, “There will be great days, and not so great days….but give it time, this business always comes full circle. Pick up the phone, answer every call, because there could be an opportunity on the other end. You’ll hear NO more than yes… So keep asking until you get a YES… just like we did when we were kids asking our parents for something we really wanted. Winners persist, be a winner.”