Exit Strategy

Exit strategy.  It’s something that’s been on my mind quite a bit lately – my exit strategy.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, farewell to the blog!  This plan, revised in October, was to write articles and answer questions diligently (one per day average) and by the end of April 2007, there would be a total of 200 searchable articles on this site.  The Broken Credit Blog could then be a library of information floating around aimlessly in cyberspace ready at all times to assist consumers everywhere with their credit repair and mortgage research.  And I did intend to check in periodically and write an article or two every now and again when I got the itch; but the day would come when this onus would be relieved and the symbolic torch to be passed back to the blog itself.  Go now – let it circulate around the internet and find who it will – the message in a bottle thrown from an island and now it finds who and who tells them and them tells you.  So, it’s April 30th.  Goodbye.  My work is done here (shoddy as it is/was – it’s a free site ya know).

Leon was in on Friday.  Hadn’t seen him in over a year.  He was a loan officer with us and now he works for a local bank.  Called me the other day because he wanted to start referring clients [that the bank couldn’t close] to us.  I hooked him up with one of our loan officers.  He was scheduled to meet the LO, but the LO had a hospital emergency and so I spent some time with Leon.  I didn’t mind that.  We’re all like family here at our company.  As a matter of fact, in the past sixty days, eight LO’s [Christine, Gayle, Melanie, Jackie, Montana, Victoria, Brad and Vincent] who had previously left, returned to work with us again.  I am overjoyed.  I believe I’ve told the Prodigal Son story eight times.  To those of you who are not in sales, this occurrence may not sound strange, but I can tell you that this would be considered an oddity in the mortgage industry.  The norm in mortgage industry sales seems to be brokers and owners parting with harsh words or otherwise burning bridges.  I see no wisdom in that.  If something didn’t work out or someone has an opportunity to grow in some way then you part ways.  Fair enough.  What happens though, is that a top producer decides to leave and the owner takes it the wrong way.  I think it has to do with the salesperson’s fear that the final commission check might experience some retaliatory and unjust shortage or that the LO wants a feather in their hat at the new mortgage company and so the last few closings follow the LO to the new place.  I personally could care less.  Take your closings.  The client’s loyalty is with the LO not the mortgage company.  Just don’t leave me with any compliance issues or appraisal invoices.  Sorry, getting sidetracked.  So, Leon makes a comment about working out.  I used to work out more than I do now and mindful of my friend Leon’s comment, I put the jogging shoes on and ran much farther than usual today.

I also ran in a different direction.  Ok, so I’m feeling like Forest Gump here and I ran to a grade school I attended eons ago.  I look over to the shopping center across from the grade school and “Bill’s Dog House” is gone.  It was there two decades ago.  It was also there last year.  When I ran this path last year, I was surprised to see the after school hangout still in business.  Now I’m surprised to see it gone.  It made me think, what was Bill’s exit strategy?  No legacy?  Lock the door and turn the keys in to the landlord?  Maybe Bill got rich in real estate.  I gave up on guessing about Bill’s retirement plans and started thinking about exit strategies in general.  How many people have them?  Do you?

One of the many limitations of the blog my friends – I can’t immediately talk with you.  I’ll be honest I think I like it that way.  Who knows?  Maybe Bill from “Bill’s Dog House” is reading. 

Everyone should have an exit strategy.  It should lead you to an ultimate goal and it’s never about your present station in life, it’s about the destination.  There may be one minute left in the game and the entire stadium is cheering with hysteria as their team is seemingly winning.  In the last seconds the opposing team they counted out achieved the impossible upset and triumphed.  Now the euphoria of the game is lost in time and what we live with is the future and all that matters is that the game was won or lost.  Live with it now and forever.

Nah, we’ll play ‘em again next year. 

Maybe you will and maybe you won’t.

This I know.  Some colossally important things are out of your control.  We can devise the greatest exit strategy in the world and then a natural disaster strikes or our loved one dies.  It’s terrible to consider, yet it’s reality.  This is this world.  At this moment we are here.

Solomon was a King over Israel and had more money than anyone ever in history.  He also had 700 wives and 300 concubines (a concubine was basically a wife).  More wealth than anyone before him or after him and he is believed to have written the book of Ecclesiastes. 
 
Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.  Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment.  Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that [is] thy portion in [this] life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.  Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do [it] with thy might; for [there is] no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. 

Not exactly the ending that we would’ve expected.  “For [there is] no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest”.  Makes me think that any exit strategy that’s focused on selfish interests will be like the team that was cheering hysterically, only to lose when the whistle blows on final judgment.

OK, I’m a little tired and my left knee hurts.  I ran too far today.  I am thankful it gave me the time to rethink my exit strategy.  April 30th was the day to send this blog away.  I don’t know when exactly I decided I wasn’t going to do that.  Whether or not that decision was up to me, my sincere hope is that you will consider what’s at stake in your exit strategy.