Is The Ball In Your Court?

I had lunch a few weeks ago with an important mentor from my early days in the property management business.  William A. (Bill) Lawley, CPM, had so many influences on my life that I decided to blog about him.  Bill was President of Swearingen Management Company in those days (80's, yes it was a long time ago), I was his fairthful servant in all things property management. 

When we had lunch, I mentioned to him that I use some of my "Lawley-isms" ALL the time.  There were a few in my memory ready to be tossed off at a moment's notice, which I did right then and there. We both got a good laugh, but actually, I was very serious.  Maybe it was the repetition, I’m just now recognizing!  It does seem now that Lawley had to say things to me over and over.  Like when I would ask him how I should respond to a particular tenant request, he would say to me:  "What does the lease say?"  He said that to me, umm, multiple times before I finally started checking the lease BEFORE I asked him, and often once I checked the lease, guess what?  I found I didn’t have to ask him, which I realized much later was his whole point.  Now I find myself turning the question around with others just like he did with me.

Often I would tell Lawley something that I was 100% confident about.  His response to me was usually "OK, now what is the other side of this story? "Uh, what other side of the story? I would say.  I just told you...don't you believe me?  "Sure I believe you, he would say"  but I also know that there are at least two sides to every story, and I want to hear it.  Over time I slowly began to see the world less in black & white, and more in the grays that are inherent in our lives.   I now realize he had to say this to me a number of times also.  Geez.

There are so more, but a blog post has to end at some point.  I'll close with his admonition to me to "Get the ball out of your court as quickly as possible."  Talk about words to live by.  It's a Lawley-ism for the ages.