Sometimes the struggle seems endless - a slog up a muddy hill where progress is slow and slipping is a constant risk. While my daughter works through the challenge of finding a job, I’m reminded of a covid story (and don’t we all have plenty of covid stories)?
San Francisco shut down. Our three six-unit buildings were leased largely to those who could readily transition to working-from-home - an accelerated leap into class warfare on a global scale. Well, that’s for another story. This one has to do with half the residents deciding to leave several months into the pandemic…all at once.
The complacency of being a property owner in a popular, growing city with constraints on supply (nimbyism and rent control) was gone. Our livelihood was at risk. Slowly bleeding savings, heading into the city for leasing appointment after leasing appointment with no takers - well, it got pretty discouraging.
Some of the vacant spaces found new residents quickly - but it was the one in the Mission that makes this story. At the time, no-one really knew how covid spread, how contagious covid was, when you would inadvertently pass it to a beloved one. Toilet paper was being hoarded, as was hand sanitizer. People felt afraid. To some degree I think we all inculcated that sense of fear, and it’s making getting out of this all the more difficult. Not to mention demonizing ‘covidiots’ and ‘sheeple’. But that, too, is another story.
Suffice it to say I met my prospects for individual tours, 30 minutes apart, masked, with a spritz of my homemade hand sanitizer and an attempt to convey warmth with a face covering on. Again and again I touted our brand - properties managed by people who care - and again and again I heard nothing constructive or positive back. They just looked, and walked away. Forty-five separate and distinct times. God how discouraging.
But you can’t give up, and it only takes one.
We redid our web site and Facebook page. We went all-in on on-line applications. We publicized the neighborhood merchant groups, and linked to local stories of businesses surviving despite the lockdowns. We pulled the apartment off the market and redid the kitchen. When you have to keep going, you double-down on investing in yourself. We kept the positive vibe going - because at the end of the day, that’s what it takes.
Yes, it only takes one. Someone finally responded to all of this (albeit unseen) effort and leased the apartment.
So in finding a fit - whether in a new job or a new place to live - the lessons are pretty simple. Keep refining your message, seek new ways to communicate, stay true to your personal sense of self. It only takes one.