On a special Labor Day edition (Sept. 5, 2016) of my Lykken on Lending podcast, I had the opportunity to discuss a new technology called "The Perfect LO" with its creator, Derek Malila. I've known Derek for a long time, and I've always been impressed by how he works. When I heard about his new technology that helps loan originators achieve excellence by taking the guess-work out of the process, it got me thinking about the idea of "perfection."
Of course, none of us will ever be perfect in the strictest sense. But "perfection" is an ideal to which all of us can strive. As leaders in the mortgage industry, we must be completely dedicated to continuous improvement—getting better and better at what we do as time goes by. If we are the same as we were yesterday, then we aren't where we should be. Perfection is not so much an end result as it is a process. Which direction are you heading?
Sometimes, I hear about professional athletes attending "practice" between games or during the off-season. It's striking sometimes to think that athletes who are paid millions of dollars a year still go to practice. Haven't they already reached their peak? They're the best of the best—what could they possibly have to improve? But perhaps this is the wrong way to think about it; perhaps they are the best precisely because they've shown up for practice so much over the years. And you know the expression: practice makes perfect.
Think about yourself as a leader in your organization. Are you interested in continuous improvement? Regardless of how long you've been in the industry, are you still working on perfecting yourself? What is something you are better at now than you were five years ago? What do you hope to be better at five years from now?
David Lykken, a 43-year veteran of the mortgage industry, is president of Transformational Mortgage Solutions (TMS), a management consulting firm that provides transformative business strategies to owners and “C-Level” executives via consulting, executive coaching and various communications strategies. He is a frequent guest on FOX Business News and hosts his own weekly podcast called “Lykken On Lending” heard Monday’s at 1:00 p.m. ET at LykkenOnLending.com. David’s phone number is (512) 759-0999 and his e-mail is [email protected].
