I’m one of several brokers at Sotheby’s in Santa Fe who doesn’t maintain an office space in one of our three addresses here. If I’ve got officey things to do, I most likely bring Allie into the Washington Avenue office near downtown, where she’s developed a little bit of a fan base. Several brokers, in fact, know Allie well but couldn’t pick me out of a lineup. When I walk in, I hear “Hi Allie!” and “It’s Allie and Walker,” which I love.
The company dog outside the Sotheby’s Washington Avenue office
The Advantages of Vagrancy
I tend to believe it’s professionally wise not to get into too much of a routine, coming to the same place every day and seeing the same people. Indeed, one of the things I like most about real estate is that it frees you from that constraint. So over the course of a couple of days, Allie and I will go to the Washington office for a while, hang out and work, then go over to the office on Palace Avenue to say hello to the marketing folk, then perhaps over to the office on Grant Avenue for a meeting, and sometimes walk down to Hotel Chimayo to sit on the portál to work.
Ristras hanging on the portál at Hotel Chimayo
Allie generally doesn’t have ugly things to say (except at the coffee shop on Marcy, where she believes the chocolate lab who frequents the place should meet a quick and certain death). That disposition tends to rub off on me, and I find it hard to have a terrible day when she’s around (it’s possible, mind you; I’ve tested it). Having a big giant white fluffy dog around also tends to raise the spirits of other dog-loving people at Sotheby’s. And it carries a couple of other benefits.
Focus and Prioritization
When you know you’ve only got about two hours’ of work time in one sitting, it focuses the mind and makes one more productive. When I sit down to work with the monster there, I gotta work. It also relieves me of the tendency (which I get from my corporate days) of feeling that if I’m not head-down, buried in a computer monitor, doing some horribly unpleasant analytical chore, then I am somehow “not working.”
The reality in real estate is that the more relaxed one can be in the face of uncertainty, the more able one is to do things that relieve the uncertainty. Yes, I love the days when I’m not Allie-bound and can put in a solid 10 or 12 hours without having to worry about whether the dang dog’s had enough water and approves of today’s cookie selection. But having your attention forcibly redirected at regular intervals tends to have a leveling effect that feels healthy.
The company dog on her way to a showing
I have learned that the success I’ve had so far is not in spite of my having to work around Allie’s needs but, in part, it’s because of it. So the moral of the story is, I guess, that if it takes a big white fluffy dog to help you keep a healthy focus and keep various priorities in balance, you still win.
Being a vagrant and dragging your dog around town is a wiser career choice than you might think.
Editor’s note: Allie is a Maremmano Abrusezze, the livestock guardian dog breed which was the genetic predecessor to Great Pyrenees. See my article elsewhere on the blog about her adoption.
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