When I was younger, I spent a lot of time leaving the skatepark crying. Not because I was hurt, but because there was a trick I knew I wanted to land and, after attempting it for hours, I still couldn’t do it. I’d drive home exhausted and so frustrated with myself, trying to understand why I couldn’t get past whatever was stopping me.
For me, a lot of the time it was mental. I would tell myself, “Just put your foot on the skateboard and you can land it.” I’d lie in bed visualizing myself doing it, come back the next day, and land the trick.
I believe it takes a lot of determination to not accomplish something and still go back the next day and try it again.
A couple weeks ago, I was biking around Marin County listening to a podcast, and they brought up the 80/20 rule. I’d heard about it before — this idea that a relatively small percentage of people are responsible for the majority of the results in real estate.
Later that night I ended up looking into it and found something even crazier. The 2025 GTM Benchmarks Report from Ebsta and Pavilion analyzed 655,000 sales opportunities and found that just 14% of sellers were responsible for 80% of revenue.
14%…
When I was younger I used to hear that the odds of becoming a professional skateboarder were something like one in a million. I don’t know if that number is actually true, but I understood what people meant: the odds were not in our favor.
We hear different versions of this our entire lives. The odds of making it professionally in a sport. The odds of building a successful business. The odds of changing your circumstances when you start with very little. The odds are stacked against most of us in one way or another.
And yet, some people still do it.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about how much skateboarding has shaped the way I approach pretty much everything in my life. For me, not getting the result I wanted was never really the end. It usually just meant I had to figure out what wasn’t working, change something, and then try again later.
That’s how I learn tricks, but it’s also how I’ve approached my career, sales, and most things that I’ve really wanted.
I’m not here to say that this level of determination is what separates the 14% from others.
What the People I Know Have in Common
But I do know a few people who I would comfortably put in that group, and hearing that statistic made me think about what they all have in common.
They’re particular. They have systems. They’re methodical about the way they work. When something works, they need to understand why it worked. And when it doesn’t, they can usually trace it back to what changed, what they didn’t do, or where they went off course.
These people create repeatable systems and aren’t married to their ideas. If what they’re doing stops working, they’re willing to adjust or completely scrap it.
I think part of what I’ve noticed is their relationship with failure.
It’s not that they expect things to not work. It’s that when something doesn’t work, they pay attention to why. They make an adjustment and try again. And if that doesn’t work, they adjust again.
Maybe that’s why hearing that 14% statistic made me think about skateboarding.
I don’t know what separates the 14% from the rest of the group. I don’t think anyone does. Is it luck? Is it effort? Determination? I think this is to be determined, right? But what I do know is that learning how to fail without treating failure like a conclusion can shape a person’s perspective. I know it’s shaped mine.
Until next time ✌️