First, a little Kipling. This is one of my favorite poems:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream-and not make dreams your master,
If you can think-and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings-nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And-which is more-you'll be a Man, my son!
-Rudyard Kipling
Now, Max:
Let me tell you what tough is.
Tough is being a single mother and putting your son through Yale.
Tough is being an animal lover with multiple dogs, cats and a horse and having to lose 2 cats in 2 days.
Tough is being put in between a battle axe listing agent and demanding, New York City clients and getting the $400,000 battle axe listing to accept $350,000 in those 2 same days.
Tiffany represented a builder when I met her and I recruited her for a year before she joined the firm. She's a good team player, very protective of her clients, and firmly commmited to doing the right thing in business. She's also Max's godmother, having found him on German Sheperd rescue for me when she knew I was looking for a dog.
This has been a tough year for most of us, and she has had to endure a very rough week. One of those cats was 17. I've lost pets before. It sucks. A 17 year family member is truly family. You mourn. You are tempted to stay in bed.
Tough people, however, do what they have to do, and Tiffany gave a virtuoso real estate performance with difficult parties to please on both sides in the midst of grief and adversity. As Yankee fans would say, she hit one into the monuments.
I'm not surprised.
This is the kind of person I am proud to have on the team. We don't shuffle rolodexes around here. We make things happen in spite of circumstances, and Tiffany embodies that. If you are in Dutchess County, NY and you need a good agent, you need to add her to your short list.
