The Plunge

Imagine yourself standing by a swimming pool. It’s a scorching hot day and the blue water looks so very inviting. You have never been to a pool before, but you want to go. You have been preparing yourself for this moment for months. You’ve been studying how to swim by watching videos and reading books. You have listened to those, whom know how to swim, experienced swimmers. You have even been laying on your family room floor practicing your strokes. But. You have never actually been in the water.

So, there you are, standing in the sunshine with your swimmers on, all ready to go. You are excited. You think you know how to do it, but you have never really done it. Next to you stands another person. No, they are not your swim instructor, the person next to you is someone who has never been swimming either but the difference between you and that other person is that they think you know how to do it, and your job is to take care of them, make sure they don’t get scared or even worse, drown.

You look at the person next to you, and you smile. You try to look encouraging and you’re doing everything within your power to make them feel like you really know this, like you’ve done this at least a hundred times before. You don’t want to tell them that you’ve never done it either as the other person has not had the opportunity to study beforehand, they just have to trust your skill. So, you smile while you’re frantically going over all the steps of your swim stroke in your head.

Your friend dips their foot in the pool and pulls it back out; “It’s cold!” – she says. You tell her it shouldn’t feel cold for long after you get in, because that’s what you’ve been told. Ready? – Yes, I’m ready she replies. “You sure?” you ask, as you want to make sure they really, really want to do this as right now, you’re not quite sure if you still do, with your head filled with questions, that you cannot ask, as the other person has no clue you only know this in theory, and you’re desperately hoping all your practice will pay off.

Yes, yes, she says, I’m ready! I really want to do it! You have no choice; the time has come to test your skills. You hand her a pool noodle as she doesn’t know how to swim, grab her hand, and you jump in. The water feels cold and it forces you to gasp as you surface to catch your breath. For a moment, you think you’re drowning but then you remember everything you have read, all the advice you have received and you swim. It’s far from perfect, and looks like a child whom has just learned to keep afloat, but you manage to keep both of you above the water. You start trying to get moving forward splashing water as you go, explaining the other person what they need to do, or rather, what you think they need to do, encouraging them to kick and paddle and trying to assure them they’re okay. Suddenly you realize you’re not alone, but you have all those experienced swimmers standing on the edge of the pool cheering for you and telling you what to do next.

You have a lot of practice ahead of you before you can join the experts. But you are for sure making progress, and you are doing just fine. It feels absolutely amazing.

This is how I described how it felt to be under contract for my first time. The plunge of making the offer. Winning in a multiple offer situation, and not by offering most money or all cash, but rather something that the seller found to be of value for them. The way from getting from that point all the way to closing table, is something like learning to swim out of a book. In theory, you know how to do it, but as you have never really done it for real, it’s exciting, it’s exhilarating, it’s terrifying. Yet, you will have to be brave enough to dive in and reassuring enough to keep the other person swimming too.

They say you will remember your first one forever. I’m sure I will.