I first came across the concept of whuffie a few months back, and I wrote about it on RealEstateZebra.com. I shared some of my initial thoughts a RE Barcamp VA, too. At that time, I thought that whuffie had tremendous implications for real estate professionals, and I still believe that. After I read The Whuffie Factor and listened to people talk about the book and the concept of whuffie, I felt that something was missing.
It seems to me that a lot of folks talk about whuffie, think it is cool, but don’t really see how it applies to them as regular folks or business people. Sure, they can understand whuffie, trust, influence, etc. when it comes to the Twitterati or big businesses who have thousands of customers/followers, but they don’t really see how whuffie effects them in their daily lives with the circle of people with whom they interact on a daily basis.
I’m hoping I can change that.
How?
I want to be a whuffieaire.
What the heck is a whuffieaire?
It’s not hard to grasp.
If a millionaire is someone who possesses a ton of money (millions of dollars, in fact), a whuffieaire is someone who possesses tons of whuffie. So much whuffie, in fact, that a whuffieaire can build and share whuffie without even thinking about it. Millionaires can make and spend money like water, so whuffieaires can do the same with their trust, help, and influence.
I’ll probably have to come up with a more succinct, comprehensive definition later, but you get the idea.
How the heck are you going to become a whuffieaire?
The vast majority of millionaires did not make all their money at once. They had to work and grow their fortune. Sometimes, they did things that produced rewards years later. It usually isn’t easy or quick. Most millionaires had to make their millions the way you would expect– one dollar at a time.
This might be even more true for the aspiring whuffieaire. There is no whuffie lottery that one can win. Whuffie can be acquired only through the cultivating and nurturing of relationships. Whuffie must be acquired through the building of trust, the sharing of influence, and the lending of a helping hand. The fortune of the whuffieaire must be built one relationship at a time.
Sounds great, but what about money?
Look, I’m not trying to become a monk. I’m sure as hell not going to cast off all my worldly possessions. In fact, doing so would almost certainly inhibit my ability to help folks and build whuffie. I’m not denying the importance of money at all.
Quite to the contrary, I think that looking for ways to acquire and grow a whuffie fortune can lead to financial reward, as well. After all, many of the worlds richest people got that way because they just wanted to help people solve a problem. They just chose a business or product as a way of doing it.
Money just won’t be the purpose of my endeavors, whuffie will be. I have no doubt that my quest to become a whuffieaire will lead me down a path or two that might yield financial reward. That’s fine by me. While financial reward won’t be the purpose of my quest, I won’t complain if it is a pleasant side effect.
So, what now, aspiring whuffieaire?
Well, I’ve got a few ideas. More on those, later. The point is that I, or you for that matter, don’t need to do something huge, popular, or super noteworthy to start building a whuffie fortune. Like I said before, whuffieaires are made one relationship at a time.
But for right now, I’m just going to keep my eyes and ears open for ways of helping the people around me; looking for ways I can earn the trust of folks I don’t yet know.
I’ll be chronicling my quest here, for the most part. I’ll be sharing my experiences, the experiences of the folks that I meet, help, and help me along the way. It should be fun and it will definitely be interesting.
So, I want to be a whuffieaire. . .
That means I’m going to need to be making some deposits.
What can I do to help you?
UPDATE: As of right now (7/15/2009) “whuffieaire” returns no results in google. I hope to change that, too.