Keep Learning

I had the pleasure of speaking briefly to Stephen Brown on Friday - I say briefly, because it was literally no less than a minute. He asked me a question and I replied. My response was something I gave a great deal of thought. Should I respond with a thought provoking piece of wisdom from my parents or a quote from the Greek philosophers. But I stuck to what I know, breathe and am extremely passionate about. Learning. No matter who you are, what you think you know or whether you feel a certain amount of ignorance on any given topic, there is always something new to learn, some new piece of information to discover, some detail that causes us to react with an "Ah or Oh or Ooh" ! That light-bulb moment when the penny drops and our understanding of a complex topic falls into place.
I remember when I was new to the private rented sector, a letting agent announced to the group I was training as part of their ice-breaker that there was NOTHING I could teach them. They crossed their arms, intent on not participating, making or discussing any topic, until they realised just how little they knew about what they referred to as "a little cottage industry - estate agency's poor relative".
A report by professional services firm PwC, recently commissioned by the National Residential Landlords Association - NRLA and hashtag#paragonbank, indicates that just London’s private rented sector makes a gross value added (GVA) contribution of £14.6bn to the UK economy. Not such a poor relative after all and most definitely not an industry where ignorance prevails.