With the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, it’s hard not to think of the past year and dreams for the new year.  Personally, 2009 was a challenging year.  It was filled with some major triumphs and an awful lot of work.

Whoever said, or believes, that success should come easily, does not know the true definition of success!  Watching Evan Almighty recently, I LOVED the message from Morgan Freeman’s portrayal as God.  At one point, he explains that when folks pray for patience, they aren’t given patience, but the opportunity to practice patience.

Apparently I prayed for patience, diligence, hard work, heart break and exhilaration… oh well… 

Mike did his Top Ten for 2009 on New Year’s Eve.  Today, it’s my turn!

• Michael McClure – Yeah, a little obvious, but you simply need to meet @professionalone.  Rarely do opportunities with serious quality folks like Mike “drop” into one’s lap.  To say that this business relationship is a good match is to highly undervalue the word good.

• My “friends behind the monitor” – Ok, so unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few years, I am sure you are familiar with social media.  I’ve genuinely enjoyed conversing with, learning from and working with folks I’ve met through social media.  My Follow Friday twitter list is a feeble attempt at keeping track of my online friends.

• WordPress – Seriously, is there anything that this blog platform CAN’T do?  For those using wordpress.com, you should seriously consider bouncing to the self hosted version.  It has easy peasy setup that most hosting providers have automated already.

• Google – I am convinced that some of the late 2009 moves made by the Google will move the real estate industry closer to a more open, consumer friendly property search. Realtor.com continues to play catch up with Zillow and Trulia, in terms of usability, and Google simply knows how to collect, sift, sort and present data… It’s only a matter of time till Google figures out how to monetize their real estate listings and then all bets are off, in my opinion.

• Judy “@realestatechick” Moriarty – Seriously, how can you NOT like this gal?!  She’s a pilot, knows vino, is a consummate real estate professional and has a serious head on her shoulders when it comes to the future of real estate.

• “Chip, I’m gonna come at you like a SpiderMonkey!”

• My MacBookPro – I realize there might appear to be some allegations of some serious “kool-aid” drinking going on here, but this machine is a freakin’ masterpiece!  In all my years futzing with computers, I have never come across a more powerful and potent combination of operating system and hardware. In short, this beast just does what it’s supposed to do…and it looks great too!  Now, if the RE MLS’s would get their acts together and make their systems cross browser compatible…

• BlackBerry Smartphones – “But Todd, you’re a MacBook slappy! How can you not love the iPhone?”  Two answers:  1 – $&%ing AT&T service 2 – instantaneous email delivery.  IF Apple figures those two “problems” out, I might have to get used to a touch screen phone.  Until then, the only way you’ll separate me from my beloved crackberry is when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.  Like the MacBookPro, this piece of machinery works extremely well!  Responding to leads within 15 seconds of them leaving an inquiry and your chances of gaining a new client go up tremendously.  In this rapidly changing industry, I’m all about finding the edge over my competition…

• A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller – This is one of those books that simply made me stop and reflect.  Unfortunately for me, I absolutely flew through this book, but that’s also a testament to the strength of his writing.  It’s an autobiographic book about how Donald “edited” his life for a movie being produced based on one of his earlier works. [thanks for the recommendation Dan!]

• The Real Estate Industry – Lenders, title companies, agents, virtual assistants, inspectors… all of the folks involved in the real estate transaction (this includes you, dear reader!).  You have added to the conversation, sparked many thoughts and been the inspiration for a lot of what I do on a daily basis in real estate.  Without you, this incessant banging on the keyboard and use of my crackberry amount to very little.