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I am not ashamed to admit it: I am a fan of the Material Girl.

Part of it is home town pride: She grew up about 30 miles from where I went to high school and we’re about the same age. And she dated someone I once worked for (once, during her very brief stint as a dance student at the University of Michigan).

And part of it is because I genuinely like some of her music: “Express Yourself,” “Music,” “Ray of Light,” “Like a Prayer, “Borderline,” “Lucky Star” and a bunch more. Hell, I even like “Cherish.”

But what I REALLY like about Madonna has NOTHING to do with music.

It has EVERYTHING to do with how much she’s accomplished.

The Quintessential Overachiever

In fact, I think she has the highest “Results Divided by Natural Talent” ratio of any person I can think of.

My guess is that, if you look up the word “overachiever” in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of Madonna.

She has found a way – and is STILL finding a way – to leverage her good-but-not-great talent to absolutely #CRUSH it in the super-competitive world of pop music.

I did a little research to see how much she’s accomplished, and I was amazed to discover the following:

• She has 37 Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten hits, surpassing Elvis Presley as the artist with the most Top Ten hits in U.S. Billboard chart history (surpassing The Beatles and Michael Jackson as well)

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  She ended the 2000s as the best-selling singles artist of the decade in the United States

• She was announced as the highest-ranking solo artist on the “Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists”

• She has more number-one singles in the United Kingdom than any other female artist

• She is also the most successful artist on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play chart with a total of forty number-one singles

• She has had 17 Top Ten albums in the U.S., seven of which made it to No. 1

• She is even more popular in Canada, where 20 of her singles have reached No.1, and in Italy, where 16 singles have hit the top spot

OK, you’re probably thinking, thanks for the history lesson on Madonna, but what does this have to do with real estate?

Madonnaisms

Good question, and here’s my answer: these are the three lessons any real estate professional can learn from Madonna:

• Work: Madonna has used her exceptional work ethic – Blonde Ambition, anyone? – and legendary drive to propel her to incredible, enduring success. The takeaway: The people that work the hardest tend to do the best. Yes, I have written this sentence before. Because it’s that fundamental and that important. Stop looking for shortcuts and magic bullets, because they don’t exist. Just roll up your sleeves and work harder than your competition.

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  Evolve: I cannot think of any other artist – David Bowie, maybe, but Madonna tops him – who has changed not only their look, but their entire persona, more times and with greater positive effect than Madonna. It seems like with every new CD she brings out an entirely new image. And, somehow, they all seem to work for her. The takeaway: Particularly now, particularly in real estate, everything seems to be changing. Keep learning new things, keep improving and keep evolving. I believe that those who can learn to constantly evolve – not as an occasional thing, but as a normal, every-day part of life – will do the best over the long haul.

• Trendset: Madonna has been a genius in terms of creating trends. She has never been one to mimic what others are doing, but instead stakes out her own course and somehow causes others to follow her lead. The takeaway: Continuing the prior point, not only should you always be evolving, take it a step further and strive to be an early adopter of new trends to show past and potential future clients “what’s next.” Especially in an industry like real estate, which seems to have a reputation of slow adaptation, there is ample opportunity to be THE trendsetter in your market.

• Media: This is a little derivative of the prior points, but it’s worthy of separate mention to note that Madonna has used mass media – TV, video, the press, etc. – to brilliant effect to further her empire. The takeaway: Because of the recent advent and explosion of Social Media, we have similar opportunity to “get our message out” and create the image for ourselves that we want others to see. Leverage that opportunity!

So, these are the things that we can learn from Madonna: work harder than your competition, never stop evolving, be a trendsetter and leverage media to its full potential…

Now get out there and express yourself!