My real estate broker in Detroit was a master practitioner of this art. He originally wanted to be a Lutheran minister but ended up on the Ford assembly line out of high school, as he had come from a long line of auto worker factory rats. That wasn't cutting it for him so he got his real estate license and never looked back. He became the top producing real estate agent in Michigan for several years, which was no easy task. By the time we crossed paths he was a semi retired broker who enjoyed mentoring new agents. He used to have weekly sales meetings for those interested in sales techniques. Hardly anyone ever attended them, but I was at every one and found them fascinating. It was like a master's program in pragmatic human psychology. It paid off too.

A classic technique was to always be asking the client innocuous questions where the answer would no doubt be 'yes'. That set them up in a more positive space where saying 'yes' became more automatic. I remember one closing where I came in and the young couple I had just sold the house to were laughing. The wife then told me how her and her husband were just discussing how neither of them had any recollection of actually saying, "Yes, we want to buy this house.", yet, here they were, sitting at this closing table about ready to sign on to a huge commitment. I just laughed and said, "Good, the magic spell worked!". They laughed and reassured me that they were very happy and excited about the house and even sent me another couple I sold a house to a few weeks later. No magic spell was used, just good old fashioned human psychology.

I just wrote my old broker an email as part of my review of life at 70. I thanked him for helping me prove to myself I could function as an adult, albeit for very short periods of time, in the real world with an adult type job at 50. He wrote back: "None of you in the Rat Pack(the agents I worked with as a team)were ever adults, but you were always exciting, nerve racking, brought home the kill, and made us some serious money. I also congratulate you for being the last one alive. Looks like you are living the good life, and I am happy for you."

Damn it, I thought for sure I was adulting....