ARE YOU A HATCHET MAN?

In business, a “hatchet man” is someone brought in to do the unpleasant work: cut costs, restructure, and yes, sometimes fire people.

Someone who can terminate ten employees before lunch, eat normally afterward, and move on—like George Clooney’s character in Up in the Air, whose job was literally firing people.

Some people are built differently.

Firing one person can drain them for the entire day.

One of the worst corporate stories I've heard was about a manager who was pirated by another company and told to build a new team.

So he recruited former colleagues. He convinced them to leave their jobs and join him. They held a team-building event, made plans and got everyone excited about what they were going to build together.

A month later, top management changed direction.

His next instruction: fire the entire team.

Imagine having to look people in the eye after you were the reason they left perfectly good jobs.

So which one are you?

The person who can compartmentalize and move on? The person who carries everything home? Or somewhere in between?

This matters in real estate more than we admit.

A client says no. A buyer suddenly changes his tone. A seller blames you for something outside your control.

One broker I know once endured an hour of shouting and even threats of violence from an angry client. The crazy part was that it wasn't even his transaction. He was only covering for another broker.

Some people can walk away from that conversation and immediately make the next call. That's a superpower in sales.

But if you're the type who gets affected, don't automatically treat it as a weakness.

Yes, overthinking can paralyze you. You can replay conversations in your head and imagine ten different things you should have said. But there's another side to it.

Sometimes things affect you precisely because you care.

And in the long run, that can be a superpower too. The right clients will recognize the difference between a broker who's simply doing a job and one who's genuinely invested in the outcome.

You don't need to stop caring. You just need to learn how to care deeply without carrying everything.