Jean Burgdorff , co-owner of ERA Showcase, a real estate company on Merritt Island, which is near the Cape Kennedy launch site on the "space coast" of Florida, tells a great story about a meeting held several years ago.

Jean was in a branch office for a gathering to honor the person who had produced the best sales figures for that month. During the reception that followed, a visitor came to the front door. Jean went over to welcome her, and the visitor explained that she was a customer of a particular salesperson.

Jean remarked, "Oh, I wish you'd come a little earlier. We've just had a ceremony honoring her for her productivity. She's the top salesperson in the office."

The woman looked at her in astonishment and exclaimed, "She's the top person in the office?"

"Yes. Does that surprise you?"

"Yes. I thought I was her only customer. She treated me so beautifully. She gave me so much time, and was always there for me whenever I called, that I thought I must be the only one she was dealing with."

"That's how we've always tried to run our company," says Jean, "from the early days of Burgdorff Realtors, which we started 44 years ago in New Jersey, to our ERA company here in Florida. We like all our clients to know they're important, regardless of their price range."

Jean pauses, and then reads this sentence: "Realtors can take no safer guide [in business] than that which has been handed down through the centuries, [and is] embodied in the Golden Rule, 'Whatsoever ye would that others should do to you, do ye even so to them.'"

With a smile Jean adds, "And that's not me speaking. It's from the Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice of the National Association of Realtors. I've always found it helpful to be reminded of that."

When Jean and her husband first opened their doors in New Jersey in 1958, they said to each other, "We're going to look at each person who comes through the door and ask ourselves, 'What can we do for them?'—not, 'What can they do for us?' And then we tried very hard to live up to that through the years."

Jean, a former real estate commissioner in New Jersey, points out that in selling real estate, no one gets paid unless the client's needs are met.

"Realtors are not paid by the hour; they're not paid by the job; they're just not paid unless they're successful in selling a home on an acceptable set of terms, or finding a home that truly meets a buyer's needs. That makes meeting the customer's needs the number one priority, with the dollars earned coming as thank-you or reward."

Jean says she's always been enriched by taking the broadest possible view of home. "Of course, there are walls, bathrooms, kitchens, fireplaces, and so on, but one of the most important things is location—the surroundings, the people next door, the neighborhood, and even beyond that, to the community, city, state, whatever.

"I realized early on in my real estate life that I couldn't pretend to know exactly what was right for somebody else, because the implications of that decision went so far beyond a physical structure.

"I remember a time when my husband and I bought a house that was OK, but certainly not thrilling. Yet it turned out to be one of the best moves of our lives, because our backyard was adjacent to the backyard of another family, who brought so much richness into our lives. Their children became very close friends of our children, and that's gone on now to the third generation, with their grandchildren now babysitting for our grandchildren."

Jean says that something else that constantly delights her, is the fact that the practice of selling real estate—especially residential properties—provides an opportunity for women in particular to utilize the qualities that are natural to them.

"I don't exclude men, of course, but in my experience, qualities such as intuition, empathy, and enthusiasm often come so readily to women. And I can think of several other qualities, natural to men and women alike, that make the selling of real estate a joy for seller and buyer—unselfishness, compassion, patience, integrity, honesty, caring, listening. You don't need a lot of formal education to develop these qualities. They just need to be practiced on a day-to-day basis."

When asked about loyalty in business, and what inspires it, Jean observes: "Loyalty flows two ways—to and from employer and employee. When I find someone working 100 hours a week, I like to think they're not doing that just to impress me, or because of the money they hope it'll bring. I hope that person's committed to a principle—and that that's what they're being loyal to.

"Our company has never been famous as a 'revolving door.' And I like to think that those who have stayed for 20, 30, and even 40 years have not done it so much out of personal loyalty to those of us in charge, but out of loyalty to the principles that we try to espouse.

"These principles aren't just written on a piece of paper; they aren't just in the policy manual; they aren't just talked about at meetings. We've really pledged ourselves to live them on a day-to-day basis."

Jean shares a sentence she's used in the company for many years and had always attributed to "anonymous": "What you are speaks so loudly that I can't hear what you're saying."

"I quoted that over and over. I used it in training new salespeople, emphasizing that it was more important what they were and what they lived, than what they were saying.

"More recently, a new recruit pointed out to me that the quotation actually comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who used the word thunders. This provided an even more powerful message for me. In its more complete form, it reads: 'Do not say things. What you are stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.' I really like that word thunders, and so do the members of our sales team."

Another gem, source unknown, that Jean likes to share with the staff is this: "Trust is very difficult to define, but you always know when you have it."

"My trust has always been in God," she says. "That's something I really know.

"In my life in real estate, I have trusted God for everything. Absolutely everything. And when I speak of trust in God, I mean trust in truth, and honesty, and integrity; trust in love through compassion and unselfishness; trust in the divine Mind as the source of all intelligence."