The biggest divide in valuation is between the people who are still curious and people just trying to make it to retirement.
For decades, we’ve been running the same playbook. Same conversations. The result is predictable. The people already inside the profession are bored and the people outside the profession aren’t exactly lining up to join.
That’s a problem because every profession needs momentum. Young people are attracted to industries that feel like they’re growing, changing and creating opportunities. Nobody gets excited about maintaining the status quo.
Think about what we’re asking a new appraiser to do. Spend years getting licensed. Find a mentor. Invest time and money. Build expertise. And then hope the profession they join is healthy enough to reward that investment. If you ask ten existing appraisers whether it’s worth it, you’ll get mixed answers. That’s not a great sales pitch.
Meanwhile, the problems aren’t exactly getting smaller. UAD 3.6 is forcing change. The National Appraisal Institute is a defendant (again), in the red (again). Roughly half of bank assignments require revisions. The workforce keeps getting older. We’re reacting to technology but falling behind quickly.
But here’s the thing. Hard things are where opportunities live.
Ben Horowitz wrote The Hard Thing About Hard Things because real leadership isn’t about solving easy problems. Anybody can manage when things are working. Leadership matters when there are no clean answers and no obvious roadmap.
That’s where valuation is right now.
And I actually think that’s exciting.
Because the future belongs to builders.
Builders don’t spend all day complaining about AI. They figure out how to use it. Builders don’t see trainees as competition. They see them as the next generation. Builders don’t spend all their energy protecting what used to work. They spend their energy creating what should exist next.
That’s why I believe leadership matters more than ever. Leadership focused on creating value. Leadership that invests in mentorship, culture and entrepreneurship. Leadership willing to ask uncomfortable questions and rethink assumptions that haven’t been challenged in decades.
The good news is that hard things have a way of revealing builders. I think there’s a lot of builders in our valuation space. The problem is most of us are quiet. We don’t speak up. We don’t raise our hand. I think it’s time that we step up (myself included) and create value.
Value through leadership. Value through mentorship. Value through better processes, stronger relationships and new ideas.