The Third of Four
We’re partway through unpacking the four Core Values that guide how BlueSky operates — principles that, unlike our Core Purpose, don’t change with the business. We’ve covered “Go the Extra Mile” and “Take Ownership.” Here’s the third: Choose to Smile. We bring a positive attitude to our work (10/90), we solve problems from a posture of contentment & patience.
Of the four values, this is the one most likely to be misread as fluff. It isn’t. Property management is a business built almost entirely out of other people’s problems — a leak, a late payment, a noise complaint, a lease dispute. This value is about how we choose to meet that reality, day after day, without letting it curdle into burnout or short temper
What "10/90" Actually Means
The shorthand in this value — 10/90 — points to a simple but genuinely useful idea: roughly 10% of what happens to us in a day is outside our control, and roughly 90% is determined by how we respond to it. A resident calling angry about a delayed repair is the 10%. Whether that call ends with them feeling heard or feeling dismissed is almost entirely the 90% — our choice, not theirs.
We didn’t invent this framing, and we don’t claim it explains everything about a hard day. But it’s a useful reminder in a job where the 10% arrives constantly and mostly isn’t good news. A pipe doesn’t wait for a convenient afternoon to burst. A board doesn’t schedule its most difficult meeting for when everyone’s well-rested. The events themselves aren’t optional. Our response to them is.
Contentment and Patience Are Not the Same as Passivity
It’s worth being precise about what this value is not saying. “Choose to Smile” doesn’t mean pretending a problem is fine when it isn’t, or smiling through a situation that actually needs to be escalated and fixed. Contentment, in the way we mean it here, isn’t complacency — it’s the difference between solving a problem from a place of composure versus solving it from a place of panic or resentment.
A frustrated technician rushing through a repair to get the angry phone calls to stop makes different — usually worse — decisions than one who’s working from patience. A leasing agent who resents every question from a prospective resident is going to give shorter, less helpful answers than one who’s genuinely glad to help, even on their fifth similar call of the day. The posture we bring to a problem changes the quality of how we solve it. That’s the practical reason this is a Core Value and not just a nice personality trait — it affects outcomes, not just atmosphere.
Where This Gets Tested
This value is easy to hold on a good day and hard to hold on a bad one, and the bad ones are exactly when it matters. It’s tested when a resident is yelling about something that genuinely isn’t our fault. It’s tested on the fourth emergency call of an on-call weekend shift. It’s tested when an owner is second-guessing a decision the team made in good faith with the information available at the time.
We don’t expect our team to feel cheerful about every one of those moments — that wouldn’t be honest, and we’re not asking for performed positivity. What we’re asking for is the choice to respond from patience rather than reactivity, even when the feeling underneath is frustration. That’s a discipline, not a personality trait, and it’s one we try to build through how we train, support, and give each other room to reset on hard days.
Why This Matters to the People We Serve
For a resident, this value is the difference between calling about a problem and being made to feel like a burden for having one, versus being genuinely helped by someone who isn’t visibly irritated at having to deal with it. For an owner, it’s the difference between a management team that handles a difficult tenant situation with steady judgment versus one that escalates out of frustration. A calm, patient response to a hard situation usually produces a better outcome than a reactive one — which is exactly why this value earns its place alongside the other three, rather than being the “soft” one of the group.
What does "Choose to Smile" mean as a BlueSky Core Value?
It means bringing a genuinely positive, patient attitude to our work and solving problems from a posture of composure rather than frustration — not pretending problems don’t exist, but choosing how we respond to them.
What does "10/90" refer to?
It’s shorthand for the idea that roughly 10% of what happens in a day is outside our control, and roughly 90% is determined by how we choose to respond to it. It’s a reminder that our reaction to a difficult situation is usually the part we actually control
Isn't "Choose to Smile" just about being nice?
It’s about more than tone. A team working from patience and composure tends to make better decisions under pressure than one working from frustration or panic — which directly affects the quality of how problems actually get solved, not just how they feel in the moment.
What are BlueSky's other Core Values?
Go the Extra Mile, Take Ownership, and Build Relationships. Each is covered in its own post in this series — see the BlueSky Insights blog for the full set.