If you are looking to be inspired today, this amazing story from my friend Chris will help!
“I heard your going to be a real estate agent....that’s funny...your probably gonna fail at that just like you failed here.”
That was someone’s last words to me on October 1st 2015 as I said goodbye to my old job at my previous employer. As I said goodbye to my friends and co-workers, as we exchanged hugs and handshakes, as we held back tears and I tried to keep my head high even though I felt like a total failure as a man and a father this person came up to me in what I thought was them saying good bye and instead said those words to me.
I walked out of that building with my box in my hand, got in my Jeep and drove home. It wasn’t a long drive but by the time I got home I knew what I had to do. I had to channel all that anger, all that rage, and all that feeling of being constantly beaten down and I need to be the best real estate agent I could be.
I looked around and I saw what they had...costly clothes, high end cars, yearly and quarterly vacations in countries I couldn’t pronounce with my high school degree.
I had none of that.
I had a 20 year old Jeep with 200K miles, I had a shirt, I had a tie, and I was a minimum wage farm kid from Virginia. I didn’t care....I didn’t care because for the first time in my life I was determined that no matter what I would not fail.
Not much money in the bank? Fine, I will invest in myself and the other stuff I would figure out. I would eat once every 3 days, I would turn my heat down to 55 degrees, I would keep my lights off and study by candle light to save money to put toward my new career. I would do whatever it took to be the best.
I passed my exam, I started on March 1st 2016, and I hustled. Others would laugh at me because I wore the same shirt and tie daily....they would laugh at me because my shoes cost less than they would pay for their lunch....they would laugh when I parked my Jeep next to their Range Rover and I didn’t care because none of them or that idiot at my old job knew me, they didn’t control me, and they sure didn’t see where I was going in life but I sure did. I ate, I slept, and I breathed this job because I was going to be that legend.
6 years later...I am still here. Even though 90% of new agents fail in the first year....I am still here. I have driven close too 350K miles in 6 years (2 of them backwards), I have sold homes from West Point to Fluvanna, I have cut grass, I have fixed toilets, I have raked leaves, I have climbed on houses, under houses, I have been stung by wasps, I have been attacked by bats, I have pulled a bootleg turn on 460 when someone said they needed to see a house right now, I have been finished in the top 3 of Best of the Best Realtors of the year for 3 of my 6 years, I have won the 2019 Realtor of the Year award, and I have done it all because I know in my heart that I am not the best today but I am better than I was yesterday and I will be even better tomorrow.
I am a father, I am a small business owner, I am a son, I am a brother, I am a ex husband, I am a friend, and one day even if it’s in my daughters eyes and heart I will be a legend. She will know that nothing in this world can bring you down unless you let it. Yes you will get knocked down....get up. And if you get knocked down again?
That’s right, get up. Keep getting up. Keep fighting. Be that legend to your kids or your former co- workers or to those out there just watching. Be that legend to yourself because I know you deserve it and you do too.
Today is the 6 year anniversary of me being an agent and I have loved every single moment of it. I want to show everyone and anyone that life isn’t easy but you can pull yourself up. You can become something better. You can still get out there and win the day and when you see someone in their lowest moment you can inspire them to move forward.
So get up. Get up and push forward. Get up and keep moving.
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