Michael Altshuler once said, “The bad news is times flies. The good news is you are the pilot.” Yesterday marked the end of my fifth year in the commercial real estate sales world and looking back I don’t know where all of that time went. 1,825 days gone in seemingly a flash.
While I sit here writing, thinking about that “flash” I can’t help but reminisce about my life during that time.
Ah – Memories!
Personally, I accomplished a lot: purchased and renovated my first house, proposed to, and married my wife, Carly, we added a dog and then subsequently a crazy cat who thinks he is a dog to our family, sold my first house, bought and renovated my second home, and now in mere weeks Carly and I are expecting our first child – a little girl.
Professionally, I was runner-up in FGCAR’s Rookie of the Year category in my first year, I volunteered for and now run the largest pitch session in FGCAR, that led to me being nominated for and elected to the Board of FGCAR, a recipient of the Connect Media Next Gen Leadership award, brought on and trained a great agent in Erica Lovingood, I was the youngest candidate chosen to participate in the 2019 “Golden Class” of Leadership St. Pete, studied for and passed the state Broker’s License test, and this year I am the President-Elect for FGCAR, which will make me the youngest President of FGCAR in its’ 28 year history in 2022.
Goals – The Pilot’s Beacons
Thinking back to 2016, sure I had all those things as goals in my head, but to accomplish them all seemed daunting to say the least. I find goals extremely important. For me not only do they provide a road map, but they provide benchmarks and a means to test your progress. I make it a point to not only set annual goals, but to forecast out the three-, five-, and ten-year benchmarks. This helps to keep me focused on my life and to be “the pilot”.
That is all great in theory, but life has a way of throwing, or sometimes launching, wrenches into your plans. In life and in the Commercial Real Estate business, you must learn how to pivot and not let things bother you. My broker, Scott Clendening, will always remind you, “Don’t get too high on a deal and not to get to low on one either”. Deals die and revive all the time. Much like in life, opportunities present themselves and then go away and vice versa.
All About That Mindset
Admittedly, I sometimes allow myself to become engrossed in things that I should not let bother or annoy me. That is where the mantra of you can only control you helps pull me out of it. Learning to process and accept the fact that I only had a finite amount of control over my deals and the people involved in them took some time and heartbreak. It is difficult to accept the fact that you can spend so much time working on behalf of someone only to have them not reciprocate the same level of courtesy. Losing deals will teach you that and boy do you learn too. Everyone in my industry will laugh, or maybe cry, as they think back on the times this has happened to them personally.
Alas, the past five years have not been all doom and gloom, sure I have a head of sprouting gray hairs. I like to think they make me “distinguished” and “regal”. My only hope is that if I do gray early, I fall into the silver fox category and not just old-looking.
My time in commercial real estate has been amazing, I have learned a ton, experienced about every emotion possible, helped to close about 150 deals, married the love of my life, and now starting my own family.
I look forward to the next 5 years of real estate and to many more after that.
Sincerely,
