Recently I had a chance to sit down with a large player in
the real estate industry (I will call him Joe).
In the last five years, Joe and his brother have grown a small start-up
company into a multi-million dollar company with over $100 million in assets.
But this didn’t happen overnight and they started with
almost nothing. And the real kicker is
that Joe gave up a seven figure salary to start his own real estate company
with his brother.
Read that again…..I said SEVEN figure.
The real reason for giving a million dollar salary was the
value of time. His wife had recently
given birth to their first child and they were expecting another. His boss and mentor had congratulated him
and told him that it was great to have kids, although it was difficult to spend
time with his own. Digging deeper, Joe
found that, due to the long hours he put in to become partner, his boss only
saw his kids on weekends….if at all.
Instantly something clicked in Joe’s head and he realized
that this was not the life for him. The
work was challenging and the pay was fantastic, but nothing was worth more than
watching his kids grow up. On top of
this, he always had an entrepreneurial spirit.
Now I am sure he had challenges along the way, and I’m sure
there were some long days/weeks/months, but he is doing what he wants to do
with his life….on his own terms. If his
kids need him, he is there.
I applaud his efforts and thank him for his inspiration to
me.
More than anything, this reassured me that I am travelling down a path that I want
to take, not what everyone else thinks I should be doing. And it is nice to know that I am not alone
with these thoughts.
For those of you out there who are interested in doing
something out of your comfort zone….do it.
Do it because you may not ever get another chance. Do it because it’s exciting. Do it because it inspires you.
I’m not telling you to quit your job and start flipping
houses, but if you have always wanted to try something new…at least take the
first step. If it doesn’t work out, at
least you tried. If it does…gravy.
