As a young business person I had the energy to work long hours seven days per week. I was able to overcome my lack of experience by devoting enthusiasm into every deal. While I went on plenty of sales calls to obtain listings I was only mildly successful in closing the deal and walking away with a signed contract in hand. I could easily impress a prospective client with my energy and enthusiasm I just couldn’t seem to overcome the fact that I lacked experience. I was frustrated because the seasoned real estate agents had experience but put no energy into finding a customer for their listings. Basically they put up their sign on the property, entered it into the MLS and then sat back waiting for the phone to ring. I felt like I was in a “Catch 22” situation, I needed listings to get experience and I needed experience to get listings. I spent several years gaining the experience paying a very sizable opportunity cost to obtain it.
Now as a seasoned agent my efforts have not changed but I am a little slower than I use to be. My peers continue to sit and wait and for some reason still have plenty of listing opportunities. I was thinking back to those younger years the other day and wondered how much money I could have made if I only had the experience and came to the conclusion it would have been quite sizable. Today with the years of accumulated experience that I’ve obtained I’m capable of putting together just about any type of real estate deal imaginable but since I’m now a little slower I find myself short on time to do all the deals that come my way so I pick and choose those that are of interest to me. I keep thinking to myself that youth is wasted on the young. If only I had the experience I have today when I was in my twenties and thirties.
I’ve come to my own conclusion as to what I can do to overcome the aging process. I exercise daily, try to have a healthy diet, get plenty of rest and surround myself with younger people. Their energy at times can be infectious. I also get great
please out of mentoring younger employees so that the learn curve is reduced and they gain experience at a faster pace than I did. Hopefully because of my help, when they are my age they won’t look back as I have and feel that youth was wasted on the young.
