30 Things I Wish I Knew at 30

February 8, 2021
I started my real estate career, at age 30, 23 years ago in February of 1998 starting part time with a developer that needed open house help on the weekends. 13 years ago in February, I had my real estate heart attack. In February of 2011, 10 years ago next week, Jameson was gifted the honor of affiliating with Sotheby's International Realty. As I sit here today, I am at the halftime intermission between my real estate heart attack of 2008 and my estimated retirement at Age 65. When you hit these milestones and/or personal moments in time you become introspective.  What have I learned?  What do I hope to pass down?  LEGACY,  VISION and MINDSET are my 3 guiding principle "words." You'll find those words defined and framed on my wall in my newly designed office.
If you want to create and build a LEGACY,  you have to teach and continue teaching what you've learned in order to help others shave years off their growth curve while helping others avoid mistakes you've made over the years. It was tough to keep this list to 30, but here are "30 Things I wish I knew at 30:"
  1. Build your business on relationships, not transactions. "Take Flight" was built on this concept.
  2. A database is the line between having a real estate hobby and a real estate business.
  3. 80% of people are motivated by desperation.  20% are motivated by inspiration.  What motivates you?
  4. Stay uncomfortable. You can be happy and uncomfortable at the same time.
  5. You will toggle between "Growth Mode",  "Maintenance Mode" and "Self Discovery Mode" throughout your life.  Embrace all 3 modes for what they will mean in your life.
  6. Create a "Board of Directors" for your life and business.  They will be inspirational thought leaders (virtual), friends, family members all that inspire you and line up with your core beliefs.
  7. People hire who they "Know, Like and Trust." Internalize this concept and brand yourself to it. Don't outsource your personal brand marketing.
  8. If you need constant words of external encouragement, learn to find it within yourself. Focus on Mindset.
  9. Run all of your decisions through a "Hell Yes" filter. If it's not a hell yes, its a hell no. Spend your time, money and focus on the things that have lasting value.
  10. Perfection gets in the way of Progress. Playing at 100% perfection is impossible and will stunt your growth.
  11. Your goal should be to find "flow." That perfect container size (Happy Money by Ken Honda) where financial freedom, growth and happiness meet.
  12. Eliminate and guard yourself against negative, stagnant energy. They are anchors to your growth.
  13. Mindfulness practices (meditation, visualization, thinking sessions) are to the mind what exercise is to the body.
  14. It's impossible to be 100% positive all of the time.  Focus on being 51% positive to create a positive frequency.
  15. Thoughts create feelings. Feelings create action and it is the action that creates the results. - The Law of Attraction
  16. Less is More. Go narrow and deep. Become an expert focusing on fewer things.
  17. Learn to "reverse engineer." Understand what you want to create and work backwards.
  18. Give, give, give. When you are done giving, give some more. The best marketing does not feel like marketing or show up as marketing. Influencers don't say "Look at me." They say "How can I help?"
  19. You have to be a good "giver" but ALSO a  "good receiver." You need both to get and stay in flow. Learn to say "Thank you." Saying "Thank You" is being respectful to those wanting to give to you.
  20. Every real estate business is different. Learn from as many mentors, coaches, training programs as possible and execute authentically.
  21. Learn to transition with intention throughout the day through those different "versions of yourself."
  22. High performance starts with elimination. Be very mindful of your personal environment. If your environment is unorganized, you most likely will be unorganized.
  23. Understand and implement the concept of "Multiplication." Take the time to create processes and allow them to save you time and over the life of your business. Get your business out of your head.
  24. Self development is a mandatory part of growth. You will always perform at the level of your self development.
  25. Be consistent. Your current reality is the result of what you were thinking, doing and learning 6-9 months ago. If you "take off" a couple of months, it will take that same amount of time to regain your momentum.
  26. "In 5 years, you will be sum of the books you read and the people you choose to spend your time around."
  27. Learn to play on offense, not defense.
  28. Listen to your "gut." Your intuition is guiding you. Don't just listen to it. Act on it.
  29. Create a Task Management system that is comfortable and works for you. Learn to Plan. That's why they call them Planners.
  30. "People Do Not Decide their Futures.  They Decide their Habits and their Habits Decide their Futures."
Team, there are so many more nuggets like this but as the title suggests, I had to cap it at 30. Soon, I am going to wade into a topic that I have never once covered in a group setting and rarely one on one. I am going to jump into the topic of Financial Literacy in hopes to cover the basic do's and don'ts that I wish someone would have taught me early in my life and career.  As I was creating today's list, many of the topics that were coming to mind were all of the financial mistakes that I had to learn the hard way, so we'll turn to them in a completely separate MMPT soon.