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Working on doing my morning pages has revealed something to me.  I don’t have to be a mortgage guy–or a real estate guy–to be perfectly happy with my life.  I love some aspects of the job, and I’m going to continue to develop my idea as far as it will go.  But I want something else, at least, at a minimum.

Why?

I recently read The Dip, by Seth Godin.  It was probably the most important book I’ve read in 5 years.  (That’s over 300 books, kids).

Already brewing in my consciousness were a lot of the ideas in the book, namely: Being the world’s best is seriously underrated.   That idea has been after me, and I didn’t have it crystalized or expressed as well as Seth did, but I am so glad he wrote that book, and I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone.  In fact, if you’d like to borrow mine, you’re welcome to it.

Now–there are things I love about the Real Estate/Mortgage business:

• Entrepreneurial Freedom
• Wide Latitude to do what you want.
• Income is high, relative to the requirements.
•  We’re not tied to a desk.
• We’re free to set our own schedules.
• It’s rewarding when you do a good job.
• You get to interact with Realtors.
• You’re compensated on performance.
• Intelligence matters
• Selling skills matter.
• The industry attracts individuals with great personalities.

Things I don’t like:

• The future is murky at best, short and long term.
• The strong personalities are type a, fraud willing people.
•  There’s no baseline guaranteed income.
• only one part of the workrproduct has compensation with it.
• Clients need updating on a continual basis.

Now–there are a number of things that I really enjoy about what I do–but none of them are specific to the Real Estate and mortgage industry.  All of them exist in various capacities in different industries.   Right now, I’m definitely staying, at least in part to defy the odds.  The industry is imploding around us, and my income is up 50% from last year (last year was mediocre, but hey, this is true).

The Dip is basically where many people quit.  It’s Organic Chemistry in med school.  It’s mile 18 of a marathon.  It’s the trough–the tough part that we gotta slough through on our way to becoming relevant.  And if you can get through the Dip, the rewards are immense.  People are too afraid to focus on one thing, and like me, they get distracted.

I was a lousy real estate investor.  Picked ok properties price wise, but never got ahead of the game, and they consumed my income and credit.  The dip was early for me, and i failed.

I was a good Realtor.  Sold a ton of houses, made the grade, but I never got into dealing with consumers, and I never developed the empathy that I should have.  I got to well above average, and droppeed it because the difference between that and AWESOMENESS was scary.

As a mortgage lender, I’m doing well when everyone’s leaving the industry (maybe because…).  I could be in the dip, or I could be in the cul-de-sac.  A cul-de-sac is a deadend job.  It’s the guy whos reputation doesn’t allow him to get promoted, it’s something that you’ll never be great at.  The industry is radically changing.

It’s taking twice the work to do the same stuff.

The path:

I think that the industry may be in a cul de sac–practitioners will get stomped and squeezed.  I think 2008 is a year I can still make six figures,and what I’m going to do is back far away from it.  Create simple systems that don’t have a high degree of maintenance needs, and back of.  Spend my time prospecting and building relationships with people.

I think that I can manage growth, create good service, and drive it with a focused 15-18 hours a week, and spend the other 30 or so I want to work on rightrightnow.com .  Haven’t decided, but I am on record saying that this industry was toast in April of 06.   Thought it’d last another year–then–but knew it was inefficient and LOs were grossly over paid.

More tomorow, as the beat goes on.

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