When to quit vs. when to stick.

And–what do you do for money, and what do you do for love?

I’ve said it before: there is nothing that I adore inherently about the Real Estate/Mortgage business. I DO love the fact that it’s an awesome playground for entrepreneurs. I do love the fact that it is largely a meritocracy, and there are few barriers to entry. But I’m not a ‘born’ broker, not like Dan, and not like Brian. I love my customers and I love my Realtors. I love helping people, and I love testing and measuring marketing.

But the real truth? I like the mortgage business. Always have. I’ve never loved it. I’ve made a great income, but I’ve never been absolutely gung-ho about being a mortgage lender. I’ve never said that this is my career. I’ve held back. I never thought that it was the….”Highest and Best,” use of my time, energy and talent. I never thought that the mortgage (or real estate) business was the last job I’d ever have. Oh, it’s a perfect job in many respects. It’s a high income job that allows a lot of latitude over scheduling. But it’s not the end all and be all, never was.

We’re often embarrassed to say what our big damn dreams are. Our family members tell us to ‘be realistic,’ sometimes, and that’s not always good advice. If you are passionate about something–so much so that it feels like a privilege to work 18 hour days–it will be hard to keep you down. They call things ‘labors of love’ for a reason. You’d damn near do it for free, and wake up happy that there is a market (even one you’ve created) for what you are doing…and the minutes pass like seconds, and you can’t stop thinking of ways to get better, and you thank God for the opportunity that you have.

…or you wake up in your late 40′s crying about the chances that passed you by, and the fact that you never had the guts to take your shot. To give homage to April, you don’t want to be screaming out the window, “What about my prime, Mick? At least you had a prime! I had no prime, I had nothin’!!” Of course, not everyone finds themselves in work. The human impulse to define people by their work is too limiting. We all have different roles: I want to be a better imitator of Christ, a great Dad & Husband, a great friend, a good student and a good teacher…all before I want to be summarized by my job. The former roles that I want to apply the first fruits of my labor, and those are things I want to do with fervor and zeal…and yet it’s easy to get distracted by the urgent.

Road #1: Job as a Means to an End

Since it’s 100% ok to not be defined by your job, then it’s OK to have a job to fuel the rest of your life. If being a Real Estate Agent isn’t your calling, but there’s no stable market for hang gliding, using a Real Estate job to be a world class hang glider (or Dad, or whatever) is 100% OK. It’s never OK though to be engaged in an activity without doing it right, so even if you find yourself at Starbucks, do it right, do it well, and keep your mind turned on so you can do it better, and then leave it be so you can do what you want to do. I’d guess people in this role will still blog about their jobs, still do things for advocacy’s sake (the wonderful things you learn from Todd),

Before you think “I’d never sell out like that,” let me offer an example of the company you’re in. Bono is a “Job as means to an end,” guy. For him, being a Rock Star is a cool job, but it’s just a job at this point. He does everything that he can to keep it interesting, but he’s just leveraging the influence he has so that he is able to serve people and do what he feels is right to do. (And his passion also fuels his rock-star ness). There is no shortage of passion in Bono, he appeared on American Idol to get his message out, because his message is more important to him than anything else.

Road #2 Job as End

The other good road is having a “job as end route.” It looks like this: you find, or create, a job that is the best thing you could ever imagine doing, you do it well, and you share your knowledge of how to do it. If you would almost give up anything to be doing what you’re doing you’re in that role. You’ll acquire the tangential skills easily because they support you in your dream role. You’ll do the things that you need to do to become the world’s best whatever. Almost every activity–done as the best in the world–will support you at a six figure lifestyle. Even inane pursuits, like Poker or World of Warcraft create ridiculous incomes for people.

I’d betcha that Bruce Springsteen sees being a rock star as the highest, coolest and best use of his time. He seems like a guy that would still be playing clubs in Jersey and Philly for free, even if he never had been able to release “Born to Run.” He might have a day job somewhere, but he’d still have his hungry heart. He does an occasional turn as the ’cause guy,’ but for the most part, he’s digging his role as a rock star and couldn’t understand why he hell anyone would do any other job.

Most people take neither road, they take the mushy middle. “It pays good,” without really realizing that they are selling out, like Owen Wilson did. They live lives of ‘quiet desperation,’ Most people won’t have the guts to pursue any course with zeal and abandon. Most people take a job, and hope to find fulfillment without embracing any role that they have to any degree of meaningfulness. They are tepid, neither in or out of their jobs, lukewarm about everything that they (we) do.

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