The whole time I was in the mortgage and real estate business, I was about ten grand short of my escape. That was the dough I’d need to leave and call it a day.
I was always “a month” away from getting it out, but something happened.
A deal didn’t close, an extra expense happened. I got lazy and blew off a client. That was the story of the Bush administration for me. I wanted out of that business, I’d somehow taken a job that I was not suited for and made it my career. I was always “almost done.”
The reality was that I was a lifer then. Addicted to the struggle, stuck in a grind, and I was the problem. The Ten Grand was never gonna come because I believed in it too much. To get it, I had to change my character. I didn’t get that, so the ten grand never showed up.
This is why people have to hit rock bottom: we don’t have access to the signals that can get our behavior to change. We think that it’s the $10k that makes the difference, when really, it’s just the fact that we behave like assholes.
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