If your "why" isn’t big enough, you will not develop the "what" you need to do to succeed; nor will you have the fortitude to bear under the "how" to overcome the obstacles that life and this business have yet to throw your way.
Is your "why" big enough?
This Friedrich Nietzsche quote says it all, “He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.”
Let me give you an example: If you want to be a nurse, because you love to help patients, that is great. But if that why is not big enough for you, you will not discipline yourself to study enough to make the grades that will keep you in the program. And did I mention, graduating from the program is the only way to earn the right to work with the patients, which is the why.
It is the same thing with the new mortgage licensing laws. The requirements of being in this business are increasing every day and I am glad.
Sidebar: It’s about time that it is very difficult to go from delivering pizzas to originating loans. It is past time that the why people are in this business is far beyond a way to earn a quick buck or a way to suck equity out of consumer’s home so that they can do something stupid with the money.
Coming from a guy with a 62% LTV fixed rate mortgage, I have always had a problem with the mortgage coach that has “trained” loan officers to talk a consumer into an adjustable rate mortgage that they would need to refi every few years or push a consumer to refi every other year so that the loan “jockey” could simply increase their income. I know, I get it. If you had not originated the loan someone else would have. But, how does it feel now is my rant.
So, why are you in this business now? If it is to do well while doing good, I’m with you and you can succeed. If it is to help a family obtain their first home, do such a great job that they come back for years and of course refer their family and friends along the way, I’m with you and you can succeed. If it is to help a family refi to obtain needed money to get their finances under control, while providing or at least trying to provide a little education that may keep them out of financial turmoil, I am with you and you can succeed.
These "why's" are big enough to cause you to develop the "what" you need to do to succeed again in this business and bear up under any "how" that life throws at you.
Homework: Over the weekend, make a list of the why's around your business. Determine what you will have to change in order to accomplish these goals, because without a doubt, change in what you want requires change in your actions. Then, begin to develop the next step plans that accomplish your why each step of the way.
A quote from Peter Drucker says it all: “A decision is just a hope until somebody that is capable has been given the assignment with a deadline.”
For those of us that clearly define our "why," we will thrive again.
Joel Pate is an entrepreneur and founder of multiple successful companies in the mortgage, real estate, and marketing space. For more information on Joel, contact him
