I failed.  Yep, there it is.  I said it.  Why are we so afraid to say those two little words out loud? Or for that matter, we even hesitate to say them to ourselves!   I’m not accustomed to failing. I generally accomplish what I set out to do. Until I didn’t accomplish what I set out to do. I had announced to friends, family and strangers that I was transitioning into working as a realtor, how do I now say “never mind, I’m not doing that now.”  Gasp!  What would people think?  But this time last year, I was facing the reality that it just wasn’t working. I struggled to admit it just yet. I could blame the pandemic, being new in town, etc., etc., etc.  In retrospect, and with time and space away from it, I realized it simply wasn’t a good fit. I was trying to make something work that just didn’t feel authentic. It wasn’t for me.  I was plugging away at something without getting results.  It was time for a shift.   

Now that I am a year into my new coaching venture, I have come to terms with my failed attempt at being a realtor. I’m writing this post because I wanted to be able to say that I practice what I preach.  I want to be able to say authentically that I do indeed have the growth mindset I talked about in this post I wrote previously.  So I compiled the following 5 things I learned from my failed attempt at real estate:

1. That I can indeed take risks.  I’m not sure that I ever thought of myself as a risk taker before my move to Virginia and my decision to do a complete 360 from my career in mental health to getting my real estate license.  I have always had a safe “job.”  I’ve always worked for someone else, gotten a regular paycheck and answered to management over my head.  Even though it didn’t work out, branching out on my own to sell real estate was a risk.  I took it.  I can take more!

2. That I want to be an entrepreneur.  I was bitten by the bug when I worked in real estate.  I could frame my own day based on what needed to be done, not by what my boss was telling me to do.  I needed to find my own way, generate my own leads, and real estate taught me the foundation of how to do that.  It set the groundwork.  When I shifted to working with OptimumEd, I was able to continue to have the flexibility I came to love, as well as contribute to the growth of the business.  Being completely responsible for your own income is scary.  It truly is.  But at the end of the day, I’m enjoying the challenge. 

3. How to network (and that I need and love networking!).  I am an extrovert by nature. I love meeting new people, hearing their stories, and learning about what they do and where they’ve been in life.  I am finding formal networking even more of a necessity being new to the area.  At the suggestion of my real estate coach, I joined a networking organization at the beginning of the pandemic.  I only attended two meetings in person before we were in shutdown mode. So when we were all in quarantine and stuck in our homes, I was thankfully able to meet so many people through the wonders of Zoom.  Now that we are venturing out of our homes more, I get to actually attend networking meetings and events in person, meet people for coffee or lunch, and create deeper connections. I’m learning that these recripocal referral relationships will be my key to success.

4. That I have a voice.  Blogging, podcasting, social media, etc.  I have a message and a point of view on life that I want and need to share with the world.  When I launched my coaching business this year, I truly found that I love owning my content and putting it out in the world.  I want to continually create more content and am always looking for new things to write about and talk about to add to what I contribute.  I am spending more and more time writing and creating, and I am starting a podcast. I will eventually write a book and will continue to look for other ways to help people live their best lives.

5. That sometimes a failure leads to the good stuff.  The best stuff! In my case, I never would have found my current path if I hadn’t ventured down the path of real estate. Everything, even failure, is an opportunity for growth.