How I Changed My Life By Selling Real Estate, by Will Layton
More guys grow up wanting to be fighter pilots than realtors. I got to be a fighter pilot. When the time came to move on, I tossed around the idea of being an architect. After doing some research, I found that there are a lot more starving architects than starving fighter pilots. Designing homes on an empty stomach didn’t sound like much fun. I needed a better idea.
Somewhere along the way I fell in love with fixing up homes, so I thought I would love building them. Most successful builders have a long history of working in construction. I did not. Flipping homes sounded fun, but the business side of it is more managing workers than doing the actual building. I got my real estate license along the way to make the buying process easier. I was not fulfilled. In hindsight I was missing the right people.
The Navy had moved me from Pensacola to Whiting to Meridian to Lemoore to Atsugi and finally to Virginia Beach. Most of my buddies had bought homes along the way. We had a great network of friends already in place no matter where we moved. My worldview has been shaped by the experiences shared by all Navy families. Having been a Naval Officer for nearly 15 years, I finally realized that the hardest part about leaving the Navy was the people. Finally a good idea was forming.
As per Malcolm Gladwell in “Outliers,” most successful people engage in “meaningful work.” This consists of three things.
1. That there is a clear relationship between work and reward.
2. The work has a degree of complexity
3. The work is autonomous.
Helping Naval Officers buy and sell homes is “meaningful work” and more. It would also allow me to stay in contact with the people I like the most in the world, the people whose worldview I share.
The rest, so to speak, is history. With several successful years under my belt, I know the market, I know what people want, and most importantly, I know I like it. Short of some cataclysmic event, I expect to be selling homes for the next 20 years.