Graduate Rich

“I woke up one Saturday morning, and feeling terrible from happy hour the night before, I promptly sunk into the couch and threw on the first football game of the day. My roommate came in with a spring in his step as if he’d been awake for hours. I asked what he’d been doing all morning, and he replied that he had taken 1,500 photos of commercial properties… before I even considered rolling out of bed!!”

I heard that story recently from a very successful commercial real estate broker. He was talking about his friend, an even more successful broker ($10,000,000 in 10 years successful). He closed with this punchline, “to be successful in this business, or any business, you need to be willing to do the hard work that no one else is doing.”

Now, I’ve taken narrative liberties with this story to make it fit, but the facts are exactly as described. And judging by the newspaper articles and volume of sales, these facts are verifiable. The point is unmistakably important — ambition and discipline are essential to getting to your rich. Whether you want to make $10 million in 10 years or become a renowned artist in five, you need to be proving yourself in the areas that your competitors are not.

Think about what your boss or a more successful competitor gets recognized for. Can you do something similar? Can you innovate on that idea and set yourself apart even more?

Check out this interview with Steve Case.

Think of every job as an entrepreneurial experience. After all, you have to define yourself in any new role and sell the one product you know most about… yourself and your skill set. Having passion for anything you commit to undertake will make the job so much more enjoyable. That passion will give you self-confidence, which infects everyone you encounter and sell your ideas to.