I have been speaking with 2-3 young (and maybe not entirely all that young?) people recently about “career design”.
This makes me think about my younger situations and choices and the business that I have built today. I wouldn’t be the first to point out that the way that I see things today is not the same as I saw them when I was 14, or 21, or 30.
When I launched my real estate practice 17 years ago, I did not realize then that the ability to see the user of my work was more important that I had ever thought about when I was younger. In my engineering life I worked on some interesting projects. Projects for Ford, Daimler-Benz, BMW. For NASA. For military. For consumer products. For medical equipment.
That sounds like a ton of variety, and in some ways it was. But in one way it was sadly similar. Design and engineering solutions are fantastic and I love the work. But most of the love was “out there” somewhere with the user, and not in the lab with me. My last engineering position was developing a therapy robot for stroke patients, and working with the patient in their rehabilitation. It was fantastic to see their joy and wonder! It was so rewarding to see them improve. Many people don’t see the obvious connection to real estate.
However, it was quickly clear to me that the real estate decisions that people make, especially when real estate is such a large portion of income and wealth for people in the Boston area, is a wonderful opportunity to provide people some much-needed, data-driven guidance.
For me, I find that a career built around providing valuable guidance is completely rewarding. It has been a joy to meet and work with my clients and to see their wealth grow.
Maybe the goal seems overly dramatic, but I encourage anyone that I speak with about jobs, careers, businesses to design the life that fits them. Do the work that you have talent to do in a way that is rewarding.
