Haven’t found your ‘why’? Don’t give up

Have you found your “why” yet? Are you looking? Do you even know what I’m talking about? No worries, you’ll know it when it happens — and it will be life-changing.

It’ll put your real estate career in perspective along with everything else you do, and that’s wonderfully comforting and motivating, particularly at year-end as we take stock of our accomplishments so far and map out the next year of our lives.

How I found my ‘why’

My path to success in real estate is similar to yours, I imagine, so I hope my insights can be helpful and maybe even inspirational.

I have to admit that when I first chose this path, I saw real estate mainly as a way to achieve great wealth for myself and my family. I was going to do whatever was necessary to make me the richest and most successful real estate mogul ever.

I was totally focused on that. To put it bluntly, I was chasing the almighty dollar — for my own benefit.

So, I threw myself into my work, hitting many of the same bumps in the road that you have probably encountered and getting thrown off-course at times. But I persevered and learned from my mistakes. I continued working hard, recognizing and seizing opportunities and finally achieving a certain level of financial success.

And then an amazing thing happened!

The true entrepreneurial spirit kicked in, and suddenly my “why” became crystal-clear.

What happens when you find it

When you reach this point as an entrepreneur, it stops being about you. It’s stops being about how much money you can make and adding another zero to your bank account. It really starts being about something bigger and better than yourself.

For me, it’s about creating a company that provides jobs for people to support themselves and their loved ones. That brings fulfillment to me.

It’s about providing a great product for my clients and those who are associated with my business. They also thrive because they either buy a great product, or they receive an awesome service that helps them enrich their lives.

To put it in simplest terms, it’s about giving back to others — with a pure heart, not expecting anything in return.

That is the point where my journey has now brought me. I unofficially “retired” last year. I have been blessed as a real estate entrepreneur to have amassed enough money to last a lifetime, maybe more. So, what now?

Where do I go from here?

I had a crazy idea that I wanted to give away 100 houses over the next 10 years. Then, I had an even crazier idea that I want to create a $100 million business and give it all away over a certain amount of time as well. That became my purpose, my “why” and the catalyst for what I do every single day.

Will this — suddenly and without question knowing your purpose — happen for you the way it did for me? Probably not, because it is such an intensely personal epiphany.

And that’s why I cannot give you a three-step checklist of how to find your why.

I can, however, give you this singularly important piece of advice: Never stop looking. That means being open to ideas and opinions of everyone you meet — even when you don’t agree with them.

The more people you interact with on a daily basis, the more your own horizons will be expanded, and you will more clearly see your own path.

Listen to other people’s stories. Look at why they do what they do. Ask where they have been, how they accomplished certain things in their past, what they are doing right now and where they want to be in the future.

Something that one of these individuals says or does might be the spark in your life that enables you to find your purpose or to mold the direction you should take.

I can also tell you this without equivocation: Your “why” cannot revolve around money or only yourself. The reason you get up and out of bed every day has to be bigger and better than that.

With success comes great responsibility to others

Maybe your reason for achieving wealth is to create a better life for your loved ones, to send your kids to a better school. Or perhaps you want to have the financial means to allow you to help build something important for your community.

You want to leave a legacy, to be remembered as someone who gave it his or her all and gave it all away to help others.

Magic takes over when you embrace that mindset and recognize your responsibility to the greater good. It goes like this: The more you give, the more you get. And that applies, no matter where you are on the financial ladder.

My grandma always used to say, “Blessed is the hand that gives.”

So, you have to give with a pure heart, and a pure soul, with no expectation of anything in return. And I promise that it will come back, not just tenfold, but a hundredfold.

Do your part in giving back from now on, in whatever form you are able, no matter how small. I’m doing it by giving a house each year to someone in need.

You can do it by cleaning out your wardrobe of clothes you’re not wearing anymore and donating them to charity. You can go out to your local fast-food outlet and buy gift cards to give out to the homeless. You can buy a jacket to give to someone who is cold and needs one.

There are many, many ways to give back.

If you have already embraced that mindset, you know the fulfillment that it brings. That’s the greatest gift you could hope for in return.

“Give without remembering, and receive without forgetting.” – Brian Tracy, motivational speaker

Engelo Rumora is the founder of List’n Sell Realty in Ohio. Follow him on Facebook, or connect with him on LinkedIn.