Dealing with stress as you climb the ladder

How do you guys deal with stress as you grow internally and start take on more responsibilities and dealing with senior management/investors/clients on a more on a daily basis? We all know things don’t always go right (blown UW, Propert mishap, blown budgets, etc) and instead of my boss being the bearer of bad news for say, when I was an Analyst or Associate, it’s now me delivering the news. “Mo Money Mo Problems” couldn’t be more of the truth.

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Exercise, hobbies, alcohol, etc. 

In all seriousness, in my experience, every time you move up there are three distinct phases: 

  1. Holy shit what is happening? This is insane! I can barely keep up! 
  2. Alright I got it now. I am the master of the universe. I have an answer for everything. 
  3. This is boring as shit and I can do it while half paying attention. 

The only way you get from 1 to 2 is through reps. You have to do the work and experience situations a couple times before you get comfortable. Once you're at 2, you excel, but eventually it becomes dull doing the same thing again and again and again. Once you get to 3, you need to challenge yourself to get uncomfortable again, take the next step, and get back to 1. 

Commercial Real Estate Developer
 

Bake contingency/conservatism into every budget, every timeline, every promise.  Also, play the politics game carefully and have someone to pass the buck/responsibility (aka throw under the bus) when absolutely necessary, though this gets more difficult as your get more senior, as you're effectively admitting you mismanaged said entity.  

When all else fails, blame the market / interest rates.  

 

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