Feelings / Emotions about your work
Curious to hear thoughts on how emotionally tied you are to your work? Aside from trying to succeed for financial gain, do you actually give a damn about real estate? With so many people full of shit across the industry, do you realize how often you're spewing bs?
It's just a living, I don't fantasize it. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun job, getting to see different cities, travel a bit (back on the planes now), see buildings etc...Reading the daily news about deals/developments going on in my city & the cities I cover at work is fun, more so than reading news about other things.
The most fun is the interaction with people - brokers/property mgmt/ops people/investors etc..
Regarding bs, not sure what you mean. Everyone bs everyone, even doctors. Just the nature of life. I'm not sure there's a job where there's no bs.
Be positive man.
I mean, yeah, I like what I do. I actually do like the company I work for. Is real estate like curing cancer? I guess not, but our tenants might (I mean, I can kinda say that legit-ly lol).
I'm guessing you have something going on in your world/firm/career to motivate this post, but I think cities, real estate, development, and even the capital markets are very cool and interesting. Beats the shit out of finance (IMHO), accounting stuff seems boring, and other disciplines never interested me. I thought in high school I'd be an engineer, but that seemed boring as shit once I got to college.
Personal advice, if you don't like it, find something you do like. Doing something just for they money is a miserable existence!
I've very sector agnostic. I could be working in pretty much any other industry and I wouldn't really care. Every industry is full of it. Tech sounds interesting until you realize the guy working at Facebook may spend a year or more designing coding the "like" button. I'm sure there are exciting things about different jobs, and there are things that suck. If I could find a job that paid me $1mm+ to be a janitor, I would do it.
I'm admittedly overemotional when it comes to my career in CRE. This is often to the detriment of my personal relationships and life outside of work. Who the f*** enjoys being around this type of person? Nobody, that's who.
As a young, commissioned broker, I justify this behavior because of the pandemic and paycheck to paycheck cycle that I was in. I'm finally getting paid enough to live reasonably but it's always about "the next deal" like a carrot dangling in front of me.
And the worst part? This obsessive mindset does more harm than good. Burnout is real and oftentimes the best thing you can do is do nothing.
I'm completely cognizant of this and have made some progress in addressing these issues. Easier said than done but there's no excuse for being a hardass and losing friends over a career. That hurts. The truth is that I love this business and couldn't imagine pushing paper or selling software from 9-5. We aren't saving the whales out here but it feels like we're doing something that matters to people. "It'S TaNgibLe"
Self goal: Don't talk about Real Estate this weekend. :-)
Interested to hear how y'all find a (somewhat) healthy work/life balance. Or don't for that matter.
I really like real estate and architecture and working on active development jobs, there is something great about pulling together a team of people and getting a building put together. That being said, the day in day out of work is fairly mundane and I'm not going to ascribe any sense of romantic attachment to the emails and schedules, it's just work.
I think it's important to build a sense of self apart from your job. To that end I've been able to log off for the most part after a 8 (sometimes 9) hour day, sometimes earlier if the work is light. I'm concerned going back to the office will have me sitting at a desk, doing nothing for a few hours simply because it's not acceptable to leave at 3pm even if your work is done. Being able to keep my weeks to 40-45 weeks let's me explore a life outside of work.
Certain deals excite me, and real estate is obviously interesting enough for me to do as a career. But at the end of the day, it's just a job and a means to an end. I don't nerd out over it. I don't talk about it with friends who aren't also in real estate. I don't post on social media about it (gross). And I generally do not think about it outside of work hours.
I'd say I enjoy working in the industry because you have the opportunity to be placemaking, shape neighborhoods and city skylines, and also exhibit some true entrepreneurial talent. With that in mind, do I eat, sleep, and breathe RE and spew BS non-stop? No. I do engage in other things when I'm not working because not every part of it is glamorous and I do want downtime in other things. Do others spew BS? I don't think so, I think there's a lot of big "hot shots" in the industry who have really big egos and think they are in a league of their own.
Certain projects, very emotionally tied. There's definitely an element of ego involved in some of the larger projects I'm on. Other project's not so much, its tough to say but if I don't really give a fuck about the 1,200 sf candle shop deal that leasing is hammering out in a strip center. But I do care greatly about the new apt building or office building or impact project.
I am sincerely passionate about CRE and can’t imagine doing anything else. For me it the combination of the people, projects, variety, and doing deals.
Fun for first two years. Now I don’t care much anymore.
LOL, even when we are not at an interview, our brain defaults to the talking points- help shape a neighborhood, tangible etc. Funny how if you repeat something often enough with mental gymnastics we really do believe it. If ordering Appraisal, PSA, ESA and helping draft a memo for an investment committee for yet another workforce housing/garden style multi (after a while it really becomes just rinse and repeat, trust me) is helping shape a neighborhood, then dozens of people in every transaction is helping shape a neighborhood. Your office admin is also helping shape a neighborhood. And that is okay, everybody is playing their part but there is no need for the extreme mental gymnastics. It's a job, you get paid-period.
I’ve always said in interviews that I like to tangibly see the fruits of my labor (I’ve never actually said it with those words but same idea). The firm I’m working at is seemingly very passionate about getting deals done, as any firm should be. But our principals are rarely in the office and they seem to spend most of their free time with family or golfing or working on a personal project. Sure, they have the money to do so. But it really shows that at the end of the day, it’s still work. And work is separate from family, friends, personal life, etc. They always say, family always comes first.
So really, does anyone care about their work that much anyways? In certain industries sure, saving lives, curing diseases, feeding the hungry, whatever. Work is work. If a deal doesn’t get done, move on to the next. What matters more is family and your personal life. IMO, that’s where your emotions should truly lie. Not in some numbers on a screen.
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