Becoming a student of life
After a relatively short time, I was asked to become the manager for Mac’s office and I quickly brought us to number one in our marketplace. Things were finally turning around in my life, but the interesting part was what was going on behind the scenes.
As I starting managing and training others, the job became less about me and more about the people I was leading. I knew in my heart that, as a leader, I was responsible for more than the number of houses these agents sold. I needed to be able to give them guidance, support and motivation. I understood the qualities that a good leader should have. The problem was, I didn’t have them. You see, while I was experiencing success externally, on the inside I had turned into a pretty angry guy. Being a teenager is confusing enough, even when you have the right support structure and role models around you. Without a father figure, I was struggling to figure out how to be a man. I was selfish, angry, distrustful and always in “survival mode.” The bottom line is that I wasn’t the nicest person to be around.
–Thankfully, I was able to look at myself and see these weaknesses. I had a love of learning, enjoyed my training as an actor, and always liked to take classes. I decided that it was time to do some work on me. Thus, I began my own journey of self-improvement. Whatever books there were on finding your “true self,” reaching your goals, letting go of your baggage, or all the above, I bought them and read them. If there was a program on being a better person or a better leader, I listened to the cassette tapes (younger people don’t know what those are!). I attended transformational training programs. I explored my faith and spirituality. I wanted to understand what it meant to be human, to find answers to the questions: Why am I here? What’s my purpose in life?
I had no idea that this journey would prepare me for a whole new career. But as time went on, I realized that my real joy came from helping others—from understanding the internal motivations that make people do (or not do) things that will make them successful. And as I attended other motivational seminars and watched other speakers help people transform their lives, I started to yearn to do the same.