Earning My Stripes

We are quickly approaching my one year anniversary with my current employer. Over the last year there has been an assortment of lessons I have learned, not only about the company I work for, but about myself as well. There is so much in this world that we are oblivious to because of our lack of perception in the moment, but if you continue to analyze what you have done and how you can improve, you will continue to grow better every day. We often forget that nothing good happens fast, it takes time and effort to grow ourselves and what we do.

I have been spending this last year earning my stripes, working hard and analyzing every mistake I have made so that I can continue to grow as a human and as an employee. If you ever stop growing in your position, it is time to look for a new one. This not only helps you, but the company as well. As we grow complacent in our jobs we slowly stop growing and learning, what we do instead is remain stuck in our ways and lose the ability to function in a highly efficient manner. When I have a tough day at work I like to listen to podcasts or videos of speakers like Simon Sinek and Gary Vaynerchuck. They like to give a lot of insight into how they became successful and what they attribute it to, which allows me a place to start. This link is attached to a video I watched about a month ago. It is Gary Veynerchuck talking about his experience as a child and as a successful businessman. He makes a point to talk about how he did not do well in school, but he did not let that define him. He continues to work hard and had patience. He eventually grew his company from $3 million in sales to $60 million.

Over the last few months we have been designing a new program to attract technicians to want to work at certain dealerships, and this last weekend we finally accepted that what we designed needs to be thrown out and we have to start over. What we created was like a beautiful machine that just had a few too many pieces, like Ikea furniture, it was too difficult to put together. We are now working on making it more efficient and effective as a recruiting tool so that its implementation is more practical. The best part about this project at work is it is living proof that what I am doing and learning at Walsh College is relevant. Unfortunately for my high school teachers, I still haven't used the Pythagorean theorem. 

The Stress and Anxiety of House Shopping

Have you ever had a moment where you realized you weren't stressed? Anytime when you can remember not having a care in the world? If so I would bet you haven't bought a house recently. My Fiancee and I just finalized our purchase agreement this weekend and are moving into the closing stages of house buying. You would think finding a house was easy, I mean really, how hard can it be? When you are making an investment of this magnitude and are going to be paying for it for the next 20-30 years, you want to make sure it is perfect. Not only do I have to love the house, but she does too, and if that doesn't complicate things enough, we are in a sellers market, which means houses are not posted for sale for long before there are pending offers on them.

There is a long list of things that a buyer has to do in order to complete the process of buying a house. These typically happen in a similar order, but some things can vary based on the scenario. This article helped us figure out a few things to consider while shopping. I wish we would have found it sooner since we made the second mistake on the list "looking for a home first and a loan later." Typically you would start with establishing your budget and finding a lender. Once you have a lender they will pre-approve you for a loan amount. Then you would want to find a real estate agent, if you don't have one already. Try and find one you trust, I know we will be sticking with ours as long as we can. It helps if you nail down an area or two that you want to live in or can afford to live in and then it's a waiting game. You will know when the perfect house comes around, because it hits you like a brick wall. We knew because as we were touring houses we would spend somewhere between five and ten minutes in a house, but when we found ours we didn't want to leave. We kept talking about what we liked about it and started imagining what we would do to make it ours before we even put an offer on it. Once we put an offer in writing we had the inspection which prompted some negotiation. After the final purchase price and terms are agreed upon it is time to go back to the bank for the appraisal and to finalize the mortgage. Then comes closing, where everything comes together and the title swap happens.

If that doesn't have your heart racing and palms sweating, living through it sure will. When it is all said and done, you are not completely signing your life away, you can always go through the whole process again and sell your house if your heart desires.