What Drives You?
The topic of success is very subjective. There are many different ways to measure success – here are some categories for example- financial, emotional, mental and spiritual. If you speak to 5 different people you may get 5 separate, distinct answers. I am writing this particular entry to discuss my motivator – it has changed as I evolved thru my life and I would like to illustrate when it changes.
Original motivator – poverty- knowing what it is not to have. When I was very young we had very little – and I remember it very clearly- I remember hearing, “we cannot afford that” too many times, I am not fond of those memories.
Young Adult– as I was going from middle school and then high school (I went to Lehman high school) I noticed that the college Guidance counselor would direct kids to schools that she thought were appropriate- I wanted to go to NYU – and although I didn’t have excellent grades- I am a very good test taker so I did well on my SAT’s. So against her advice I applied to NYU (and a few backups) and I was accepted!
Working Thru college – I was working as an elevator man at a building on 79th and Broadway in Manhattan – the name of the building is the “Apthorp” – I met an assortment of people who forever helped shape my perspective on life – among the tenants were
Rosie O’Donnell – actress and late night host
Cindy Lauper– Pop star – “girls just want to have fun”
Nicholas Pileggi– writer of movie – “Goodfellas” and “Casino”
Nora Ephron– movie producer – “sleepless in Seattle”, “ When Harry met Sally” ( who was married to Nicholas Pileggi)
Michael Knight – soap opera star “ Days of our lives”
Kenneth Chenault– Chairman of American Express
Although we were not supposed to speak to the tenants – they would always be courteous and say hello and would converse with me.
The one thing I can say about each and every one of those people is that they all had a great attitude – they all had a great “vibration”
They were always encouraging in whatever we spoke about and always told me, in their own way, that anything is possible – that stuck with me – I always felt that way myself, but where I grew up that was not the general consensus, hearing it from people at the top of their professions, validated my beliefs – Although not one of those people looked like me -I knew that I was on the right path. Upon graduation from NYU, I opened and ran, a few small businesses before being introduced to my current profession/Passion of Mortgages and Real Estate.
Adult life – my family is my drive – my beautiful wife- my young sons – my mother- my sister – my nephews – my 53 cousins – (that’s a real number)
MY “Y “, is to be able to help- to help my family- to help my friends- to help my clients -even other professionals in my industry-whatever their goal is. I have a deep motivation to show my children that all these things that I speak about to them are possible- to Show thru hard work and discipline anything is possible.
I have a responsibility to help open their “minds” to the endless possibilities that are before them, in their journey of life – to be someone they could identify with- someone who looks like them and talks like them and is successful in their professional and Personal lives – ( whatever the metric) .
I walk my talk….. that drive is stronger today than it was when I was younger!