Whether you’re a business owner, an employee, entrepreneur, or investor you should consider having at least one hobby. Good quality of life is about keeping balance. One should have a balance between social life, career, business, family life, spiritual life, entertainment time and on and on...
When life is kept in balance, you actually get to enjoy your life better - you get to experience more and better your health (both physically and emotionally).
There are plenty of hobbies and activities out there to explore and to enjoy. It could be horseback riding, swimming, gardening, hiking, biking, painting, yoga, meditation etc. you name it. Whatever appeals to your personality as long as you have passion for it and don’t feel that it’s a burden to you.
I enjoy doing a lot of things but I’d say I enjoy cooking more than anything else. In fact I cook dinners for my family on a daily basis. Besides the fact that I like to eat, I really like to see people enjoying my food and throwing compliments at me.
The creativity that comes with cooking - getting to choose the ingredients, the different tastes, the colors, the textures and flavors, is something that becomes a type of therapy.
To me good food is not only a necessity but also a form of art. Food has to do with so many cultures, environments, personalities, backgrounds and age brackets. It comes in so many forms and shapes that in itself is incredible!
I’ve been in the real estate business for the last 30 years and explored almost every aspect in the business, from agent to a broker who runs offices to an investor. And through this, having helped thousands of individuals to fulfill their dreams and achieve their goals using real estate as a platform. This ranges from purchasing a property as first time home buyer or selling their property and moving on with their life, buying an investment property or a commercial property for their business.
Throughout all those years I came to realize that there’s a lot in common between my real estate career and my joy of cooking. I found out that the way I look at real estate is quite similar to the way I look at cooking and dining.
For example, in order to be successful at real estate you have to be a bit creative and have good imagination, even when making a simple salad or baking pizza. There are so many ways you can prepare and serve them. It involves good preparation of ingredients, the right oven or stove temperature, the right equipment and dishes etc. The same goes with real estate, you have to have the right locations, the right structures and designs, the right school districts, the right buyers and sellers and more than anything you have to have the right skills and understanding of the business in order to close a good deal where all parties are happy and satisfied.
When cooking you must be courageous to take risks, taking into consideration the outcome would turn out to be disappointing from time to time. The same way with real estate, you have to be able to take calculated risks and experience failures from time to time on your way to success and profitable deals.
As a deal maker it’s important to have plenty of patience, since not every deal will close, some will and some won’t. Determination and consistency are the keys to see good results and be ultimately successful. With cooking, it might be that you’re trying a new recipe that won’t come out the way you imagined at the first place. It might be that you’d burn your first cake or omelette, or made it too salty or spicy. But if you keep going at it and won’t give up then you will end up winning.
There will be all different kinds of clients looking to invest, but not all of them would be ripe and ready at the same time. Some of them would be ready to invest immediately and some of them will take months or even years before they pull the trigger. No matter how ready they are, your job is to keep them on the burner and cook them till they are ready to be eaten.
To me there’s nothing like a joy of closing a deal that looked “impossible” at a first glance. The more challenging the deal is the more satisfaction comes with it. The same way with a meal that seems complicated and challenging, when I get to see the people I serve biting and chewing with joy and smile on their faces - to me it’s just like closing a big deal.