Recently, as I send my concern message to my friends and clients, they would likewise out of concern ask me back if I am badly affected by the Covid – 19.
During this period, it is definitely more challenging than ever. I believe across all sectors would have faced the same.
The only difference is that, unlike employees who may be subjected to being retrenched, I am like my own boss. Moreover, there is no need to pay for the rental of retail space to operate my work.
Nevertheless, we need to accustom to the “New Norm” that everything has to be done virtually as we obey the safe distancing and stay at home rules.
During this circuit breaker, where many organisations are giving out free training, it has been the best time to evolve and upgrade ourselves.
Even though we are not physically in the office and there are many distractions in the house, we still need to be discipline to separate working time and rest time regardless of where we are.
My friends who became the victim of this Covid-19 further ask me why I chose this path as a real estate realtor.
As such, I would like to take this opportunity to share my life journey using the tadpole theory and how I derive my career decision of being a real estate salesperson.
The Tadpole Theory
Our life is similar to a life cycle of a frog.
Tadpoles cannot choose which river to be born in depicts the same that we have no control over which family we are born into.
During my growing up stage, I had a lot of grievance on why I was born in an impoverished family that could never make end meet.
My parents are usually not home. There are times my sibling and I have to survive without having electricity and water due to not being able to pay the bills or not having enough food.
There are even worse days when loan shark would strike our doors threatening us to open the door. We are famous within the block since loan shark would write our details along the stairway.
To date, those dramatic events were still vivid in my mind.
Whenever people commented, “I have no idea how you survive through those hardships”, my answer would be “I do not remember it being that tough”. It would probably be because I have my siblings with me throughout the process.
I believe my siblings and I have become stronger in the process. We learn to appreciate every little thing given to us and work hard to achieve what we wanted.
The survival theory would be “what doesn’t kill you make you stronger”
I started working as young as 11 years old. This was the advice of my sister after she cried disappointingly because my parent could not afford to allow her to further study in Polytechnic.
She ended up pleading for help from my relative.
My friend’s parent has the information of our financial situation and knows that I wanted to earn something to save up for future study fund. She is very kind to allow me to work in their factory after school dismissal and during school holidays.
From there onward, I worked in various jobs such as pasting labels, distributing flyers, private tutoring, fashion salesperson, waitress or MacDonald and KFC staffs whenever the age permit.
River Bend in my life
The tadpole generally swims along the stream of the river.
This is like our education system that we follow the systematic path of preschool to university.
Along the way, we will make some decisions like we are at the river bend.
As much as I used to aspire to be in the business or accounting sector or even becoming a teacher, I have to make decisions based on the limitation of my result.
After going through the trade fair provided by polytechnic, I chose to enroll myself into Property Development and Facility Management.
Why did I choose this path?
As an average student who does not know what future lies ahead, my perspective was to choose the options that provide me with the most alternative in life. I had been informed that as long as there is a building, there is a job requirement for me. After all, I was told that 5 out of 10 richest people in Singapore back in 2006 were related to property industry.
Leaving the River to Land
Finally tadpole has gained its lung to leave the river, which resembles the industry certification I receive to enter to various professional job fields.
Since I further study to get a degree in real estate, I continue to work during my school day to pay off my school fee.
As such, I became a Real Estate Consultant and a Property Wealth Planner since 2009. The flexibility of being a real estate adviser fit well into the schedule during my school day.
Nevertheless, it had not been an easy process. While I have to focus on getting a good result, I have to work immediately after school hour and rush on finishing my project over midnight.
Thus, I have to give credit to my school mate. Without them, I can never achieve the merit result.
Upon graduation from NUS, I became very attached to this industry especially I have not only built a pool of clientele portfolio, I have also built a pool of friends whom I have responsibility to take care of their leases or sales of their properties.
Adult Frog: Getting a Mentor Is The Shortcut To Success
The people we meet mold our life. I am fortunate to have various mentors in my life to guide me to my success today.
One of the mentors who I really felt thankful for is Serene. She guided me unconditionally on how to look for clients and hold me throughout the entire process.
There are days we work through midnight in the office to resolve an issue or to complete the tasks.
During the downfall in my life, she remains as a soul mate and consistently reminded me to be deal with issues objectively not emotionally. She has been kind to share her deals to keep me even busier to forget my problem temporary.
To date, I feel blessed to be in the big family of Navis Living Group with more than 1000 people.
Other than having one of the most complete developments of technology and training program to help all the salesperson to achieve goals, we have many leaders and trainers that unconditionally contributed their time to help other team-mates grow.
Why I love to be Real Estate Consultant?
The fastest way to be a boss of your own is to be a real estate consultant.
There is no requirement to spend on rental of space to operate the business.
I get to meet different people with different background expending my social circle. Their life experience further enrich my life.
Being a boss also means I do not need to deal with any politics in the office.
On top of that, while some of my friend still felt guilty of not having enough time due to their 8am to 5pm job schedule, I get the flexibility of time to spend more time to be with my love ones.
Moving Forward
I hope to spread my love for real estate with all my readers.
My greatest fulfillment in life has still been the capability of assisting my friends and clients to source the right property that they call home.
As such, it has been a pleasure to share my thoughts and insights through all my articles.
If you happened to have have any questions after reading my article, feel free to contact me.
Click Whatapp to get in contact with me today.
About Author
Maine Soh has been in Singapore Real Estate Consultant and Property Wealth Planner since 2009.
During the early stage in the industry,she mainly served various relocation companies.
As such, upon graduation from NUS, she became very attached to this industry especially she has not only built a pool of clientele portfolio, she has also built a pool of friends whom she felt a sense of responsibility to take care of their leases or sales of their properties.
To date, her greatest fulfillment is still the capability of assisting her clients and friends to source the right property that they call home and achieving the best offer that bring smiles on their faces. She valued all the relationship that came into her life. Thus, it is common for her to go extra mile for her client whenever required.
Most of her clients trusted her as she is not only well versed with all the marketing strategy and tools, she hold them through the complex process of the transaction ensuring they make informed decision and prevented them from making avoidable mistake. Thus, her success is evident from consistent referrals from my clients and friends.
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