Episode 4: Which Cheap $16 Book Earned This Realtor Back $161,367+ in Under 11 Months?

[Summary of Audio Transcript] One morning I just couldn’t get myself out of bed. My heart wasn’t in it any more. I truly felt suffocated. All I could think of was how to escape from it all. But there was no release from my torment yet. I wished someone could simply become my boss and fire me. I had been a realtor for roughly about a year by 2009 and I was already making good money. But after the thrill of buying luxury watches and wardrobe was gone, I found myself working harder just trying to please people I hated. (I had thought that making money and winning awards was enough for success in real estate. It was not!) All they did was keep ordering me around! Had I made myself their lifelong slave in exchange for a one-time commission? It was frustrating trying to fight too many fires and not succeeding. I had tenants who just couldn’t figure out how to solve their own problems. Some even left their landlord’s place looking like a pig sty! Then there were buyers who were racist and made fun of my accent just to belittle a salesman. And there were sellers who were insensitive to my religious commitments, asking stupid questions about my beard. And none of my 5 downlines were reliable. I couldn’t dump my workload on them, expect them to deliver and relieve my pressure. I could solve their lack of product knowledge but not their lazy attitude or entitled mindset. All they wanted was free handouts. Consequently, this led me to a downward spiral of low self-esteem. I almost thought I was the crazy one. I started questioning myself and second-guessing each move I made. Was it going to work? What would my upline think of me? Was I really that stupid? Why was I working way too hard for too little results? And that thought truly depressed me. I started dreading to deal with my customers and downlines that morning. I just did not want to be a property agent any more despite the income I enjoyed. I cancelled all my appointments and sulked alone at home. But I had to leave my shell sooner or later. It just so happened that I had to go the bookshop. And got stopped in my tracks by a simple-looking blue book that stunned me. It said, Why Most Small Businesses Fail and What to Do About it? It was the E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber. I promptly paid $16 for it and read it within 3 hours flat! That was the first book I ever read that made me go “Aha!” at least once per chapter! I must have had at least 20 Aha! moments that day! And it was truly motivating to find someone with all the answers and a plan to get there. I realised my business was not my life. It was supposed to SERVE my life. And I had become a slave to my property agent business. Gerber taught that I had to create a SYSTEM and then define HOW I wanted to run it. So I decided to apply his teachings into my real estate business that year. But no one had done this before in Singapore Real Estate. Everyone was conducting real estate the same way it was done for the past 100 years. I had to persevere. So after I created a plan, I hired outside help to make it a reality. And ended up making a return of more than $161,367 on the $16 I invested on the book. But it wasn’t the money or time freedom that made me happy. It was the sense of confidence in my own abilities. I had a skill and people were willing to pay me for the privilege. I felt accepted, understood and OBEYED! I felt truly liberated in years. The biggest lesson for me was: Nothing could ever drive me out of sales! I had regained my inner fire! Now I woke up each day excited to do business!