Keeping Your Main Thing the Main Thing...

2003 was a tough year for me.  Towards the end of 2002 I left a well-paying job in another line of work because I didn't like the direction the company was heading.  The owner / founder had sold the business and I could tell the new owners "didn't get" what made the company special and came in with an attitude that they knew better.  They were following the "Golden Rule" of "He who has the gold makes the rules" so this was their right.  They could (and did) do what they wanted to do and I was left to choose whether to stay or go.

So I left and entered the mortgage business full of optimism and confidence in myself.  Other people were making tons of money in the industry so I figured I could too.  But for some reason, it didn't click right away.  I felt the industry was a good fit for me and I have no complaints about the company I chose to work for because I'm still here, but my income was less than HALF what I was used to and I still had the SAME bills to pay.

As debt started piling up and the income still didn't come, I began to get desperate (not desperate enough to slash my spending to the bone, of course, just desperate to find ways to earn enough money to maintain the lifestyle I had grown accustomed to).  A buddy Chris in the mortgage office suggested that I come do what he was doing to earn some "extra money" - Selling cars on the weekend at those big Parking Lot events.

I had sold cars before and this seemed like a good idea.  Of course, it would be hard and tiring work - working Friday thru Sunday or Monday from early morning to late at night, but my friend was making some decent money most weekends.  So I was willing to do it - whatever it takes - never been afraid of hard work. 

I would need to have Friday's off from my mortgage job and several Monday's too, so I had to ask my mortgage boss's permission before I said "yes".  I was sure he'd be fine with it - people pretty much came and went as they pleased and he was already letting Chris do it - but I needed to ask.

His answer actually surprised me.  I hadn't ever considered him to be a wise-sage by any means, but the advice he gave me really got me thinking about choices, priorities, and direction.  "Did you like selling cars before?" he asked.  (He knew I didn't.)

"Uh, no.  But I was good at it," was my defense.

"Then why would you do something like that when it will take time, energy, and focus away from this job in order to chase a few dollars?  If you want a second job, what's stopping you from working more hours doing this?"

He was absolutely right, and I knew it.  So I passed on the car-selling gig and I began treating my first job as my second job too - working later, working weekends, doing whatever it took to get in front of as many prospects as I could.  And as my career began to click because of the extra effort I was investing in it, my car-selling buddy soon found himself out of the industry and chasing the "next" quick-fix he could find.

It wasn't easy, but I believe that the extra "second-job" effort I put in laid the groundwork for my being in the business today.  And without that effort, I would have likely been one of the thousands of former loan officers out there today looking for something else.

Don't get me wrong.  Second jobs can help you make it sometimes.  But before you automatically conclude that a second job will solve your problems, focus your efforts 100% towards keeping your main thing the main thing. 

For a quick history of the 40 Hour Work Week, check out my earlier blog on the subject.

Juggling Photo by:  Morbuto

Sale Photo by:  Cosmic Kitty