I'm in the middle of a deep-dive study of the life of Steve Jobs.

Everything from re-reading Walter Isaacson's brilliant biography about Steve's life to watching every video and speech he made that I can find on YouTube.

In the process, I came across this transcribed Steve Jobs sound byte:

🟰🟰 Steve Jobs quote 🟰🟰

People come to me and they say, well, I want to be an entrepreneur. And I go, oh, that's great. What's your idea? And they go, well, I don't have one yet. And I say, well, I think you should go get a job as a bus boy or something. So you find something you're really passionate about because being an entrepreneur is a lot of work. And I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non successful ones is pure perseverance. It is so hard. You pour so much of your life into this thing. And there are such rough moments in time that most people give up. I don't blame them. And it's really tough. And it consumes your life. I mean, if you've got a family and you're in the early days of a company, I can't imagine how one could do it.

I'm sure it's been done, but it's rough. I mean, cause it's a pretty much, you know, an 18-hour-per-day job, seven days a week for a while. So unless you have a lot of passion about this, you're not going to survive. You're going to give it up. So you got to have an idea or a problem or a wrong that you want to right that you're passionate about. Otherwise, you're not going to have the perseverance to stick it through. And I think that's half the battle right there.

🟰🟰 end of quote 🟰🟰

People never wondered what Steve Jobs was thinking.

And while building a real estate business may not be as extreme as the entrepreneurial life Steve was describing, there are some striking similarities in the requirements.

Like these:

1️⃣ You should never get a real estate license without first having a plan for how you are going to build a real estate business.

2️⃣ If you are going to ignore #1 above, then plan to have a part-time job to provide some cash flow while you figure things out. If you don't want to have a part-time job, then wait until you have at least 6-months of cash reserves set aside to pay your bills before you get a license.

3️⃣ Understand that this will be hard and if you are going to quit when things get tough, then you are wasting a lot of your time and money as well as the valuable time of dozens of other people who will be willing to step up along the way to teach you, guide you, train you, mentor you, coach you, and support you.

4️⃣ If you are in a committed relationship with another person or have children who depend on you to be there for you every moment of the day, you may want to re-think your path. If you are still gung-ho and agree to persevere through the bleak and difficult times, then explain to the people who care about you just how important this decision is to you and ask them for their full support and patience as you build the foundation of your business.

5️⃣ Don't believe anyone who tells you that the work days will be few and short unless you will be satisfied with one or two transactions a year. Anything more than that will require your willingness to be available when necessary and needed. This means there will be some long days, sometimes every day, including most holidays and weekends. Remember, when people are shopping for a home, the only hours they often have available to look are evenings and weekends.

6️⃣ If you are doing this for the love of money, then please do everyone a favor and get out of the business now. If you are doing this because you have a sincere passion to help and guide people through the ups and downs and questions surrounding the largest financial purchase most people will make in their entire lives, then roll up your sleeves and get busy.

7️⃣ Be prepared for some brutal competition. Not in a mean way, and it's nothing personal, but you are opening up shop in an area where there are already dozens, if not hundreds of other agents who are already working hard to do the same thing you are just getting started doing. You should expect the other agents to defend their turf.

8️⃣ You will need a well-defined statement of differentiation to respond to consumers who will eventually ask you why they should choose you to be their agent over one of the dozens of other experienced agents they already know. Start thinking about that now, and be prepared to refine it frequently for the rest of your real estate career as the competition and pressure intensify.

I'm not trying to scare you.

What I am trying to do is wake you up to the reality of the real estate business.

As my Dad would often say, "I'm preaching the truth here."

Plain and simple real estate straight talk.

Add on to everything above the fact that the market we are in today is a radical shift from the market we were in just a couple of months ago. Nobody really knows for sure how long these times will last or how much change there will be in buyer sentiment before we see buying activity shift again.

In the meantime, we must work harder and smarter than we have over the last year or so as new listings no longer sell automatically and buyers are not as willing as they were before to participate in bidding wars.

This post was not intended to be over 1,000 words. It ended up that long because I care about you and I want to see you through to success. And the clearest path to success begins by identifying and understanding the obstacles that lie ahead.

I have identified many of them for you.

One thing I know for sure is that the RARE Agents will survive.

They always do.