You ever wonder where you will be a year from now? 5 years from now? 10 years from now? 2o years from now?
Over 7 years ago I was working at Todai buffet restaurant in Arcadia. My dream then was to become a manager there and eventually run my own restaurant. That was my dream then.
Now I’m in my 7th year working for a real estate title insurance company as a business development officer (fancy title for a sales representative). At first, I had no idea what I was doing. I started off by going office to office dropping off Korean pastries to all the Realtors, loan officers, and escrow officers. The only difference between me and a delivery guy was that I wasn’t getting tipped for the deliveries. I saw no future in this business. There were so many times I considered quitting but I began to create several reasons to stay.
One of those reasons was my coworker. I developed a great relationship with my coworker and he took the role as a spiritual mentor figure. He would point out my character flaws and would guide me on how to react in certain situations. I learned so much from him. The most important lesson I learned from him was humility. This guy would gladly put himself in a lower position than an agent or a loan officer. He would make jokes and laugh hysterically. Many people would laugh at him because his laugh sounded so funny.
At first I didn’t like this at all. Why would anyone volunteer to get stepped on and laughed at???
He would say to me, “Danny, my laughter doesn’t come from me. It comes from Him.”
[He then points to the sky referring to God]
He would then remind me of the picture of a laughing Jesus.
This photo portrays Jesus as having joy and enthusiasm. Whenever my coworker laughed, it reminded me of this picture.
There are three things that my coworker said to me before he left the company.
1. Something good is happening to us.
2. The safest place in a storm is in the eye of the storm.
3. Danny, can I tell you a vision…a prophecy? You will have to go through loneliness in order to grow as a Christian.
For the first statement, I believe he meant that God will be raising Christians to spread the gospel. Quite honestly I don’t know if he was being prophetic or not but he quite often spoke in cryptic language.
The second statement is referring to the storms in our lives. The safest place is dealing directly with the storms in our lives and not running from them.
For the third statement, I understood immediately what this meant. I will have to endure a season of loneliness in order to build my character as a disciple of Christ. I will probably lose a lot of friends during this season. God knows that loneliness is one of my biggest fears and I believe He wants me to endure it head on.
I apologize if it seems like I’m side tracking from my topic but the past few paragraphs was a lead into my next reason for staying at my company.
Next reason was my boss. Over the past seven years I’ve developed a wonderful business and personal relationship with my boss. She is my manager, my business mentor, my spiritual mentor, my coach, and my second mom all in one. She is the one that encouraged me to watch Korean dramas for the past 7 years to improve my Korean. She is the one that gave me valid reasons to why I should finish getting my undergrad and move on to get my MBA one day. She is the one that told me that she sees great potential in me as a future manager and leader in the title insurance industry.
I asked her one day “After working in the title industry for all these years, at what point did you tell yourself if you get to this point, I’m done!”
She told me that she would retire after setting up a team that can take over her accounts and her position. In her eyes, I have that potential.
It’s amazing how one persons encouraging words can trigger such motivation and desire to be greater than you have previously imagined yourself to be. Before, I would have never imagined myself as a manager or vice president of a company. But now I have bigger dreams and I’ve got my life planned out for the next 20 years. Of course things don’t go exactly the way you plan it or the way you want it to but I set these goals for myself so that I set my eyes on a specific vision. I’ve separated these goals into business goals and spiritual goals.
Business Goals
1 year plan: Become an expert in presentation and public speaking skills.
3 year plan: Finish my undergrad.
5 year plan: Work towards my MBA.
10 year plan: Become Vice President for whatever title company I’m with at the time and have developed a team of Asian American sales representatives that covers Southern California.
20 year plan: Become regional division President for California and represent Asian Americans in the Western Region.
30 year plan: Become a consultant for title insurance companies nationwide, member of the Board of Directors, and speak at real estate conferences/conventions nationwide.
Spiritual Goals
1-3 year plan: Have developed an organization of churches in Southern California that collaborate for missions and other events that involves evangelism. I would also like to go to a foreign country mission.
5-10 year plan: Expand the church organization nationwide. Also create an organization that helps with the youth spiritually and in job experience. Support several mission organizations through volunteering and monetary means.
10-20 year plan: Expand the church organization worldwide. Expand the youth organization throughout California.
All of these goals are my own personal goals. Of course it won’t go as planned exactly by this time table I’ve created but I believe it’s important that I set goals for myself that focuses on building a great future for me and my future family(including my spiritual family…you guys).
In the end, if God calls me to do something else then I have no doubt that He will guide and direct me towards the direction He wants me to go.
Til next time, ciao!
thehungrydude
