Feel lost and unsure of where I'm going.

[Luke Skywalker]

I've had my Real-Estate license since 1997, and have failed to see my business take-off. I have not made a deal since October last year. I feel completely lost and dissillusioned. As a born-again Christian, I have paid tithes/offerings, and have sought the Lord on this matter, but now I'm starting to feel that over the years that I still do not have a solid foot-hold in this business and it's always like I'm starting over from scratch. The sort of 'stabality' I'm looking for just never appears to materialize.

 

My educational background is a Bachelor of Arts. This was back in the year 2000. I'm still paying a student loan, but the government paid off the loan for me since I was having problems paying it off. The idea of going back to school seems impossible since I don't qualify for government loans anymore since I got bailed out of some of the debt load from the government. I am loathe to use my own credit resources since I don't want to have bad credit.

I also feel dissolusioned that I'll even have a job after all of that related to the field since I already spent $ 20 000 getting that BA via loans and I've been on either interest-only, minimum payments, or getting the government to pay it down.

 

I haven't sent out resumes since I don't know how to make a good resume or what to write on it. All I have is Real-Estate sales experience and I'm not good at what I do and just feel totally useless and am not prepared to spend exorbant fees on sending out resumes to find work. My whole structure is that of working on my own and am unsure of the idea of working under someone, or how much money I'd even qualify for if I'm successful in such a search.

 

The whole outlook seems very bleak and frankly, sometimes I feel like looking for the easy way out. In terms of considering business with organized crime -- that is, finding a connection with a gang member to obtain a fraudlent cheque of about a few hundred thousand dollars that will clear the bank within the holding period, pay them a percentage/upfront and get the heck out of this country or something -- it's sort of like robbing a bank, but you are doing it with a false cheque -- some scam places do this and get people to cash cheques and send them away and then they find out later that the cheque itself was fraudulent and then they are on the hook-- that's what I mean when I say 'easy way out' -- since my whole reputation here will be ruined if I were to do something like that. I don't want to touch it, but would rather just trust God.

 

I'm glad an 'easy way out' may exist, because, maybe God will come through for me if these sort of lures or temptations exist. I just feel totally blighted sometimes and don't know where I'm going or why I'm in the career I'm in, which I don't feel is of my own real choice or is the best place to be.

 

I'm looking for advice and councelling on here based on the above information as to what to do in this particular situation. I don't think it's a money issue, but it's more of a confidence issue, which I don't think I have any here. I know any involvement in organized crime in terms of counterfeit money or fraudulent cheque clearing is wrong and I'll have nothing to do with that.

[Jetta]

What is your degree in? Can you get yourself into that field of work and skip schooling altogether? Maybe the stress is getting to you and the easy way is becomign appealing because of it. There really is no such thing as an easy way out, that road would lead to empriosonment most likely.

[Luke Skywalker]

What is your degree in? Can you get yourself into that field of work and skip schooling altogether? Maybe the stress is getting to you and the easy way is becomign appealing because of it. There really is no such thing as an easy way out, that road would lead to empriosonment most likely.

 

 

Psychology. A Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a C+ average. It's not much better than a High School diploma. I feel wasted. You have to have a Masters or Doctorate degree in that field to get anythign related otherwise, I don't think it has any value. Besides it's a long time ago I took this degree.

 

Emprisonment may occur in the US, but I don't live in the US. I live in Canada, where they have weak laws that are poorly enforced. I'd go as far as saying that there is no law in Canada for white collar crime like there is in the US. That is why Conrad Black had to be tried and sentenced in the US. In Canada, he would have probably got 30 day probation. Trust me, no laws up here.

 

All I would do is cry that I got scammed by some fake lottery, charity, or Nigarian scam and they can't put anything on me. Even if they did - they would just sue me. If the money is gone, nothing they can do about it. Here in Canada, we don't jail people like they do in the US, that's why our prison population is very small, compared to US. Lot of those companies do this, they send a cheque over to have it cashed and ask them to send the cash to an associate.

 

Anyway, like I said, as alluring as it may sound, this counterfeit or cheque playing, it's not something I'm interested in.

[thejigsup]

It doesn't matter what the Canadian or U.S. authorities think of these crimes. What is important is what will God think of you? Also, what will you think of you? It's important, believe me. I would work one hundred cruddy jobs under a bad boss before I would steal or rob. But that's just me and I guess I'm what you don't want to be. I'm up to my eyeballs in debt from student loans, but I have gotten three cool jobs from my education that I am now employed at. I am one of the few people in my country (U.S.) that has too much work!

[Luke Skywalker]

What about the fundamental premise of this thread -- that is I'm unable to make any Real-Estate deal, don't have the confidence that I can sell houses or do anything to earn or make money constuctively in a way that makes sense.

 

The ideas put forward on here could be self-destructive in one way, but they are not suicidal.

[Night Pumpkin]

Dude,

 

You need to be creative and more flexible. OK, so this real estate gig isn't going too well. I doubt real estate is the industry to be in these days.

 

What else is out there? Tons of jobs !!

 

I apply for a hundred new jobs every week !!! There are still so many opportunities. If you want a job, you can get one.

 

You got selling experience. That is a skill that can be useful accross the board. You have a degree - More awesome. What can you take from your psychology studies to improve your sales?

 

What else can you sell? Well maybe you could get into one of those personal financial advisory position, such as with Priamerica !!! What about selling airline tickets - or what else ???

[Luke Skywalker]

The last Real-Estate deal I made was in October/November last year. The feedback from the clients there was very negative.

 

I haven't made any deal since. Various things have happened where people either changed their minds, lost motivation or went with another agent. It is almost like there is a curse that I can't make another deal because something always happens where something goes wrong. I've prayed to the Lord about it and believe eventually God will answer the prayer.

 

I have money on my account though so I'm not broke and have lots of access to credit. I sit around home allot since you don't really have to go to the office. I just bought a car last week. My dad is also helping to subsidize the business (i.e. pay Remax-fees, airplane...)

 

All in all, it doesn't seem so bad, other than the fact I haven't made a deal in a five month period of time. The account doesn't appear, on the surface to be going down. I always maintain my credit cards to pay all balances in full.

But, it's just like I haven't made a deal, yet.

 

One of my Real-Estate clients I'm working with, went out to lunch with me, and he told me about connectoins he has with many different people, one of them does fraudulent cheques. I'll re-think about my position here, or why I wrote this thread.

 

It seems like I'm in a sort of depression, but it's not adding up. The way I've portrayed myself, would seem as though I'm broke, under allot of debt, and just about to snap or lose it. Maybe I'll just give this whole thing some more time and hopefully something will eventually turn around.