I titled this blog, finding your own path, because at some point we all must find our own way forward. By way of example, I want to tell you about the best decision (choosing my own path) I ever made in the hotel business and that it happened three days after I started in May 1990.

When I started with an Atlanta based hotel brokerage company I would be exaggerating by saying I didn’t know anything. I was below not knowing anything. Ha. I had no formal education and no history in the hospitality industry and barely knew how to spell the word, hotel.

If you are new to something, there is a time for watching and listening how other more experienced people work and then there is a time to create your own path. This sounds strange but listening and watching others at some point can become harmful to you. If you spend all your time around more experience people you can subconsciously begin to develop an inferior view of yourself. If you allow this to penetrate your spirit, this causes many people give up and quit. They become so intimidated that they don’t believe they can do it. Many people give up because they can’t stop measuring themselves against other people. That last sentence is worth reading again. Sometimes you must get out from under the influence of others and start to create your own path.

When I started selling hotels I would hear the other experienced brokers and think to myself, man I can never do this. It was at that point after three days of watching and listening that I made the decision to hit the road and see if I could find my own path. I got in my car and went down the interstate and stopped at 132 hotels and ask if I could speak with the owner. By the end of that trip I had a stack of business cards and people I could work with. I started in May 1990 and by the end of 1990 I had closed seven hotel sales and won the rookie of the year award for the whole US. Five of those seven sales came from people I had met on that first trip down the interstate

So, that decision to go find my own path was the best decision I have ever made in this business. Had I stayed at the office under the influence of the other brokers, there is an almost certainly, I would have failed in the business.

Here is the point. Be very careful who you listen to and stop measuring and comparing yourself against other people. Many times, in life, maybe the best path is to find your own path. KT