Medals and Trophies

My first full year in real estate, I won Rookie of the Year. There have been more since. Plaques with nice fonts. I'm grateful for every one of them.

But I keep them in a different place than three things from my Navy years:

A Flag Letter of Commendation.

A Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal.

A Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal.

It took me years to put words to why.

The real estate awards are printed on how good a year I had.

The medals were pinned on what I was willing to give when nothing was coming back.

Boiler rooms at a hundred and twenty degrees. A deployment that was supposed to be eight months and turned into ten. Watches stood in the middle of the night while life went on at home without me.

Nobody hands you a commission check for that. Nobody claps. You do it because the guy or gal next to you is doing it too, and the ship doesn't run otherwise.

Trophies and medals

A man ought to know the difference between his trophies and his medals.

Trophies tell you what somebody achieved.

Medals tell you who they are.

You don't have to have worn a uniform to have some. The years spent taking care of a parent. The second job nobody saw. The thing you did right when it cost you and nobody was watching.

Those are medals.

So when you hire anybody, a real estate agent, a contractor, anybody, don't ask about their trophies. Find out about their medals.