I was born in the foothills of the Appalachian’s in Kentucky. It is one of the biggest advantages that I have over many of my peers and colleagues. The lessons tat I learned growing up there left me with a different basis of operations. Those that have lived in cities their entire lives (or stayed in the country for that matter) don’t have a full perspective on how the world works.
What lessons did I pick up you may ask:
- It really is possible to live dramatically different ways of life. Anyone who thinks they can’t make it may need to reassess.
- Sometimes you have to forget about Commercial Real Estate because the alternative is real – make due with nothing.
- Hard work means different things in different places. (Long hours at a desk vs. doing into the mines.)
- Thinking outside the box is much easier when your external options are very limited.
- It actually isn’t common to be able to expect everything to exist in a 50 mile radius.
Having lived in both the country and the city for quite a bit, there are different ways of approaching people from each background. A diverse background doesn’t just help with understanding people from just those backgrounds – it helps you understand exactly how wide the range of experiences can be. And that, more than anything, is the key. I learned a real sense of the range that people can exist in.
Those that come from just a single experience growing up will always struggle more to understand that range.