During the time I couldn’t sell any house as a realtor, I was fully dependent on my Civil Servant mother for financial support.
I still feel ashamed even to this day. But in those days, I felt like a filthy parasite or a leech sucking the life out of my mother.

But I really had no choice then.
Although I tried to have most meals at home, my work required me to travel frequently.
So each morning my concerned mother would ask me if I had train fare on me.
But on the days that she paid me with a $10 note, I would also get an earful.

“Get an office job, son! Sales is a tough job…”

I tolerated her lectures. A supportive mother was still better than an outsider who would quickly tire of giving ‘free handouts’.

But there were days when it got simply too painful for me to bear.
I could hardly gather the strength to give her a solid reply because her argument of sales being a tough job was true in my case at that point of time.
It was almost as if I was deliberately asking for ear-beatings from her.
And I was getting swamped by negativity, with hardly any end in sight.
The whole world conspired to make me give up and quit altogether.

So it was hardly surprising when one day I inevitably ran out of both money and excuses.
But I still had stuff to get done, marketing activities to plan and an upline to report to.
So I did the unthinkable.
I walked.
From my mother’s house in Bedok, all the way to Toa Payoh.
All 12 kilometres of the entire distance, on foot.
That marked the absolute LOWEST point ever in my career.

It was 10am in the morning when I originally set out.
By the time I was in front of my upline, it was about 12 noon.
My work had hardly started and I was already thirsty, sweaty, hungry and tired.
I looked like I had run a half-marathon in a desert wearing full office wear. And I was gasping like a fish out of water.
But surprisingly enough, that day was the most productive day I ever had.
I didn’t want to waste the tremendous time and effort I had expended just to get here.
I knew I couldn’t just leave empty-handed because the prospect of a 2-hour walkathon for nothing seemed extravagant and wasteful.

Weirdly enough, I worked harder that one day than in all my years of traveling by MRT.
Bravely ignored my aching muscles to grind it out.
I kept thinking of being productive to justify the long walk. I knew I had to return by foot, whether or not I got something done. I just didn’t want it to be for nothing.

So, what are you willing to get done?
How committed are you in the face of adversity?
How much of a character do you truly have under massive pressure?
Surely, your problems now are nothing compared to what I faced at my lowest point, or are they?

How did I intuitively know what I needed to get done in the face of impending doom? Cliched as it may sound, it all comes down to your own ‘Why?’
For me, it was putting a smile on my sole-breadwinner mother. 😢

What is yours?

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Yasser Khan is a real estate coach, speaker, and trainer at YasserKhan.SG who teaches Singapore Realtors how to make more Money, have more Time and enjoy more Freedom.