Abruptly, you feel stopped in the middle of your career path. The way ahead appears hazy and uncertain, with no clear opening in sight. You’re not sure what to do or where to go, so you stay put where you are — but your resources are running out.
Perhaps you’re struggling to make a difficult decision, your finances are getting tight, you lack motivation, or you’re afraid of failure and making a big mistake.
No matter the reason, the experience is the same — you feel stuck. And it can be incredibly challenging to muster the strength, confidence, and clarity to move forward.
If there’s one man who knows this particularly well, it’s Steve Martel. He’s a real estate wealth expert who influences more than 100,000 entrepreneurs annually and has helped investors acquire over $350 million worth of real estate in the past three years alone. He also knows what it’s like to feel stuck and lose $47 million overnight, yet he hasn’t let it stop him.
I spoke with Martel about his uncanny ability to get “unstuck” and keep moving forward on this week’s podcast episode, “How To Get Unstuck: The Secret To Overcoming Million Dollar Setbacks w/ Real Estate Mogul Steve Martel.”
Martel’s drive stems from the battle with cancer he began waging at age 16. Doctors told him he had a 90% chance the cancer would persist, so he decided to start living like he was dying.
“I had no choice, because I had built in my mind that I only had 5 more years to live,” Martel says.
Instead of going to college, Martel began selling homes. At age 18, he sold 78 homes, while the average real estate agent sells 4 to 6.
At age 21, he sold 250 homes and earned $4 million.
From there, his trajectory only went up and up, but not without plenty of setbacks. Anyone who plays a big game knows it involves big risks.
Martel’s gotten stuck more times than he can count. He’s declared bankruptcy, lost millions on deals, and even had business partners screw him out of contracts. Yet he is where he is today because of his commitment to persistence.
“I counted, as an actual positive blessing, that I did go through cancer, because today I am living the most awesome life ever with my children, with my friends, with my business that I can’t even count as work,” Martel says.
Below, Martel shares the secrets that have helped him get out of sticky situations and proceed to generate personal success.
Live like there’s no tomorrow. If you believed your time was quickly dwindling, you wouldn’t wait to get started on doing the things you love, or creating the life you dream about. You wouldn’t make excuses for why you aren’t ready yet, or why you can’t get back in the game. You would possess the unparalleled drive of a dying man. You may not actually have a deadly disease, but you can choose to operate from this mindset to ignite the burner beneath your actions and hold yourself accountable to moving forward.
Burn the bridges behind you. When you’re stuck in a rut, it can be tempting to backtrack and cling onto what feels safe. But this massively hinders your progress and keeps you in a state of fear. To ensure you avoid doing this, make it impossible for yourself to turn around. “The science behind momentum is burning the bridges behind you, share your passion and story with other people,” Martel says. “That now obligates you and commits you to actually moving on forward. You’ve got no other choice but to succeed and that’s how you have to see it in your head.”
Be willing to take risks. The number one reason Martel became successful was because he didn’t shy away from taking risks. He dealt with enormous sums of money, reasoning that the only difference was “an extra zero.” Play a bigger game, and you will reap bigger rewards. When you can’t decide on your next move, take a risk and see what happens — if you happen to make a mistake, you will only learn from it and become wiser.
This article was originally published on Forbes
