Standing In The Heat

Dear Diary,

I have tried to write to you for the past 5 hours but I cannot seem to be able to do it. There are so many distractions now. With so many stories to tell, I cannot afford to have this frenzy. My mind is blocked and for the first time I find it hard to write. Could it be a case of mental block? I do not think so because my mind is spinning with so many questions and probably doubts. I have many questions about the career that I am launching, I have doubts if I could make it. The one very important thing during the course of my training for the past few days is, do not doubt yourself. But as a human, I cannot stop to wonder and ponder.

Diary, I hope you are doing fine and well as I am feeling very motivated presently. I have gotten all the financial and emotional supports from my family. I feel so indebted that I really want to work hard and dedicate all my success to them. Mum and dad have been giving me constant encouragements and most significantly, they believe. I supposed that suffice to keep me going.

The workshop for the past three days were held from morning till evening. I got so tired that I did not have the time to even check my email. It was physically and mentally exhausting. I left home in the morning joining the office crowd to work and I got home late at night. I was too tired to even eat when I got home. The in-house training program taught me what I have known in life. But the difference is, I did not apply them into my life, I did not even take notice of them. The training at this agency I am joining probably reminded me of the importance to take those fundamentals seriously, especially if I want to make real estate my career. I would say that the contents of the training are usually the same with other estate agencies in Singapore but the workshop that they called 'Stand In The Heat' in the programme is the essence of the training.

'Stand In The Heat' workshop taught me about team building, the importance of teamwork, being prudent; listening attentively, understanding instructions carefully, being focus to avoid silly mistakes, planning strategies, organising last minute tasks meticulously, the importance of punctuality, sales techniques and the truth about real estate industry in reality. They made us play physical and mind games. We participated in each one of them and at the end of every games, we learnt something that we never thought exist in the games. What I must say is, boredom is not in their agenda. I did not feel bored neither did I feel sleepy because every ounce of my energy was dedicated to the games. I was kept busy to even feel a slight sleepiness.

We had to organise a sales booth for our own team and we only had barely 15 hours to organise, plan and execute it. Imagine this Diary, at 7pm today, we were told that each team had to come up with an idea to sell something during the booth sales tomorrow at 10am. Not only did we have to think of the products to sell, we also have to decorate the booths, plan marketing techniques and do staged self-directed advertisement of our products at a 2 minute length. Most of us were already dog-tired. My team was not the weakest neither was it the strongest but my team leader was a dissapointment. I was not proud of him at all. We settled quickly on the organisations and delegated the tasks to each team members.

The next day at 10am, every participants were there, bringing with them props for the decorations and the products they are selling. We couldn't start decorating until at 1pm during our lunch break. The booth sales only starts at 3pm, so that gave us time to do extra and last minute preparations. Since there were 11 of us, I delegated tasks to each one of us and thankfully everyone worked diligently. At the end of the booth sales, although my team did not come up as the biggest winner in sales, we came up first in booth decoration. And Diary, who do you think decorated the booth? Yes, Diary...you got that right. I decorated the booth with everything that we had. I did not let anyone else had that task because I knew that was my expertise.

The products we sold were donuts and muffins with a free packet of free drinks for every purchase. We did not get the lowest sales neither did we get the highest sales, we also did not win on our advertisement campaign but working hard for the booth sales taught me so many things that I am sure I can apply in the real world. I have two more lessons to complete and after that I will graduate from this batch. I still have to undergo one more course at the Institute of Estate Agents and this time it is based purely on theory. I have to sit for the examination and when I have passed, I am then a Certified Real Estate Agent and will be on my way to practise making big money like I have always dreamt of. Will I or will I not succeed? What do you think Diary? I guess we will just have to wait and see.