How relevant it feels to look at what constitutes a milestone given I’m approaching two, both of which are deeply personal and equally significant. The first is the completion of my 28th year in the real estate industry, having started at the age of 32, and the second, you can probably guess if you add those two figures together!

Yes, I’m turning 60, an age at which you’d expect to have garnered at least a modicum of wisdom and something worthy to share.

Given I’d prefer others to make the call on whether or not I’ve become wiser over the years, I think I’ll go with sharing milestone snippets that have helped form part of my life.

I started my working life as a nurse. It was a very special part of my young years. I made wonderful friends whom I still see now, some 40 years later, and I also had incredible experiences providing a high level of care to the patients that I had in my charge.

I didn’t, however, master my final professional exams, and upon failing my surgical paper, I lost my staff nurse position and had to wait and work another six months till I could re-sit the exam.

I then failed a second time.

Not only was it a devastating blow to my fragile self-esteem, but it also meant I had to leave the hospital and reassess my future.

I was 23, John and I had our first home in Bishopdale, and I had to find a job quickly. I started off by delivering cookies to dairies and working in hospitality while quietly studying so I could sit my final papers for a third time! I passed the exams, but I worried that I wouldn’t be accepted back into nursing. I shouldn’t have. I went back and remained there for another eight years until, at 32 and with an 18-month-old son, Harry, I decided to change direction.

Milestone number one reached, and a big lesson learnt. Failure isn’t fatal. I thought it was, but it’s not.

Second milestone: real estate. That was 1994 – a long, long time ago. I worked for Harcourts Grenadier for three years and remember going into my office in the very early hours of the morning (sometimes at 5am) prepped and knowing I would have to work hard to achieve the significant goals that John and I had set.

Those goals have grown over the years. John was to join me in the industry, we were to establish our own franchise consisting of five offices and a team of 130, and in May this year, along with partners Cameron Bailey and Chris Kennedy, we were once again awarded for excellence, a lot of excellence. We have the No 1 Residential office in NZ, the No 1 Franchise for income per consultant in NZ, we have also been recognised internationally as having the No 1 office out of 900 for Harcourts, and we are currently the REINZ Agency of the Year for all brands across NZ.

That’s milestone number two. Go BIG with those dreams, and don’t let others put you off or down (both will happen often). Try to take as many people as you can with you on the dream big journey.

Be part of their milestones whilst adding to yours. Be brave. Be curious.

Milestones and memories