Ep20 - Steve Jacobson - Fairway Mortgage

This episode is brought to you by KPMG Risk Services. KPMG believes that when you've earned the trust of all your stakeholders, that's when your business has a solid platform to grow. That's the trusted imperative. KPMG Risk Services develop and put in place dynamic risk strategies designed to help your business earn that all important trust. Go to reit, KPMG US Trust to learn more.

Long story short, he died a horrific death.

Brutal.

And you say, why are you sharing that? Because it's not what you get, it's what you get.

Attitude means how can I proactively change the way I think? How can I proactively increase my life? How can I proactively create better relationships and better work situations for me to enjoy it? And welcome again everybody to the Gap. The Get Attitude Podcast. The Gap Bridging the gap from who you are to who you want to be, and from where you are to where you want to become. Hello, my name is Glenn Bill, founder of the University of Attitude, keynote speaker and author of the international best selling book the ABCs of Attitude. I've been fortunate to help tens of thousands of people Get Attitude. Attitude is the secret formula to success in your business and in your life. And this podcast will help you get yours. So let's get some. I want to welcome everybody. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review the Gap Podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Also, guys, please share this. Please share every single podcast that you can on your social media today. We are here with the CEO of Fairway Mortgage, Mr. Steve Jacobson. Steve, welcome to the Get Attitude podcast.

Thank you, Coach. Let's roll. Let's go get started.

Let's do it. Let's make it happen. So Steve, I guess how I want to start this. You heard what we're trying to do here. We have a lot of people listening in. Our listeners are affectionately called the gappers. And so what we like to do is talk with people who have influence, who have accomplished some amazing things, which certainly you have. I'd like to know first from you. Tell me your definition of attitude and what attitude means to you. And when you're looking at hiring folks and interacting with folks, what is it about their attitude that you're looking for?

It's always about their past, what they've been through, their disciplines. I mean, we all in life face stuff that affects us and influences us, good or bad. And so for me personally, it's always interesting to listen to what their past has been like, what successes, what failures. You say what is success? Or failure. It's really just tell me about yourself. What's your life story? Because whether it be athletics, whether it be academics or whatever it is for them, there's disciplines and consistencies they've had to go through to challenge themselves to get better. And so I just listen, really, first off, just listening to their history. You want somebody that's disciplined, you want somebody that overcomes the stuff that happens to all of us. And so a lot of it is just listening and asking questions.

That's cool. So like, what we always like to do is understand maybe your past when you, you know what, when you first got into this crazy business called the mortgage business. Right now, from what I understand you guys are doing, is it like 6 or 7 billion in loans and to be a CEO and a leader of a company that large? And it may be more what was it like for you to bridge the gap from when you walked into this thing called the mortgage business as an individual lo to where you are now? What are some of the attitudes you've learned? And really what I'd really be interested in is take us back to what your mindset was when you walked into this business.

Well, I started 1984 last year as a company. We did over 39 billion.

There it is.

I was way low, which is fine. And when we try to stay under the radar, you know, it's not about what we've done, it's what, what we're trying to do today. Sure, my background was athletics. I was on a basketball team at the University of Wisconsin. Don't like talking about myself. It doesn't matter, but you're asking, so I'll just share. I went from being the leading scorer in the state my senior in high school, only losing one game my senior year to being a walk on at Wisconsin. And in the three years I was on the varsity. First year I played JV, we were 17 and 0. But the three years on varsity. Was named captain the senior year by the players and was. It was all Big Ten academic, but only scored 14 points in those three years. And I was embarrassed, completely embarrassed. And moved from Madison to Arizona to never come back to Wisconsin for anything. I was that short little white dude. Look at that little cute little white dude. I didn't want any part of that. Never to go back to Wisconsin unless for a visit. But going back to 1984, the part I liked with the mortgage business right from the start, didn't know what it was at all. But I like the fact that there was pressure, There was folks like yourself as a realtor, that you like us one day, you won't like us the next day. If the docs aren't the title company, money's not the title company. We're idiots. And so there's always this pressure to help people. And it's a big deal, right? The consumers buying and selling homes, it's a big deal. So personally, I like the two things I like was the intrinsic reward system of feeling good about helping somebody with something that was important, number one. And number two, it's going to sound crazy. I like the pressure.

Right.

Because if you don't, you don't do it well, you get the Glenn Bills who have a voice that are going to tell everybody in their and their mother that we suck. Excuse my language, but I mean, that's. And so there's a discipline here. You better be good every day. Right. And if you're not good every day, you better go home. And you know, that was 30. Was it 36, 37 years ago.

Right.

And so I was at a place for 12 and a half years and started Fairway 24 years ago in April.

Yeah. Fantastic. When you talk about. Let's just head back to the basketball piece of it. Who was your coach at Wisconsin? I'm curious.

Well, the reason I went to school, there was a guy by the name of Beau Ryan. Beau Ryan was an assistant coach when I was in high school. And then there was a guy at Wisconsin by the name of Bill Cofield. And Bill Cofield, and I say this respectfully because this will give you a sense of. He was the first black coach in the Big Ten. And in seven years at Wisconsin, he had two white guards. So I was talking little white dude.

Right?

All my buddies were brothers. And growing up in little town, Wisconsin, I never met a black person in my life. Wow. Never met one.

Right?

And then I come into college and I'm like in minority. So I had to hang with the brothers. And the first thing to do is they yo, Jaco, man, you ain't going with us dressed like that. So, you know, I'll tell a story about this. You'll actually like probably for this as far as attitude. But so that was a whole culture shift for me. But it was. There was a lot of good with that and learned a lot from the experience.

Have you ever seen a shot that you didn't like?

Never. Never. Coach, you got to keep firing.

Always letting it roll, always shooting. When you think about, you know, obviously to be a Division 1 player, you had a whole bunch of Coaches growing up talk to me about besides Beau Ryan. And maybe it was. But when you think about your grade school or high school or what, as a young kid, what coach really impressed the thought of attitude? Or who was the first coach that inspired you, encouraged you? What was the first lesson on encouragement that you garnered as a young person? Do you remember that?

I was very fortunate to have a really good high school football coach and a very good high school basketball coach. And both those coaches were very encouraging. They were. I mean, as a coach. And you know this because you're a coach, as a player, what you want more than anything is to know the coach believes in you and that the coach encourages you. And so as a, as a player, both those coaches, I knew they were on my side, right. And so that was always a discipline for me because you can play free if you know the coach believes in you. You're going to miss shots, you're going to miss tackles, you're going to have stuff that happens. Right. But if you know the coach believes in you, it just makes, it makes playing that much better. And when we got to college, I think there was like eight or nine guys while I was at Wisconsin that played in the NBA. We did not have, we had, I could name names and there's people that you probably heard of. We had talent.

Right.

But we, we never won. And there's reasons for that. And it was, it really was about attitude.

Interesting.

So it was an interesting. My senior year, this is not anything exciting to share, but my senior year as a co captain was the first year in Wisconsin's history. We lost over 20 games.

Great leadership, coach.

Yeah. What do you think about that? Right. And so, and we still talk about that stuff as players as to why that happened, because there was guys in those, those teams that played in the NBA for 10 plus years. And so it's like, what happened? Well, interesting.

I'm sure you've pondered that. And I think there's lessons to be learned and there's growth to be gained from why that did happen. What, what are some of those, what are some of those reasons? You said it could have been about attitude? What, what comes to your mind when you discuss that with your former players? What was the attitude that was there that shouldn't have been there or that should have been there that wasn't there?

If you get yelled at and you get confronted in front of teammates and, and you know the coach doesn't believe in you, this is across the board. It affects the person, it affects an attitude.

Yeah.

You know, Coach has to be encouraging. Now, there's tough love. We get all that. But the teammates have to know you're behind them, and it's important. And there's disciplines. And there's still something that resonates with me. And I'll share a little story with you. In college that we still talk about. There's a guy that played in the NBA for 10 years. His name was Wesley Matthews. His son right now is playing for the Milwaukee Bucks. Matthews and Wesley. Wes Matthews played for the Lakers. He was a backup point guard to Magic Johnson. If you googled Magic senior year, which was like. Or his sophomore year, when Michigan State won the national championship, the last loss they had that year was to Wisconsin. Okay. Wow. And this dude was so freaking quick. You say. How quick was he? He was. He was. That. We played full court, man to man. Long story short, short little white dude here, there's no. There's no way. Right? Straight up, I can't guard him. Right. Fast, right faster. It's done. Get your head out of your backside. Right, Right. And Coach Ryan said something stopped at practice one day that I'll never forget. And we still talk about it. Precious present, Right? Precious present. If you. If you miss a shot, you think you start pouting, you'll miss the next one.

Sure.

If you make a shot and think it's a big deal, the person will go past you. You know, you better play right now, every second, like, really good.

Yeah.

And really, that's an attitude shift. You got to. If you miss a shot, let it go. If you make a shot, in a way, the feeling's cool, and you got that sense, but let that go. To keep playing every play.

I love it.

But we talk about that discipline, the precious present, which also means everything passes. I mean, so, you know, in life, we all have our stuff, but we know it didn't come to stay. It came to pass. And so there's a discipline there because you see people getting ruts and you see, it's like, just keep playing. Let's. I mean, keep playing. Because there's seasons in life, there's plays that if you pout that you know it's going to happen the next play.

Yeah. Right.

And so I'll never forget Coach stopping to practice my sophomore year and just going crazy on the precious present thing.

Right.

And the present present thing we just talked about at a golf thing this last year. Bo came to one of our golf things and we talked about that. You know, this is, you know, 40 years later.

Sure.

Which is. Which Is pretty cool.

As you know, I coached high school football and gappers. I mean, this is such a huge lesson. And if you're sitting there listening in, walking on the beach or wherever you may be about the precious present. But our word was always next. Every time our defense was in the huddle, we would always start the huddle by saying next. And we always asked our players, what's the most important play in a football game? What's the most important play in a basketball game. I do this for every team I coach. When I coach my kids. And they go the last play, the first play, the one before, I said, no, the most important play is the next play. That's it. And so I think that's basically what you were saying. And for those folks that are listening to Steve and I speak, what is your next play? Are you living in the precious present? Are you always looking at the next play or the next call? And you know what? It may be the next hour in your life or it may be the next day. So excellent advice and very good stuff. Steve, you interview and talk to and I know you network with some very, very high level people and I'd love to know who sticks out to you, who moves, who moves you and who has, you know, either shaken your attitude or woke up your attitude. You said, man, that, that is some unbelievable stuff. So share with, share with me one or two stories if you could on that.

Well, we all have mentors, we have people we look to and we watch. And I've learned over the years the mentors are people, you never have met them for them to be a mentor to you. I think one of the main people for me personally is John Wooden.

Right.

John Wooden's coach, you know, his story won all those national championships at ucla. He's written many, had many books written on, fortunately passed a few years ago, but just the discipline and the consistency and the work ethic and taking care of all the stuff that you can control. Because there's so many things you can't control, right? And make sure the stuff you can control, you have disciplines, you have consistencies, you have systems with the stuff you can control. Because the stuff you can control, if you have the right disciplines and consistencies, those things should not influence stuff to get done.

Right.

For example, you take it into the business realm in the mortgage space. We got a closing on Friday. You want docs or Tuesday or Wednesday. That's just the way it goes.

Yes.

You don't care about the stuff, Right? Right. I could do a loan for some dude, in three seconds, walk into a closing and there's no money there. You say, dude, where's the money? You're an idiot. I said, dude, I did the loan in three seconds, you say, who cares?

Right?

I mean, you better have the disciplines and consistency. Get the money at closing. And that may sound a little bit simplistic, but it's a discipline that's always there, right? Because there's stuff that's going to happen every day, you better be able to turn it fast. And Coach Wooden was that way. Coach Wooden was very systematic about his disciplines. And to me, as an athlete or business person, you want to know, what are your disciplines? What are your consistencies? What are the things you do all the time, no matter what? And, you know, you have to have space in those disciplines for adjustments. You can't hold too tight to your disciplines because you may make an adjustment right now. But if you have certain consistencies, adjustments aren't that hard to make. Right. Because you're open, you're ready for it. Let's go. Let's play. I mean, you know, you can have a practice and you can have all these things play out. The game starts, nothing's the same, Right? Right.

Well, the ability, yeah, the ability to adjust in life and in business, extremely key. I always equate it to. And I think you know this as well. When you watch basketball games, you can tell who's getting the good coaching. It's the team who wins the third quarter. It's, you know, undoubtedly you can tell who is making adjustments at halftime. And I always say that, you know, in a business world, who's making adjustments every quarter, every week or every month. So John Wooden, certainly good Indiana boy. Which brings me, you know, to Bob Knight. I'm guessing that when you played, Bob Knight was coaching at Indiana.

He was. And so I was like that little kid that after every game I'd go shake his hand, you know, and like a little kid would, you'd expect, right? But no, I was at Wisconsin when Bob Knight was at Indiana.

The one thing which then, the reason I bring it up is especially later in his career, watching Indiana basketball yearly, growing up, you talk about players who were nervous to make a mistake and to do the wrong thing. And like, when they were shooting, they were rickety. I think that had to do with how Bob maybe treated his players. I don't know if you had any feedback or any thoughts or if you saw that or witnessed that, but, boy, they looked terrified when they played for him.

Well, everybody's got a Style. And everybody's got a way. I mean, as an athlete or as a teammate, I want to be able to play free.

Right.

And I'm not real good in that kind of structure, personally. My high school basketball coach, when he passed away, I was honored to do his eulogy.

Cool.

And I said, I'm not doing it. And he goes, yeah, you are a little. What he used to call me. And he put it in writing, so there was no choice.

Oh, my gosh.

So, you know, and because it's not like when somebody passes, you want to raise your hand, say, I'll do the eulogy. Because those are never fun to do.

Right.

But, you know, it's. It's. It's those. You build relationships with people that you trust. And that trust and relationships is at the corner of any company. As you peel it back, that's. That does anything positive. It's about those consistencies of the relationships that they're built on trust. Because you're going to have issues, you're going to have adversity, you're going to have stuff that doesn't go right. And it's not about, you know, everybody's great when everything's going well.

Sure.

Question is, what happens when the stuff hits the fan and how do you react to it and play through it?

You know, one of the things, when we talk about relationships, your company, over 7,000 people now that you're at the helm of, talk to me a little bit as a leader, how do you try to touch all 7,000 of those people? What's the leadership and or relationship lesson of leading something like that?

Well, I mean, it's like everything. People always want to know what's next. In today's world, the patience level is not very good. So you got to keep creating opportunities for people to grow. To grow. Let's play. Let's play. Let's grow. Let's. Let's do this right. It's not like growth is so whatever. It's the opportunity to grow. It's what's next. It's challenging people to be the best version of themselves.

Awesome.

And so now, as far as the relationship part, there's a whole bunch of people in a group with our team that we don't. We don't make a decision as we vet it through that group. And that group is people that. They're on the street, people that, you know at Fairway.

Sure.

If I make a decision, who cares what I think? I mean, influence isn't about one person. It's about a team concept. So there's consistencies, there's little disciplines that I personally do every day to hopefully stay connected to the network. But, you know, as soon as that's been done, it's old news. It's what's next? What's that next play? Like you said, precious present. You better be great. Today we talk about every day being game day. When somebody says, you guys had a great year last year, what I think is, who cares? Old news. Doesn't matter. The number may be okay to share. That's fine if that'll help somebody validate, whatever. Yes or no. But as far as talk about it, there's nothing to talk about. Let's go.

And when we go from leading 7,000 people, I'd like you to lead just one person. There's somebody out there that's listening today that may be facing a time of extreme challenge, that may be in a time of major decision making. What I'd like to know, Coach, is in times of great decision making, in times of great stress and pressure, what is your process? What is your attitude? What can you give the one gapper that's out there that's going, God dang it, I can't figure this out. I know there's more in me. I know there's more to what I'm doing. I know that I'm not living to my potential. Maybe I'm in the wrong job. I'm not sure what it is. What's your advice to that person to turn it all around?

Well, we all know there's discipline, so there's your faith, your family, and then there's your occupation. One and two is personal. Not everybody's gonna have a faith of whatever. But either way, whatever somebody believes, you're still gonna have people you connect with. And there's got to be a core group of people that you ask opinions to. When somebody's pressuring somebody for a quick decision, that's exactly the time to pause. And the whole. The whole analogy is make peace, be your umpire. If you don't have peace about something, don't do it. Cool. If you're grabbing, if you're. If you're grappling with something, that's the answer to maybe pause. You can go get two, three perspectives. Right. And two, three opinions. And your whole view of whatever happens can change. Sure. So if people, when they're going through the struggles, and this is the same. I'm talking myself, right. Personally, say peace has got to be your umpire. If you don't have peace about something, then it's not probably right. No matter what somebody's forcing you to do so you don't have. You know, it's like, as a listener, there's two things we got to do. We got to hear what people say, A. And we may have to repeat back. Are you sure? Am I understanding you correctly? You ask the question back, they tell you whatever it is, right? That's number one as a listener. But number two, as a listener, we have. We as a listener have the opportunity to answer when it makes sense for us, right? We don't have to make sense. We don't do it, like, right here. We don't have to do it. So wait a second. I want to think through that. I want to spend some time visiting with people. I want to spend some time praying about that. I want to spend some time, whatever it is, for that person, but make peace, be your umpire.

That's beautiful, and that's really good. The theme of our show and of our week is to do more than you're paid for. I just like to touch on that really quick. When you think about, and I think this will be a nice segue into Fairway Cares and the American Warrior Initiative. But before we jump into that very quickly, when you think about doing more than you're paid for, was there a time in your career that you said that you got that message or that where you actually did it or where you've witnessed it and you said, ah, that's the definition of value. I gotta do something for my customer on behalf of my customer before I even ask them for business. Talk to us a little bit about any story or message that you have on that one.

When you're a walk on a Division 1 basketball team and you go through the practices that are two and a half hours every day for whatever, there's a. It's like a crucible you go through that. You know, nothing's going to be easy, right? So as long as you face that thing, you may have to work a little bit longer, you may have to grind a little bit more. Because nothing anybody's done, if you really listen to the story, is easy, right? Knowing that it's going to be a grind is part of the. Is part of the discipline. So when somebody says, well, I'm gonna. I'm just gonna work till this, and, you know, you just listen to how people have done. Well, how's that worked out, Right? How does that work for you? I mean, as a realtor, as good as you were as an agent, I'm sure there I'M sure you outwork people you're selling. If you're doing the units that you and I used to talk about. Yeah, there is a window that you don't know what that window was, but there was. There was opportunities you took. RP wouldn't even step into.

True.

And you. And you knew that was a discipline, that if you wanted to do the units and affect the families and do what you had to do, that was part of your discipline. And if you shared the story with me, I may say, that sounds hard. And you'd say, well, dude, if I'm going to play, I got to play. Yeah, if you're going to be all in, let's go.

I mean, well, yeah, the funny and sick thing about it is I still do those types of units, but I have people helping me for sure. But I just like you do. I love the grind. And I don't. You know, to me, life is a game. Every day is a game. When we talk about doing more than you're paid for, I want to mention, you know, the incredible contribution that you guys do with Fairway Cares. I think I read that you guys did right around $900,000 that your people gave back to Fairway Cares. And I just want to know, how did that start then, with what you're doing with the amer? We interviewed Sean Parnell on the podcast, too. He was off the chain. So good was his crazy. Good. Talk to us a little bit about both of those initiatives and the thought of giving back and how that can heal possibly somebody that's listening and what it's done for you and others that you've worked with.

Well, it's kind of like that whole analogy, make your plans. And God's last fairway was started in 1996. Like, a minute after it was started in Texas. My dad got sick and I got a phone call. Right. That's just great. And didn't really know what he had, but long story short, he had an operation on Christmas Day 96. 26 months later, he passed at age 60. But he never made it home after the operation. So for 26 months, he was either in a hospital or nursing home. He never talked, walked, controlled bowel movements, had a trach, had a feeding tube. Long story short, he died a horrific death.

Brutal.

And you say, why are you sharing that? Because it's not what you get, it's what you give.

Right.

And so we all know that. Death taught me so much. I'm 59. He died at age 60. And the whole Fairway giving Culture is. I know what that did to me as a person. It took me years to get over that.

Yes.

And so the whole Fairway Cares thing is when anybody's going through something, that's whatever. Okay. And that whatever can be those unexpected things in life that change us on a dime.

Love it.

But we give, we do stuff. We have a house that's 14,000 square feet that we bought that people go to get better. Wow. You saw that 14,000 square foot house on 250 acres, you'd say, are you kidding me? Wow. On a scale of 1 to 10, it's a 12 people go there and we've had as many as, you know, 35 people there on a weekend. And family just go to heal to get better. So the discipline of Fairway Cares and awi, which is another. That's the veteran deal. Giving back is really the whole crux of Fairway because Fairway, every person I've met really goes back to my dad, him getting sick. Wow. Because I never would have come to Wisconsin if it wouldn't have been for my father becoming sick. I was in Texas, I'd been in Arizona. I, you know, kind of did a drive through Madison during holidays and that was about it. So to me, it's about giving first. If you give, you get.

Yeah.

And so it's all about everybody else impacting their lives. And that's. That's the basis of those two initiatives.

Incredible legacy to leave to your father. What was his name?

Big Daddy Schwartz is what I called him since about age 5. You dumb little whatever he used to call me. What's up, Big Daddy Schwartz. He said, why don't you just call me Dad? I don't know. I just call you Big Daddy Schwartz. His name was Darrell Jacobson.

Darrell Jacobson. And then did you have brothers and sisters? I know you have a sister.

I remember got a younger sister, but that's it. And my dad and I were extremely close.

Cool. Cool. And then I think, aren't you an uncle to some nephews and nieces of your sister or no?

Yeah, my sister's got three kids and Dylan and Amy work with in the company. And Sherry's the CEO of Fairway Care, is doing a phenomenal job.

Oh, that's cool. So your sister's running that. Steve, let's go ahead and play Knowledge through the Decades. Knowledge through the Decades takes our guests through their life. And what I want you to help me with today is to go back to the day you were born. Now, it's amazing, Steve, some People actually tell me they believe they remember the day they were born. But I'd like to know the attitude lesson about birth. Maybe it's about those nephews and nieces when they came in. But what's the attitude lesson about birth and being born? What can a baby that has just been born teach us about attitude?

Well, if we're given the gift of birth, the question is what kind of difference are we going to make and what kind of impact are we going to have?

Right.

Simple as that.

Very good. And boy, the gift of birth creates impact and commitment and, and life changes for all those around. So just to expand upon that, your life is a gift and you affect other people, those who are listening, whether it's positive or negative. And ultimately when you get old, you get to choose. So now that Big Daddy Schwartz, I'm guessing around 10 years old, you were a smart ass little kid or something, having a lot of fun. Do you remember being in third or fourth grade, being 10? And what was the attitude lesson when you were 10?

Well, at that age we were shooting spit wads consistently in class and we're seeing if we get away with it. So I had my buddies in the back of the room shooting spitwats thinking that was cool as to be. So if you ask 10 years old, third and fourth grade, those are the spitwad years. That's true.

Right. So the attitude lesson might be let's have fun and let's not worry about it.

Let's just keep flying. Let's go now.

Did you ever get in trouble as a child at grade school?

A little bit of a smart, you know, the head mouth got me in trouble a little bit. But just remember growing up, always wanted to play, was always playing basketball, baseball, football. So to me was, you know, school was a way to go play. I end up finished the third in my high school class. We say, well, who cares? There's 83 people in your high school class means nothing. But to me, school was about getting done. So you go play.

Yeah.

And play to me was basketball, baseball and football.

Yeah, I love it. What position did you play in football? Corner or safety?

No, I actually played safety and I also played linebacker and wide receiver. I was a quarterback, but I didn't like it. She had to think too much. I want to think, I just want to hit people.

I was a former quarterback. I love it. You just wanted to hit people. We call them runners and hitters. That's all we want. That's, we try to identify them and go with that. So you know what, you go from third and fourth grade, and then. Yeah. You're 20 years old, and you're standing there on a Big Ten basketball court at 20. What do you think the attitude lesson was that you garnered from being 20?

Well. Well, I'm going to take you to 28, because that's when it resonated. And there was a book you mentioned, Bob Knight. Yeah, there was a book written by Steve Alford. The book is called Playing for Night.

Yep.

And that book. I don't know if you've read that book, but that book was one of the turning points for me because between 20 and 30, I was playing basketball five, six nights a week. Wow. And we were. I was playing in Arizona and we were winning these leagues, and I. There was. I mean, I don't even want to get into it, but you're just short.

You're just killing people, I'm sure.

Well, long story short is at 28, I read a book. And the difference between Steve Alford and Steve Jacobson is that Steve Alford set his goals higher.

Wow.

Steve Alford in college said, I want to be this. I want to be this. And then he worked to get there. And I read that book and said, why didn't somebody give me this book at 18?

Wow.

Why did I set my goals? I set. And I didn't want. I don't even want to go into what I said, but there's things I said that I got that happened.

Right.

But Steve. But Steve Alford set his goals higher. So Fast forward to 59. It's. That still book. This. The Steve offered book.

Wow.

It's like we're. We're not. I mean, people say you guys are. Whatever. Who cares? Let's play.

Right?

There should not be anybody in our company that blinks when we hit a certain number. That blinks.

Right.

Because why not? Let's go. Yes. Play.

It's all part of.

We're not gonna be held back by our minds here. There. I was personally held back because how.

I thought, yeah, that's very powerful. That number two on the attitude boosters have a big goal. So that's going on. Well, that's already passed, right, Jason? I think we've done that. All right, so now I know you said it was 28. So what we can do is modify a little bit and keep moving and keep playing. When you were 30 or in your 30s, do you remember your 30th birthday? I'm just curious. I always love math.

I do. I know exactly where I was. Where were you my 30th, I was in Houston, Texas. A buddy of mine had gotten married. A college basketball buddy of mine got married in July, and he came out for my 30th birthday with big Daddy Schwartz and my high school basketball coach. We went and lit it up. Now, I haven't drank for 18 years. There's reasons for that. But on my 30th birthday, I'm 59. That was back in the cocktail days. We had some fun.

Yeah, congrats. We actually talked with our last guest about addiction. One of the three biggest mistakes people make with their attitude, if they are addicted to their attitude. And we ended up having a pretty poignant conversation. And, you know, not to bring it up or whatever, not to say you're an addict or whatever, but when it comes to attitude addiction or addiction to anything, what's your. What's your advice for people that may be fighting attitude addiction? The people that say, well, that's just me. Or addiction. Anything else? Do you have any advice for people on that front?

Well, it's like you have a responsibility, the way I personally look at it, to break your life, to break your family patterns. And I'll be real transparent. My dad died because of alcohol. He had a liver transplant Christmas Day 96. It didn't go well. He died at age 60. Growing up in the Midwest, in the years I grew up, everybody drank. And that's just the way it is.

Sure.

And so it was just part of our lives. And good, bad, right or wrong. So 18 years ago, I stopped to break the pattern in this family.

Good for you.

And so if I die tomorrow, at least my nieces and nephews and people around me know it's not easy.

Right.

There's days you want to snap it back and let's. Let's get it going.

Right.

But, yeah. So to me, any. Any attitude addiction you have, whether it be whatever, look at your family and your responsibilities to break the pattern for your family.

Right. We talk about the two attitude coaches that you never were recruited by or wanted to play for. And there are parents, and I came from the same background, and my mother passed certainly, you know, bottle of doers a day and three packs of cigarettes. That's how they lived back then. It doesn't mean they weren't great people. But it's tough. And we've certainly had those conversations in our family and our huge family that we have. So I don't know that we got to the attitude lesson of 30. I digress. But think about your 30s. What's the attitude lesson when you were in your 30s or when you were 30 on that fantastic night you had with your pops and your teammates?

Well, I mean, I was a loan officer that was closing X amount of loans per month in Arizona and got transferred, but was given an opportunity at age 30 to move to Houston. And you say, what was the attitude then? It still resonates today at 59. Salespeople need the next thing, Right. I have it made in Phoenix when you're closing 4 to 500 units a year as an originator, I mean, you got, you have people, you have great relationships and there's no reason to change that.

Yeah.

And I was asked a couple questions, answered a couple questions, made the decision to move from Phoenix to Houston in probably 10 minutes.

Wow.

And you say what resonates to you at 59 is that salespeople need the next thing. You can't just put salespeople in a box and say they're going to be happy there. It has nothing to do with money. Has to do with opportunity.

Right.

You got to keep playing and keeping. Giving people opportunity to grow.

I love it. Professional growth. That is fantastic. All right, so you're crushing it as an ELO.

You're.

Now you turn 40, curious if you remember your 40th birthday. Is that about. My guess is that's probably when you said, dammit, I'm going to start this thing called Fairway.

I started that when I was 36, 37. I'm 59 now. It's going to be 24 years this April. I was still dealing with my dad's thing. My dad. February 11th will be 21 years. So I mean, there's. When you lose the best friend and at my age, I've lost people since then.

Sure.

It changes your perspective and that changes your attitude. And you say, what does it change? And what'd you learn now then? And now it's if you're still here, if you're still here because my best friend in college died, my best friend after since grade school is already dead. And when you've lost your best friends, that your unconditionals are totally on your side, then the question is what's. The question is if I'm still here, if God's given me the blessing to still be here. Make a difference, make it matter. Right. Make your life matter. Because you know, who knows when it's going to end. The people I'm talking about died in an instant.

Sure.

So they had no warning, they had nothing, you know, just they died.

Right.

And so make, make Your life matter and that.

And that was at 40. That's when you. The gravity of that reality. We talk about living the best year of your life. And we always put people in the mindset that is, what if you knew this was the last year? What would you want to accomplish and how would you live? Like, I believe that's healthy and I think that's what you're saying.

Well, it's, it's respecting what you. What you're asking is trying to help others each day. Right. Trying to leave the world a little better because of the people that you positively influence, because of what you do or say.

Cool.

And it's not. Don't care about any public attention. You know, fairway is so far under the radar screen, nobody even knows we're there. They think a fair. Is that fairway or fair lending or what the hell are you guys. So we stay way under the radar, you said what did you close 6 to 7 billion? Did we close 39?

I know.

And you're going, really? Nobody knows. And we personally don't care about that part. What to care about is are we making a difference in people's lives? Are we helping?

That's awesome. So I'm sure that that blends into the 50 discussion so as not to be repetitive and to be current. And I, and I know, just because I know you and I know your culture and I know your people that it may not be a different answer. But you know, when you did turn 50, when you think about that day or when you think about the time in the past nine years, what's the attitude lesson either now for you, for where you are. You've done so much great stuff. What's the attitude lesson for us to garner worry less.

Cool. Worry less. Because everything passes.

Right.

Just worry less.

Yeah.

Don't grind on the issue. You're going to make mistakes. It's not going to be perfect. But stuff came to pass. It did not come to stay. Yeah.

That's fantastic.

What you're going through today will pass. Whatever it is. Even though you don't think will ever get better. It will pass.

Yeah.

And so don't worry so much. Cool.

I heard a statistic that people who worry 40%. All the stuff has already happened to them. 12% is about medical issues that'll never happen with them. And 24% are about everyday nothings that don't matter. Which means people who worry 92% of the time are worrying about nothing. When it's all said and done. If you do the math. So Steve Jacobson, I want to thank you for being a part of the Get Attitude podcast, for helping us change the world one attitude at a time. For help spreading your attitude to our gappers. It was an honor to take an hour of your time. I know it's very valuable, so thank you very much. Any last thing that you want to leave our gappers with, words of encouragement or anything like that, just have fun.

With it and keep playing. All right, let's go. All right, let's game day. Let's go.

I love it. Game day. It's time to play. And Steve Jacobson, you were the best. Thank you very much. And gappers, listen to this one because it's going to be good. This podcast is a part of the C Suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c suiteradio.com.