Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
Ryan Serhant said he chose success first and let the career come second.
- "Million Dollar Listing" star Ryan Serhant says one single career path didn't lead him to success - many did.
- Before being named the top sales team in New York and closing deals worth more than $800 million in 2017, Serhant was a broke actor living in New York City in 2006.
- Serhant said he set out to become successful at whatever task he took on, and let his career follow.
Career and success are complementary, but focusing on a career over outright success can trap a hard worker.
That's according to "Million Dollar Listing" star Ryan Serhant. Before being named the top sales team in New York by sales volume and closing deals worth more than $800 million in 2017, Serhant was a broke actor living in New York City in 2006, he told Business Insider on an episode of our podcast "This Is Success."
"When you first get into the sales business - or any business really - you're nervous," said Serhant, who got his real-estate license during the peak of the 2008 recession. He said it took him a few years to realize "success" didn't have to be a clear, even path.
"When people ask me, like, what kind of mindset I had going into this business, I really think back to when I was a little kid, and I made the decision when I was a little kid to be successful, and hopefully it would be through acting because I think I could be the next Brad Pitt. Clearly didn't work out. And it ended up being as a real-estate agent, and a real-estate agent who's on reality TV," Serhant, who was cast in Bravo's "Million Dollar Listing" in 2010, said.
With an acting background, Serhant utilized his memorization skills and applied it to real estate. Serhant said he would memorize everything about a building, unit, block, and neighborhood so no one would look at him as inexperienced.
"So what I told myself was: Listen, I'm going to rely on what I know, and no one is going to say, 'Wow, you're too new to this business,' or 'You're too young,' because I'm going to know more than anybody else," he said.
"Like, I could tell you that on the corner of 12th Street downtown and Fifth Avenue, that building on the corner has 142 units in it, and it was built in 1911, right, and the super's name is Tony," Serhant said.
Ultimately he set out to become successful at whatever task he took on, and let his career follow.
"I chose success first and let the career come second," Serhant said. "And when that one career doesn't happen or doesn't happen the way you think it is, then it's not a speed bump - people treat it like a brick wall. But speed bumps are there for a reason. And maybe you go down a different road. Maybe you figure something else out."