The business world loves athletes and sports enthusiasts. My father is a Brown University Hall of Famer and was hugely successful in business. My daughter was a recruited D1 athlete and my boys were high school varsity basketball players where winning was everything. They all pour their hearts and souls into 5 star achievement…code for: They Hate To Lose. When I first got into real estate, after a long career in design, one of the people I interviewed with told me he couldn’t quite pinpoint why someone was successful in real estate. He said he could have two people sitting in front of him, both intelligent, attractive, funny, interesting…and one would be successful and the other wouldn’t. After pondering for a bit, he acknowledged that he thought it was the person who loved the art of doing deals who would rise to the top. I didn’t quite get what he meant at the time because my career had been about creating beautiful spaces, not competing. I found out quickly after I did my first deal. Winning that deal was a total high. I just loved it. I’ll never forget that conversation and the subsequent ah ha moment affect it had on me. I wasn’t a high school varsity athlete or college recruit. I played on my all girls high school tennis team — we weren’t very good — and spent a lot of time in the art room. It wasn’t until I got back into tennis five yers ago that I felt the adrenaline rush of competing and winning. I never give up -- and I never get mad…well hardly ever. I’ve realized through tennis how much I like to compete and even more, how much I like the camaraderie of a team. It’s exhilarating. The great epiphany for me throughout my new found career in real estate and love of all things tennis is that we don’t always know ourselves as well as we think. Growing and evolving is part of the journey. Tennis anyone?