Like it or not, the tsunami of news from 2018’s World Cup in Russia is inescapable! Over 730 players representing 32 global teams are dreaming of becoming legends, winning the cup and scoring those timeless, spectacular goals.
On the field’s edge, stands each team’s coach, calculating every move and evaluating plays before anyone else can see them.
And for me, managing a busy real estate practice is akin to being a coach, overseeing numerous, parallel soccer games in various states of play, and all on the same field.
Each line of scrimmage is like a real estate deal: a buyer and a seller — opposite teams — facing against each other.
And like every possession, each deal starts at one end zone, and is hopefully kicked down to the other.
Smooth deals only need a handful of big plays to cover the field.
In bumpier deals, gains are grudgingly eked out a few yards at a time.
Soccer prepared me for life. Every pass and play, goal or foul, win or loss, coached me through the game of life. 
Like Canadian children captivated by dreams of playing in the NHL, young boys in my country of Romania dreamt of soccer stardom. Soccer is life, life is soccer.
My father, uncle and I frequently attended soccer matches, where I envisioned myself standing among the star players in Romania’s top league, Liga 1.
At the age of nine, I entered tryouts for my local farm team, knowing that every professional player began competitive play early in their childhood.
I wasn’t chosen. For a week, I was devastated — my dream denied.
My father — never one to give up — took action. Taking me to the local team’s management, he persuaded the coach to agree in giving me another chance.
Had it not been for my father’s determination, my story would’ve been very different. I swore to myself that I would play my absolute best, never letting this second chance slip away.
By the time I was 15, soccer overruled school. My academics were suffering, but my teenage bullheadedness convinced me that my professional soccer career was at hand.
Nobody was derailing me from my goal of soccer stardom.
At 17, in front of 15-thousand roaring spectators, I lined up with 10 other Liga 1 players. This opportunity to play several matches among my country’s best players instilled me with pride and was an experience unlike anything before. 
Shortly after, I was selected for national tryouts, where players under 18-years-old scrimmaged in front of Romania’s top coaches and scouts who searched for players to place in Liga 1 farm teams.
Selected at number 53 overall, I was overcome with excitement. I played the Beautiful Game passionately, and now I was well on my way to making my dreams come true.
I didn’t know the challenges that’d soon face me, and the difficult decisions I’d be forced to make.
But when those trials arose, the grit and perseverance I developed on the field would prove to serve me well.
I may not have won the World Cup. But my success in real estate, founded through my life on the soccer field, is sweeter yet.