The Power Of Learning

Why Is Learning So Important?

Back in October 2024 I left my high paying salaried job to enter the world of real estate on commission only. No base pay, just commission and only after I sold a house. That presented another challenge, I needed to convince homeowners to trust me with their most expensive asset. I had to convince them to trust someone fresh out of real estate school with no prior sales experience. As if this wasn’t enough pressure, my wedding was scheduled in 18 months time (May 2026). I had no other option. I had to make money. I had to learn how to make money fast. Here’s how I did it.

How I Learned Fast

Prior to entering real estate I had some business exposure. In 2021 my wife and I started our wedding planning business, which is now shut down. An important lesson that I learned from watching my wife grow our business was the value in learning.

My wife had tried everything to grow the business, except for taking time to study and learn how to grow a business. Out of frustration, she turned to online courses. First, she bought a marketing course, which taught her how to collaborate with other brands. Then she bought an accelerator course on sales, which taught her how to track her numbers, build a pipeline, and increase her closing ratios. Within the span of a year, she was making well into the five-figures.

Seeing my wife’s success and the value in learning, I made the decision to get a coach as soon as I entered real estate. Week one, I spent $2,500 and bought an online course on ‘how to door knock and generate new leads’. The course was delivered by an American coach based in Utah. I followed the instructions in the course religiously. They said to rehearse the scripts. I rehearsed the scripts in front of a mirror, recorded myself on video, even while I was driving I’d repeat the script in my head over-and-over again. They said to go door-knocking four-hours per day. I went door-knocking under that hot piercing sun. I went door-knocking two-hours during lunch time and two-hours after work hours. I got so good at door-knocking that within 5 seconds of someone opening the door, I could tell if they wanted to talk to me or not. Within 3 months (it was February now), I generated over 100 contacts. Out of those 100-plus contacts, I had 12 leads that were interested. Of those 12 contacts, about three or four were long-term nurture clients. But, no instant listings yet. I started to panic.

While I was door-knocking, I continued learning from other real estate coaches. And one particular coach said something like “you’re a real estate agent, why are you not spending time where real estate happens (i.e. open homes).” It clicked. I reached out to my fellow colleagues, but no opportunity. I learned that I was in a small office. So, I decided to move across the road and join the bigger real estate firm. The techniques I had learned from door-knocking, I used on my fellow colleagues. In the new agency, there were 60 agents. I called around 45 of them and within two-weeks I had my first listing. This lady was very impressed with my efforts and decided to add me to her listing. In fact, word got around of my effort and the top agent in the branch (a Chinese lady who was selling around 130 properties per year invited me to join her team). I did and my first commission was paid in June 2025 (seven-months later) and by then I had learned the value of time. Let’s continue.

Learning Takes Time

It takes time to learn and master any skill. I’ve yet to read Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, but I’m very familiar with his rule of 10,000 hours. This rule is actually a great guideline for how long it takes to develop world-class expertise in a particular skill. You see, it took me around seven-months to earn my first commission. It took this long because I had to learn the skills required, the techniques used, and gain decent exposure to the property market. The first commission pay was $4,700.13. Which was not enough to live on. So, I had no choice but to get contract work while learning and increasing my revenue. Afterall, I had a wedding to pay for as well.

While working a second job, I learned the value of time. In order to get good at anything, I needed to continuously show up over a period of time. Working a second job may have reduced the immediate amount of time I could spend in real estate, but it gave me the opportunity to keep going. It also calmed my panic, because I had access to regular income.

After the seven-months mark something incredible happened. I went door-knocking after working a full-day at my second job. Only this time, my confidence had increased significantly and by this point I had learned how to qualify potential clients. Anyone I met while door-knocking would go through my qualifying criteria before I even lifted a finger on putting together a listing presentation. Every second or third month I got a new listing. In fact, I was getting so good that property managers were referring their landlords to me. Because they knew I could close the deal and keep the listing within the company.

When the second year started, I had other real estate agents contacting me and asking for help. I had property managers sending leads. I had past clients making referrals. I had my own network reaching out to me to list their property. My upward trajectory was flying at the speed of light.

This is when it occurred to me that I had gotten to this point for two reasons. Firstly, I wasn’t afraid to spend money on my education. I had bought course after course and books on how to sell. Secondly, I wasn’t afraid to get a second job to allow me the opportunity to spend time in real estate. Had I continued real estate, I am sure by year 5, I would have been making a net income well into the six-figures and most likely will have built a team. And if you divide 10,000 hours by 40-hour work week, the result is around 4-point something years.

Except, 21-months in, I stopped real estate and relocated to Sydney. Why? I didn’t like working weekends. Not that I don’t work weekends now, but I don’t have to be on someone else’s schedule. I choose to work weekends on writing these self-help articles for you. Also, the real estate income wasn’t global. When I relocated to Sydney, my income completely stopped because I wasn’t working. At some point I will write a dedicated article about this, but for now these were some of my reasons.

Now, let’s answer the question of what you should be learning.

What To Learn

Hopefully by now, I’ve motivated you enough on the importance of learning. The next point I want to cover is ‘what and how’. I will provide evidence and explanation in the following paragraphs.

When I started as a real estate agent, I learned that almost every real estate company gives their new starters the same advice. That is to contact everyone in their sphere of influence and hopefully someone feels sorry enough for you and gives you a listing. This is terrible advice. Everyone in your sphere of influence knows you’ve just started. They would be hesitant to trust you selling their microwave, let alone their most important and expensive asset. Therefore, I needed to learn how to generate leads. That’s when I started searching on Google and YouTube on how to generate leads as a new real estate agent. And I quickly found the American coach teaching the skills required for door-knocking. Something about his message resonated with me and I bought his course.

You need to look at your situation and ask yourself “what is my problem or challenge that I need to solve?” Are you looking at learning a new skill like playing an instrument? Are you thinking about starting your own business or a side-hustle, so that one day you can quit your nine-to-five and become a big-time business owner? Or are you simply looking to get better at your current job and climb the ladder?

For instance, before I was a real estate agent I was an Instructional Designer, developing and designing eLearning modules for big organisations. In hindsight, I could have bought a few courses and enhanced my skills as a designer, but I never did. If I was to relive that life. I would. Why? Because I know that it would have increased my skills, therefore, increasing the value I could provide to an organisation and eventually being promoted to the ranks of management. As I said, the more I learn, the more I earn.

Take the time and ask yourself, what is it that you are trying to achieve and then we can look at the ‘how’.

How To Learn

I would argue the ‘how to learn’ is actually the easiest part. When I started my search for learning how to generate new leads. I came across thousands of videos and articles. I could have followed anyone of those and would have achieved similar results. I watched hours of free content on YouTube on how to cold-call and where to cold-call before committing $2,500 on a course. I even bought Grant Cardone and Brian Tracy’s books on sales. Every single piece of content I consumed added to my knowledge. I was like an A.I. learning and improving.

I read books on selling. I watched videos on selling. I listened to podcasts about selling. In fact, I even copied how the top agents (that Chinese lady) conducted business. I took all of this information and applied it to my business. Which brings me to my next point. Applying.

Apply Your Learning

You learn first by discovering the information and you learn it again by applying it. Every time I came across a new piece of information, I would find a way to implement it into my business.

For example, I was watching a video on qualifying clients who were ready to sell now. The gentleman in the video was taking the viewer through his script. One particular question in his script stood out to me. The question was:

Have you thought about renting it out and enjoying the cashflow?

You have no idea how many listing presentations this saved me. I immediately included this question in my script and that afternoon I went to practice. I would be at the door and after the client would say they had thought about selling. I would immediately follow up with the above question.

Over time I added my own technique. I would act shocked and surprised when they’d say they had considered selling. I would take a step back, look up at the property and repeat the exact same question. I guarantee you almost every client would smile and say yes but due to circumstances they really needed to sell. Bingo! They’d pass the first stage of my qualifying criteria. Also, the clients were very appreciative because I came across as genuine and someone who wanted to help, rather than make a quick sale. And yes there were clients who would say yes and then follow up with something along the lines of, “I’m not sure how much rent I’d be able to get for it.” These clients I would refer to my property manager and collect a referral fee, only after they were onboarded.

When you learn something you need to have an opportunity to apply it. When you apply it, you will develop and grow. As you grow your learning evolves and transforms into something new. You need to take this new learning and teach it, only then you will master your craft and complete the cycle of learning.

Teaching Someone Else

I will keep this point short because it is mostly self-explanatory. I want you to jump on any A.I. chatbot (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot) and search for a sports person, musician, actor, politician, scientist, historian, anyone who is at the top of their game. Then I want you to prompt the A.I. and ask it “has this person ever taught, mentored, or coached anyone?” And nine out of 10 will have. Why? Because they understand that in order to complete their own learning and to truly master their craft, they need to be able to teach it to someone else. Afterall, how could you teach someone else if you don’t fully understand your topic?

Learning Is The Key To Your Success

Learning is important because the more you learn, the more you earn. As your knowledge increases, your value increases because you can help others more efficiently and effectively. As you grow smarter, you spend less time and effort in accomplishing the same goals. More importantly, you will start to outgrow your peers and environments, therefore, you will seek new challenges, opportunities, and adventures. Something that may have started as a hobby soon becomes a full-time endeavour and you won’t know how far it will take you unless you learn, spend time, apply, and teach it to someone else. Now start learning.

Further Self-Help Articles On Learning

I’ve written plenty of more thoroughly researched self-help articles on the power of learning, which you can access below.

• How to Copy Your Way to the Top
• The Truth Behind Achieving Your Goals

Thank you so much for reading. If you want to get more ideas on how to improve your life. Join my weekly newsletter. Many smart individuals have signed up and we are learning together to build our best-selves.

Cheers,

Michael Hossaini

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