There are some people that learn to overcome hurdles and not let the fear of the unknown bog them down. They learn to accept change positively. They see it as a chance to grow and experience something different instead of staying put.
One such person whose thoughts became his words and thereafter his actions to shape his entrepreneurial life is Daniel Green, CEO and Founder of Green and Green Estates Incorporated.
Daniel is the voice of his company and has an invaluable perspective in the real estate industry. Infact, he has gained this wisdom by “being in the trenches for years.” It was only recently that he started his journey towards building and developing an empire of real-estate automation.
He says, “Once we reach that point of advance satisfaction, we understand that we will be leaders in this part of the real estate industry.” As an independent thinker, he gives his team opportunities to innovate and be creative. Right now, his team is focused on bridging the gap for others by building a roadmap and simultaneously, designing upcoming steps for themselves.
Daniel also recognizes that being a pioneer is a challenging journey, especially in the beginning. He considers every milestone to have a nuanced layer of risk as it is “very difficult, busy and costly.” But his purpose brims with promise, “As long as we have goals, I am going to continue to take my leadership test and pass with flying colors.”
Interestingly, Daniel’s mindset is more aligned towards progress and not perfection. He acknowledges his duties and responsibilities, especially after being the top executive in 2021 and 2022.
He is enthusiastic about combining his ideas with his vision to do better and do more. He is driven to make the most out of his rich experiences, capital, family and most importantly, the respect he’s gained from people.
Additionally, he thrives on collaboration and is actively looking for partnerships where everyone grows together. He takes pride in his team’s talent as he moves ahead with his eyes on the prize — to win; today or tomorrow but definitely one day.
An inquisitive childhood
Daniel’s early years were fascinating as he never shied away from experiments. He relentlessly pursued his “why” and always out-thought others, especially his opponents. Soon, he developed awareness of the world around him and did not miss a beat to make the most out of any opportunity.
Looking back, he recalls one thoughtful incident where he celebrated his curiosity. During his school days, he and his classmates were asked to make a project on kinetic energy and its process in the most simple way possible. In the next few days, Daniel learnt everything he could about this new topic and came up with a plan to make it a LIVE experiment.
He went to the extent of actually vacuuming the floor to understand the mechanism behind kinetic energy. After that, he assembled the vacuum hoses together and built a make-shift bridge. He then went two steps further and rolled one of his marbles through the hoses to see how the marble slowly moved towards the opposite direction.
To his credit, this experiment turned out to be a success and this “novel invention” made him stand out in the entire school.
Combing through yet another memory, at the age of mere 5, he remembers tagging along with his brother to his father’s office. Being in the real estate industry, his father was just finishing up a house on McCormick Street in Sumter, SC.
Impressed with his father’s work, a lady walking down the street turned into a customer as she quickly made up her mind to purchase the house. She didn’t take too long to write the check for the down-payment and soon after, he and his brother received a check from their dad for all the work they did together. Daniel was over the moon!
But something didn’t seem right when the lady got back to see the house again.
Apparently, she changed her mind about the house and 5-year-old Daniel realized the intricacies of this industry sooner than expected. She insisted on a refund and that meant Daniel and her brother had to give up their payment too.
This was one of his first experiences that taught him about the unpredictable and unforgiving nature of entrepreneurship. However, he kept his spirits high and learnt that although he might not win today or tomorrow, but one day he will win.
Nurturing his only passion
Daniel’s curiosity into the real estate industry grew through his dad and this really encouraged him to explore this field. “My passion for real estate blossomed when I was working with my dad doing fix and flips and buy and hold,” he shares enthusiastically.
He also believes that he’ll continue to “live in the trenches for as long as he lives” due to the unpredictability of this industry. “Not struggling in the trenches, but advancing in them,” he soon clarifies.
Daniel almost feels like he was born into real estate because in some way he was associated with it from the beginning. “My dad was building his 2,664 square foot house which is now used as the office space for my company, Green & Green Estates Incorporated.”
However, this South Carolina-based entrepreneur had to face several obstacles to finally break through.
For most part of his early entrepreneurial journey, he was living in hotel suites. This was the time when he started his car dealership which was not set up as a business entity. He vividly remembers that he had only three cars— all Honda. With maximum power and effort, he managed to sell his last Honda because the consequences of not selling it would be dire— for him and his business.
The uncertainty led him down the dark road as he indulged in drugs and starved for days. Thereafter, this resulted in drug overuse, bad investments, bad deals and other troubling decisions.
In 2017, things started to look up when he finally found his footing in the trucking industry. He consistently built his blocks of business one after the other and did not let his pride get in the way.
That said, if it wasn’t for those 3 Hondas being sold out, he wouldn’t have made it this far in the entrepreneurial journey. Later, he started to dedicate his time in developing his interpersonal skills as he moved towards more progress.
Leading with courage and purpose
A day in the life of Daniel Green is based on the triumphant theme of the song Rejuvenation by Juvenile. He borrows the essence of hustle, power and victory and goes after what he wants, unabashedly.
It is his vision that makes client satisfaction the beating heart of his business. His team takes up the responsibility to make all the paperwork related to buying and selling real estate a cakewalk for their clients. “If I can buy that paperwork, rather than buying the physical property, banks will buy and sell for us along with the real estate agents,” he shares. “Mortgage companies love to be our friends because at the end of the day that debt gets paid,” he adds.
An entrepreneur is bound to face the fear of failure, but Daniel felt it and embraced it. His biggest challenge so far has been to save and organize all the data systematically. “The person with the most data wins in this game called overages,” he asserts. This is also due to the involvement of his company in multiple areas where the same data is used for any real estate transaction.
However, he regards every challenge as a learning experience. He is especially attentive in making the most out of this data as he does not want to miss out on any potential transactions. “I think they call that double-dipping,” he laughs.
On a serious front, he wants to use these experiences to build his company as the only premium real-estate brand in the world. For Daniel, the next step in establishing world dominance is investing resources in cutting-edge technology and keeping up with the technological trends worldwide.
Choosing risk over regret
If Daniel were to start his journey again, he says he would start a GoFundMe due to the uncertain relationship with real estate transactions. “It would be a lot easier if we had more capital to play with,” he adds.
He also thinks that he would have pitched his business to more investors so that he could get more funds to run his business smoothly. “A lot of individuals or businesses who have big investors make their way to the top faster,” he shares.
Although his company has made big strides, he is satisfied with the exceptional pace with which he achieved the goals. He plans to finally quit and retire as a financially-sound person.
Thinking and being bold
Daniel takes pride in the success of his business despite the hiccups along the journey and his one piece of advice for aspiring and emerging leaders is “to stick to it and fight through the adversity.”
He feels that when you fight, you are making sure you are making every effort worth it. Moreover, he suggests embracing your emotions, even if it means to cry and sweat to make things work for you. “Believe in yourself and do what it takes and most of all, stick with it because I can promise you the end result is way better than how it started,” he declares.
Making growth his lifestyle
On a personal front, Daniel’s future plan is to prepare for a distinguished career. Drawing an analogy with viticulture, he looks at his progress similar to the grapevines.
When not planning about his future, he enjoys creating music. He finds music to be an “art of sound that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through elements of rhythm, melody, harmony and color.” As an entrepreneur, he wishes to fulfill his ambition of being the best-in-class while contributing to his country as a responsible citizen.
On the professional front, Daniel is keen to take on projects that spread the word of Green & Green Estates Incorporated. “I’m looking for podcasts, radio stations, and TV shows/news media outlets to help us,” he adds. He has also drawn-out plans to expand his real estate company and wants to experience more growth while building his business.
In the coming years, he aims to hire more truckers and set up an office. He recognizes the changing patterns of work and encourages all of his employees to work virtually, right now. Another leaf from his future plans is to start a non-profit organization soon.
Daniel finds happiness and contentment in finding like-minded people and making a sizable impact in their life. He believes “making a difference in others’ lives is not work, it’s a mindset.”
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