I didn’t.
I contributed. I worked hard to acquire the best education possible. Yet, virtually everything I know was first developed by someone else, and taught to me by someone else.
Today, I’m a talented, experienced small business banker. I still remember the person who hired me in my first position as a Disaster Assistance Loan Officer for FEMA. I remember each person who hired me for each position I held thereafter, including the one I hold now.
The most impactful contributors to my career have been the borrowers who came to me for the financing they needed to rebuild their lives or achieve their goals.
I vividly recall the school teacher who lost his home and most of his possessions due to devastating floods that hit southern Georgia in 1994. He and his wife had been married for a few years and were expecting their first child. They had invested all of their savings in their modest home. There was no way on a teacher’s salary they could afford to rebuild their home and pay the existing mortgage. The Disaster Assistance Program offered a 30 year mortgage at the government’s cost (30 years fixed at 4% vs. Market rates of 10%) that financed the total reconstruction of the home, refinanced the existing mortgage, and replaced the destroyed personal property, all for less than the original mortgage payment. I was able to approve an exception to policy to lower their final payment because their original mortgage payment was half of their monthly earnings. When I told the borrower what I was able to approve, he cried. I’m crying now just thinking about it.
In 2015, I had a borrower who came to me for financing to buy 5 Domino’s Pizza franchises in Arkansas. The borrower had no significant collateral to secure the loan but was offering his life’s savings as the down payment. This borrower had started working at one of the Domino’s stores as a pizza delivery man twenty year ago. He worked his way up to shift manager, then store manager, then larger store manager, and finally general manager of all 5 stores. The franchise owner was retiring and wanted to sell his stores to his best employee. I never met this borrower personally, and he never met me. But people like him are why I became a banker. His was the proudest loan of my career.
No, I didn’t build this.
All the people who paved the way for me; All the people who taught me; All the people who believed in me; All the people who hired me; And all the borrowers who gave me the opportunity to provide financing…together we built this.
How about you?
