I was recruited into a reputable real estate company.
My boss was a top-seller where I worked.
I was promised a six-figure income working in real estate sales.
I got the job title Property Consultant.
Our company sold condo units in Metro Manila.
The company gave new property consultants a ₱5,000 peso allowance.
My boss convinced me to use the money to invest in advertisements.
I collected my allowance from the payroll department and handed ₱5,000 to my boss.
The money was used for newspaper advertisment.
My family was disappointed because I didn’t have money when I got home.
I was borrowing a hundred pesos a day.
Sometimes my mother and grandmother couldn’t give me money.
I have a job.
Don’t I have a salary?
I had a difficult time explaining that my boss convinced me to put my allowance into newspaper ads.
Selling real estate is more difficult than it sounds.
Our company rented booths in popular malls.
I handed out fliers to strangers.
I went to office buildings and parking lots to give out fliers.
I was kicked out by guards from buildings whenever I’m caught handing out fliers without a permit.
I asked everybody that I know who they knew could buy a property.
I was nineteen then.
I didn’t know anyone who’s buying property at the time.
Most of my friends were my age and didn’t care about buying properties.
This story happened in 2004.
We were not used to posting advertisements on the internet yet.
The only way to advertise was through the newspaper.
I kept going.
I was eating at cafeterias and trying to charm my way into deferring the payment.
I was taking the bus to work during rush hour because I knew that I could slip past the staff and not pay the fare.
I was out of money and was trying to survive.
I no longer cared about right or wrong.
I was just persisting.
Two months had passed.
The sales head called our team for a meeting.
My boss was there.
My boss’s top agent was there.
I was there with two other trainees.
The other two trainees also didn’t have any sales.
The head told us that they noticed that we still do not have any sales.
The company only gave us ₱5,000 allowance.
It would be unreasonable to expect us to show up for work every day for two months with just ₱5,000.
She doesn’t know that we were all convinced to use the money to invest in advertisements.
She asked us what we wanted to do moving forward.
One of the trainees said that he wanted to quit.
One of the other trainees quit later.
I said that I wanted to continue.
The head sighed and said that they’ll give me a 30 day deadline.
I thanked the head for her patience with me.
I promised that I won’t let her down.
There was more pressure for me.
I don’t have money.
I don’t have food.
I was stressed out.
I was giving out fliers at every parking lot that I could sneak into.
I was sneaking on and off busses and jeeps to avoid paying the fare.
I owed money to several cafeterias around our office.
I had taken half-eaten food from the pantry.
I didn’t realize that my grandmother was helping me in the background.
My grandmother was also asking around for people who are interested in buying properties.
One of my grandmother’s friends from church introduced me to her son.
The prospect was getting married and is looking into different properties.
The prospect worked for a big corporation, had a decent budget, and liked our most expensive property.
The property costs close to ₱4,000,000.
The prospect had lots of experience and requested lots of documents from us so he could best fund the purchase of the property.
At 11pm, on the 30th day of my deadline, my boss accompanied me to the director’s house.
We handed the prospect’s reservation payment.
I was saved.
The commission that I earned was ₱90,000.
I went home with a large envelope full of cash that day.
My boss convinced me to give him half of the commission because helped me close the deal.
I later learned that this was illegal.
My boss later gave me additional prospects that he didn’t feel like meeting.
It seemed that he wanted to make up for the money he took from me.
I made ₱300,000 from the commissions earned in the real estate company.
I only got to keep half of what I earned because my boss kept convincing me to sign papers that I’ll give him half of my commission.
I left the company on my sixth month because I felt horrible.
It’s as if my boss was just manipulating me.
I didn’t have any rest-days.
I had more money but earning money was a painful experience.
The experience was the same as my promodizer job in the mall.
I ran into a mother-son team of insurance sales people and decided to join them.
That’s for another story.
Thank you for reading this far and thanks for your attention.
I am praying for your success. God bless!
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