Horrible Bosses

Everyone has had a horrible boss, right? The one's you are at constant war with, who you know just have no clue what they are doing. Think of thier faces(please don't be me, please don't be me). How do they look? To me, Their faces literally fuel me. I see them and I want to try and be the best boss out of spite. Or achieve things that they never said I could.

But one sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the rest for me...

It all started back in 2007/08. I was just a kid, fresh out of my early twenties, a total party animal with zero business being in a mortgage office—except my cousin Tammy had a connection at Bank of America up in Farmington, CT, and she helped me land a gig processing loans. I had no experience, but they took a chance on me. For all the crap I could say about Bank of America, they gave a twenty-year-old kid a shot—and it turns out, mortgages came naturally to me.

Numbers? Easy. Organizing workflows? Even better. I loved the challenge, and I crushed it. I rose through the ranks, from processor to underwriter to trainer, always finding myself at the top of the production charts. And the guy who really shaped me during that time? Tom McGoldrick. The best damn boss I’ve ever had. I was this scrappy young dude wearing Pink Floyd shirts to work, smashing my goals, and Tom rewarded me for it. He didn’t care what I looked like or how many jokes I cracked. He saw my work and my passion.

From Tom, I learned the art of leadership—true leadership. It wasn’t about barking orders or demanding respect. People followed him because of who he was, not what his title said. He cared about us as humans, not just employees. I watched a youtube the other day where they said "Leadership is not about being in charge. It's about taking care of those in your charge." – Simon Sinek.

Anything good you see in me as a leader, I owe to Tom McGoldrick. 

But all good things must come to an end, right? Tom got promoted to run an entire division at the bank, and that’s when my nightmare began. His replacement? Sal—a professional ass-kisser if I’ve ever seen one. Sal and I never clicked. He was the polar opposite of Tom. He wanted people to kiss his ass to get ahead, and that was never my style. To me, success is based on character and contribution. How hard do you work? And how cool are you? (Hence the two rules I run my company by today.)

That year, I was up for a big promotion. I had my eyes set on a leadership role, and no one knew the process better than I did. My peers? They said I was a "shoo-in." But after a vacation, I came back to find out I didn't get the job. Instead, it went to someone who constantly came to me for advice.

Naturally, I was pissed. So, I requested a meeting with Sal. I had to know why I didn’t get the role. I mean, my track record spoke for itself—numbers, tenure, the whole nine yards. So I asked him, “Why didn’t I get it?”

Sal’s response: “John, you’ve got all the right metrics, but you have a poor personal brand.”

Personal brand...? I was confused. I asked him to elaborate... He said, “You wear rock band t-shirts, and you have a life-of-the-party personality. You're never going to go anywhere unless you change your personal brand."

I left that meeting pretty friggin speechless. How could cracking a few jokes to make people smile, and wearing a certain T-shirt disqualify me from a job I earned?

I had 2 choices to make. I could either change my ways... go corporate... play the game. OR I could double down. Bet on myself. and bet on the fact that there was space in this world where true value was appreciated instead of just the appearance of value.

As you can see - I chose option 2. A few months later, I left that job and began slowly pursuing activities that lead to what you see here at Mpire Financial today. 

The moral of the story? You don’t need to fit into someone else’s mold to succeed. In fact, the only way to truly stand out is by providing such an undeniable value that it becomes impossible to ignore you. People will always have opinions about who you should be, how you should act, or what you should wear—but screw the mold. Bet on yourself. If you're genuine in your efforts, if you work your ass off, and if you bring value, the right people will notice. It’s not about fitting in with the crowd, because that is how you get drowned out

I learned that you can either live by someone else’s standards, or you can set your own. There will always be people like Sal, trying to put you in a box and tell you what success should look like. But the truth is, success looks different for all of us—and that’s the beauty of it. My rock band t-shirts? My jokes? My laid-back approach? All of those things led me to where I am today. They didn’t hold me back... they propelled me forward.

I chose to double down on who I was, and built something that allows others to do the same. Mpire Financial is a place where value is appreciated over fitting in, where being a maverick isn’t just allowed—it is celebrated. That's why it is so important to me that you guys have the ability to use your own brands...

I love the seagreen and pink wrapped Benz that Floridian Mortgage has...

I Win with Wade

I dig that Matek Mortgage is growing so big 

John Crivea's Top Gun logo with the jet on the M is the coolest thing I've ever seen.

Everytime I wear the "Lend Zeppelin" shirt we created... I think of Sal.

I'll leave you with this: Don’t be afraid to bet on yourself, no matter who tells you otherwise. In the end, you’re the only one who gets to define your personal brand.

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

-Cheers!

John