Dave Panozzo is the co-founding owner of The Panozzo Team-HomeSmart, a real estate team in Phoenix, Arizona.
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What comes to your mind when you think of the word “legacy”? As real estate agents and investors, every business exchange is, in a way, just another stepping stone toward making your mark on this earth. Maybe to you, legacy means creating a real estate empire, leaving your monetary wealth and assets to your children or just making a positive impact in the community. If you’re young, you may not consider your legacy as much, but there comes a time in your life when you begin to reflect on how you want to be remembered for generations to come. As a father of two daughters and soon-to-be grandfather to my second grandchild, I take legacy into account more frequently than ever. This is why I want to share with other parents and grandparents involved in real estate what I’ve learned about legacy over the years and what it means to combine it with a career in real estate.
It’s not about the money.
Although money is an extremely valuable and important thing to keep in mind when considering the legacy you want to leave for your kids, it’s not everything. The reason I say that is because money can eventually run out and you can’t take it when you’re gone. If you want a legacy that goes on forever and ever, you have to dig deeper than that. Think of it this way: If you are on top of your game in business, there’s no reason to stop there. Bring the invaluable skills you learn in business to your home and share them with your kids. True legacy is when you teach your children and grandchildren how to handle life and business. Sometimes it can be hard to know if you are on the right track, especially when juggling the responsibilities of raising a family and making ends meet. What I started to do when my kids were about 12 years old was to teach them the power of putting goals into writing and visual images, to motivate them to put a plan of action in place and to successfully execute with fearless action.
Why do I think it’s more important to teach a child how to work toward their goals rather than hand them a $20 bill and call it a day? Well, when my oldest daughter first entered high school she was already a master at manifesting and a hard worker. She put on her vision board that year that she would one day own a gray Chevy pickup truck, after two years of hard work and visualizing her dream car, she finally ended up getting her own gray Chevy pickup truck that looked similar, if not identical, to the one on her vision board. Now that she is a mother, I am confident that she will soon teach her kids how to manifest anything and adopt the right mindset to manifest greatness into existence.
Helping, encouraging and teaching people how to get from where they are to where they want to be doesn’t have to stop at your family. If this is part of your legacy as it is mine, you can apply your efforts toward life, business and your community. Make goal-setting and vision boards part of your team’s routine. It’s a habit I bring to my own team — with the goal of helping each individual better themselves and their family.
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Redefine what legacy means to you and your family.
I often tell a true story about my grandparents who came from Italy on a boat in the late 1930s and pursued their own American dream. They got into real estate by buying a fourplex, renting out three units and living in the fourth. I like to say because of them, real estate has always been in my genes. It goes to show how your actions today can and will influence future generations in your family, your community, or even your team/business.
Even if you aren’t fully aware, you are creating a legacy. You may find yourself redefining what you create. In my case, I redefined what wealth and legacy mean so that to me, wealth is a tool to use and leverage toward serving a bigger purpose and leaving behind a grand legacy — like that of my grandparents. This philosophy has been and will be passed down to my children and grandchildren. Create a legacy in your family by sharing unforgettable stories, writing a mission statement and creating core values/beliefs as a family or sharing them with your family. Once your whole family is clear and on the vision, it will create a threshold from which your family operates, and eventually, you will see those values in action. You can take this same practice to the office. In building your real estate business whether as a broker or investor, taking these steps can help define your impact in the industry.
In the end, after you take your last breath, you want to have those in your life to celebrate your legacy and reflect upon all the great things that you have taught them. The actions you’ve taken to support your family and your community come next — with your impact in real estate close behind.
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