My Time

The 31 Days of Rocktober for 2012 ends tonight. As I said earlier this month, I don’t come into this with a pre-defined list because, as a writing exercise, it’s more fun reacting to current events and picking songs accordingly. So this morning on my way to work, I heard Bang Your Head by one hit wonder 80s band Quiet Riot. Without the cheesy video of my childhood to water it down, it’s actually a pretty damn good rock song. And since I began this month with an ode to rock basics, I figured Bang Your Head would be a good parting note.

But that was this morning and things have changed. It was a hell of a day (and night) in the mortgage trenches, as month-end often is, and I’m not exactly in the head banging mood … which also ruled out Dio’s The Last In Line as a good closer.

So I’m going with My Time, a song off Jane’s Addiction’s 1987 debut album for a few reasons:

(1) Because this song helps me chill out. I used to listen to this song in high school and college when I just needed (and usually only had) five minutes to clear my head. After all these years, It’s still rare that I’m able to chill extensively, so songs like this still do the trick for me in short order.

(2) Because now is my time. I’m in year 10 as a mortgage banker after a career change from money management back when my mentors said I was crazy to go into housing. They were right. It’s been a rough road, but last man standing has been my goal from day one, and I managed to stand fairly tall this month. In October alone, I closed 22 client loans for a total of $9.3m; posted 90 stories on TheBasisPoint plus contributed daily rate commentary to MortgageNewsDaily; did interviews with Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, CNNMoney; and got big media interviews for three of my industry colleagues.

(3) Because “my time” is actually “our time” (like Mr. Hand said to Jeff Spicoli). No single accomplishment above is possible without a team, let alone all of them. And that last accomplishment especially makes the point in a mortgage media context. I’m not just doing what I do for me. I’m doing it for my industry and the community that comprises it. If you read this site, you know I link out heavily and cite sources throughout the housing industry, which unfortunately runs against the general state of mortgage media: largely a closed model where content creators don’t share much (the link explains why). It’s absurd and there are still some dinosaurs out there who think this is the way. But I’m trying to follow Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell’s model of open collaboration for the greater good. At 53, some might call him a dinosaur too, but he created Lollapalooza, the first ever touring multi-act concert/festival, and over the last 20 years it’s exposed and popularized just about every band that matters in our era. He invented the machine that let all the content creators come together, collaborate and do their thing. They do well, he does well. That’s what it’s all about and anyone who’s not sharing, not collaborating, pretending they’re the only source of informed mortgage and housing commentary will be extinct soon enough.

And with that, I humbly offer you a devil horn salute and this closer for 2012’s Rocktober series…

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Links:
– My Time – Jane’s Addiction (youtube)

– The 31 Days of Rocktober (2012 LIST)

– AND IF YOU DON’T LIKE MY MUSIC…