Newbie from Baltimore, MD

[Daniel B Trader]

Hey all, just made a BP account and wanted to introduce myself. I'll try to be brief, but no promises. 

My name's Dan Trader. I'm 32 years old, born and raised in Baltimore, MD (just outside of Towson), married nearly seven years to the genuine love of my life, and father to one beautiful little girl (almost 5) and two awesome little dudes (3.5 and 3 weeks).  

I grew up, and spent much of my upbringing, in the arts. To make a long story a little shorter, I graduated from a four year university with a degree in graphic design only to realize my skills were so specialized that employment opportunities were ostensibly non-existent. I did odd jobs and contract work etc while a newlywed, but a sense of urgency began to grow in me upon receiving the news that my wife and I were expecting our first child. I found a job in route sales that earned me more money than I was used to, but it was a terrible job with a capital F. Luckily, I ran into an old high school friend shortly after and within a month I was working at his company as a full time private investigator. Oddly enough I found this job perfect for my skill set and have been doing it nearly six years currently. 

As much as I enjoy(ed) the PI world, I was becoming increasingly more and more professionally unfulfilled each day, tired of just getting by. So last September I told myself I was going to make an immediate change, starting by saying yes to most, if not all, the opportunities that came my way. 

Not long after, I accepted a writing position on the side for a local sports blog and quickly became their Fantasy Football Editor-in-chief (lol yes amazing these positions actually do exist) after securing them a long term sponsor, which also generated me some extra monthly income. Shortly after, I became intimately obsessed with DraftKings due to a few large payouts early in the season. I started taking things more serious and started listening to podcasts and reading more, until I eventually committed myself to at least one book a month. During this period, I quickly became tired with reading books on fantasy football. It just seemed that I was limiting myself exponentially to what I *could* be learning that could *actually help me* in real life. So a friend mentioned the book "Antifragile" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb one day and in a nutshell it changed my whole perspective. 

After finishing that book, I was listening to a podcast with my hero of the fantasy industry,  Peter Jennings, and he was asked which podcasts he listens to regularly. Care to guess which pod he mentioned first? BP. 

After a few listens I was more than intrigued. I did some soul searching and spent a lot of time looking inward. But in January, after several long and grueling negotiations with my wife, I devoted myself to getting my real estate license. Not because I wanted to sell, but because I wanted to get into investment properties and knew I had to learn *how* to sell anyway just for life in general, so it seemed like the best way to kill two education birds with one stone. The way I saw it was I've been in sales my whole life, I just haven't gotten paid for it. So I enrolled in an online course and studied independently at work and at home, and began striving to read one book per week. I lost count but I'm easily over 20 books so far in 2017.

So, that's my condensed back story. As of current, after three months, I passed my course and state exams on the first try and as of yesterday I signed on with Keller Williams because I've heard that their training program is unparalleled. I wouldn't say I'm hungry. I'm starving. And eager to see where this road takes me. 

Looking forward to learning and meeting new people. Salute! 🍷