Always Be Improving
Taking risks and leaping ahead (even out of planes) has never been a problem for John Grafft, 29. By the end of this summer, he expects to have his skydiving license. He also took a leap of faith as a 21-year-old college student at DePaul University in Chicago. He started a business to help students find apartments and spent two years expanding that model and building a database of landlords. “I ran the business out of the DePaul library. I got my calls done between homework.” His tattoo that reads “Kaizen,” Japanese for “change good” or continuous improvement, captures his business philosophy. “Agents should never be glorified door openers or professional telemarketers,” he says. “We should be professional salespeople with a lexicon and an appearance to match.”