I’ve had some form of this dream for over 10 years and it has morphed in so many ways since then. Being an introvert and Enneagram 5, I am driven most by my need to feel competent, which means I lean on my own understanding and ability. And so when God showed me this dream, I naturally leaned into trying to take the matter into my own hands, solving the problem of: “How can I accomplish this for God?” So I took the leap of faith and quit my consulting job and became a real estate broker. It definitely looked crazy from the outside. Why was this guy who has both an engineering degree and law degree quitting everything to take a job where you didn’t even have to graduate high school to get. To myself, I was just trying to answer God’s calling.
Fast forward 10 years, I now have my own real estate broker team at Compass and a separate development team, called Eagle Street Development, and I’ve learned this one lesson: “Dan, YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL”. I learned that my labor doesn’t always yield fruit and that every real estate deal is a miraculous gift from God. I learned that I couldn’t ever start learning how to do RE investment in NYC without other people. I need a team. At Eagle Street, we’re trying to be the Amazon of RE developers by turning around full condo development projects in NYC at lightning speed through our competitive edge: vertical integration of all services in-house. Along the journey, we’ve made every mistake in the book to get to where we are. But, again, I can’t do this without other people. And God is the only one who has control.
I may have changed careers 10 years ago, but I feel like I’m only just starting to follow Him.
The hardest part for a competence-driven person is to NOT lean on your own competence, but to still also learn to be as competent as you can. “Is it me or is it God? Or is it God doing the work through me? I’m just asking.” The surprising truth is that the question itself is flawed. It assumes God owes me an explanation of his mechanics because it satisfies my own need to feel competent. I may never understand how it exactly works, but my specific calling right now is not to understand Him; it’s to follow Him. When God called Moses, He didn’t say “Go and convince Pharaoh to free my people. Here’s the 3 step strategy that will work.” He just said “Go and I will give you the words to say and I will be with you.”
So what does this mean for me? I think it means that He is calling me simply to say the words that He gives me to say. That I need to show up and listen to Him. He will bring whatever competence is required to lead His people to freedom through real estate.
Daniel Chun is one of twelve Dream Pod Members in Goldenwood’s 2023 Dream Forum. This reflection is part of Goldenwood’s #InsidetheDreamPod series.
About Dan’s dream to Reimagine Real Estate: From hosting friends in your home to having a meeting place for worship, I believe real estate is the lifeblood of human growth and community. Real estate can be leveraged in many ways and my dream is to help individuals and organizations reimagine the role it can play in their lives. At its essence, developing a property is a value creation process that nets profit in both the short and longterm. What I see God wanting to do is to point this value-creation machine towards purpose-driven endeavors that both make a profit (though maybe less) AND have kingdom purpose in terms of how real estate is developed and used.