She said it was a bit of a culture shock when she came to work at How To Manage, because we don’t do “someday” dreams, and we pushed her pretty hard to figure out what being “personally successful” would look like. Emily said she couldn’t point to one single moment at HTM that changed her, because it wasn’t one moment. It was being surrounded by the same message, every day, for years: profit (where both parties give up something they value less in order to gain something they value more) is normal here. Wanting things is not shameful. Going after them is expected. Not giving up is the default setting.
So, now we get to the house.
She wasn’t looking. She wasn’t “in the market.” She wasn’t “ready.” She was driving by on a Saturday, saw a quirky mid- century house by architect Al Beadle, walked in out of curiosity, and immediately couldn’t think about anything else.
Someone else put in an offer before she could do it. A more “reasonable” person would’ve let it go.
Emily didn’t.
She kept emailing, for about 8 months, while her daughter kept cheering her on not to stop. They pursued it long after most people would’ve moved on. It made no practical sense. But she said she couldn’t give it up because it felt right in her bones. And now, she and her daughter are living in that house. Waking up in it every morning, blue floors and all.
And one of my favorite parts? Hearing about how her daughter has been affected. Emily says she “lives audaciously, like the world is her oyster, and nothing is too big. She decides what she wants and fully expects the world to rearrange itself accordingly.” (Emily laughs about it, but you can hear the pride.)
I’m not sharing this with you so you’ll go buy a new house (unless that’s the thing you’ve been dreaming of).
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