Underwriting Everything: Kurt Nishimura on Deals, the AREAA Mission, and Why Mentorship Actually Pays

I was a competitive tennis player just as an adult.

I didn't play in school.

And I do golf.

But one of the things that I always valued about tennis, especially if you were kind of accidentally crossing that work line that you didn't necessarily intend to, it just was happening and you saw the potential clients on the other side of the net.

What I've loved about that sport specifically is two things.

One, no matter how stressful your day is, all you can do is focus on that green ball coming at you.

Otherwise, you don't have a game.

So you literally have to check out of whatever just happened in the hours leading up to that game.

And then B, you see how people work through conflict and their own personal frustration.

And I think that's where a lot of the trust comes from.

It's when things didn't go your way, how did you respond?

And specifically, I'm a doubles player.

So, you know, you're playing as part of a team.

You're really setting up your partner to be successful.

And as a realtor, you have to be able to do that.

You have

to understand your partner's game, know what their limitations are, know what their strengths are, and work with that to succeed.

Try to win.

At the end of the day, that's what you're trying to do.

You have a goal in mind and you try to achieve that goal.

Anyone that's been an athlete at a fairly high level, one of the things that it really teaches you is mindset.

Having the right mindset going into any situation really improves your chances for success.

And that's really the benefit of being in sports is really, you know, you have to practice to get better.

You have to be kind of in that zone while you're on the court.

You know, your mind can't be floating somewhere else.