Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ines Kim. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Ines thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I believe everything that happens to us and what we do with it, leads us to our ultimate purpose in life. I would like to start this article with something my reserved father advised me when I was a teenager: you have three options in life: to be useless (harming others), to be neutral, or to be useful (contributing to yourself and others).

I hope this Canvas Rebel article will be useful to you as much as it has been to me.

I would say my biggest life-changing risk was to completely switch my long and stable Fashion retail and wholesale career background from Brasil and Canada to something completely new and unfamiliar to me – to ignite my real estate career here in the United States.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My first language is Portuguese. Although I look Asian and I was born in South Korea, I was raised mostly in Brazil and Canada. I moved to the USA in 2017 when I was in my forties. I confess I never sought taking risks, but witnessing my hard-working Korean parents immigrate, not once but twice, to foreign countries, without speaking the local language, with no resumes, and without having a set place to work, it really helped open my eyes. Witnessing their painful ongoing sacrifices to provide me with the best living environment possible, taught me that it is necessary to take risks and face the unknown if you want to significantly evolve in life.

Since my high school graduation, I worked in the Fashion retail industry for over 20 years. Upon my arrival in USA in 2017, even though I knew very well my profession and generated a reasonable income, I realized that deep inside, I did not love my work. After conscious consideration, I decided to take the chance to restart my career from scratch, to work with something I love. Thus, I chose to become a professional realtor in Missouri.

The irony is that I ultimately decided to become a realtor after witnessing two very negative experiences with other realtors who were unable to assist me effectively. I wanted to make sure no one else faced unnecessary stress and lack of support as I did as a client. Today, I am thankful for this incident because it has really helped me succeed in my realtor career.

A little more about me:
I am a cat lover (nothing against dog lovers!). My favorite personal hobby is writing, I have published a fiction book called UNSPOKEN EFIL (a fairy tale for adults) and I have a goal to finish another book in 2023, which will be a compilation of fiction short stories. Being the extreme introvert that I am, I am openly stating it here, so that it escalates my guilt and responsibility to finish this personal project. Last but not least – Life eventually ends. When it ends, so will you. Be and do your best while you can.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Being accommodated feels very comfortable but it stagnates progress. Being lost and disoriented is to be human, but I realized the importance of nurturing personal projects and applying tools that will help me move forward.

I have my own imperfect professional projects just like anybody else. What tools did I use to gauge taking risks in my career decisions? Three leverage pillars: experience, environment, and financials. Utopically, if you achieve these three pillars, you have the perfect job/work. Realistically, we may miss one or another pillar during this growth process, but we do what we need to do, hoping to eventually achieve all these three pillars: Experience – the need to be open to learning, by growing stronger inside and out. Environment – the need to seek good places and people who can nurture our qualities. Financials – we do need money to survive and pay our bills, right?

I had to start from scratch here and it was not an easy change. Even today I admit there is still a lot for me to learn and improve. But then, I notice these same challenges happen to ten, even twenty-plus years of experienced local realtor colleagues. Four years have passed for me, and despite a much higher number of grey stress-infused hair strands, I still LOVE my realtor work! For me, giving my best and figuring out what truly inspires me from the moment I open my eyes each morning, releases the happiness in my life.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I firmly believe that both good and bad events happen for a valid reason – but it is always up to us to decide what to do with it. When you open your mind and you are willing to learn with a good dose of perseverance and humility, the road may not always be smooth, and one needs to learn to adapt and flow with it. Work itself is never the most difficult part – people (including myself!) are what makes everything more difficult for me.

Shockingly, I realized how all my past and current career choices involve constantly surrounding myself and dealing with people. Being the extreme introvert that I am, I thought I would naturally gravitate toward a profession where I could be as alone as possible! To exercise my valued introvert side, I try to dedicate time to my favorite hobby which is writing. Nevertheless, writing a publish-to-be book also requires ongoing risk-taking. I could write something that may disinterest you. Here it is again, the need to take risks. I know I don’t always make the right choices, but I do what I can to make it worthwhile, as I remind myself of my purpose which naturally involves risk-taking.

There are no accidents, we are all in school here for as long as we breathe. We are all finite students who can also become good teachers. Pay closer attention to your real graduation requisites and what the school director meant to raise you to be, and let us appreciate the school director of Life for this equal opportunity.
LiveLoveLife.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InesKimRealtor
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ineskimrealtor/
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/unspoken.efil

Image Credits
Photographers: Ling Tin, Jeferson Kim