Jim Nussbaum - Significance: A Lifetime of Learning, Earning, and Love

JIM NUSSBAUM IS A REAL ESTATE ROCK STAR! I have had the opportunity to meet many of the worlds top sales people. Jim Nussbaum is in the highest echelon. His real estate career, spanning five decades, has firmly cemented his place among the industrys all-time greats.

Hal Krause,
Founder and CEO, American Salesmasters,
Founder and CEO, Crestcom International

A must read if you want to become a real estate agent of significance. Practical lessons shared by one of Americas best.

Robert Bohlen,
Worlds Number One Prudential Real Estate Agent for 10 Years

As one of Denvers most successful real estate brokers with a storied career spanning 50 years, Jim Nussbaum is the perfect spokesman for the tried and true methods that lead to success. He shows why sales training and goal setting are invaluable in achieving our goals as sales people as well as our personal life objectives. I personally benefited from many of the people and examples outlined in this book and enjoyed refreshing my memory on the value of taking the advice found in these pages. Human nature has not changed much over the years and employing these basic principles are the keys successful people understand and endorse.

Jack Box,
Regional Chairman, Newmark Knight Frank

As Ive reached a certain level of success in my life, building a legacy has become a major motivator to keep going through difficult times. Jims book is the perfect roadmap for outlasting adversity, building a life of purpose and prosperity around the love for family, and making a positive personal and professional impact that will last for generations.

Ford Saeks,
Hall of Fame Speaker and author of Superpower!

Jim Nussbaums memoir, Significance: A Lifetime of Learning, Earning and Love, illustrates how resilience and drive can propel someone with focus to success, even while overcoming unthinkable tragedies like terminal cancer and the loss of a child. This is a simple guide that, if followed, will impart a systematic textbook on how to turn lemons into lemonade and hard work into wealth.

Gretchen Rosenberg,
President and CEO, Kentwood Real Estate

I am so impressed that Jim is providing the Real Estate industry unprecedented access to his lifetime of knowledge, experience, and results. This most meticulously crafted and comprehensive examination of what is required to create and combine a successful career with a healthy and abundant life is truly in a class of its own.

Gino Blefari,
CEO, Home Services of America,
Chairman, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices

Anyone new to Real Estate will receive a five-year head start by reading Significance , while experienced agents who suffer from a malignancy of over-information will appreciate how Significance stripped of excess verbiage provides a laserlike clarity on how to maximize human potential.

Allan Dalton,
Former CEO, Realtor.com, CEO, Real Living Real Estate,
SVP, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices

I would encourage all to read Significance written by my long-time friend, Jim Nussbaum. I want to thank Jim for taking the time to share with all of us his personal journey over a long and accomplished career. Jim articulates many practically useful gems from his own lifes experiences that all of us can benefit from.

William B. Pauls

2021 Jim Nussbaum. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the copyright holder.

This book is for informational purposes only and is not meant to constitute legal advice. Any person consulting these materials is solely responsible for implementation of this guidance as it relates to the particular matter for which the end user refers to these materials.

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the attributions of the content of this book, the author makes no claim to any third-party companies nor their content.

Published by Prime Concepts Group Press.

Design cover and composition by Prime Concepts Group, Inc.

Publishers Catalogue-in-Publication LCCN: 2020920237

Print ISBN: 978-1-884667-34-3

eBook ISBN: 978-1-884667-36-7

Dedication

Eric, my son, I am dedicating this book to you. I want you to know that you lived a life that mattered and were a profound and lasting influence on my life and the lives of many other people. You are a constant reminder to me that one can live a life that matters just by being and not by the necessity of doing.

Contents

Our Infant Adopted Son, Eric, Falls
Into a 14-Year Coma and Dies

Acknowledgments

G ratitude is so important to the smooth and proper functioning of real estate sales, and to any sales effort for that matter, that I have devoted a chapter to it in my book.

I am grateful to so many people for their encouraging and helpful comments and advice as I have embarked upon the journey of writing this book. It is virtually impossible for me to adequately thank everyone that has been there for me, sharing their thoughts with me and being so helpful, but I will try.

First and foremost, my wife, Mary Jean, has patiently endured my many years and long hours of selling real estate over fifty years; she faithfully had prepared for me many a late-night dinner after I arrived home from an evening listing appointment, and has given me the all-important perspective as she has read my many drafts of the manuscript. My children, Dan and Kate, have always been kind enough to give me their comments as well. My long-term friend from graduate school, Jim Gennrich, took his time on our family vacation together to review in detail my early manuscript and provided very helpful insights. One of my founding partners of The Kentwood Company, Roger Campbell, and his wife, Arna, gave me valuable input on the selection of the cover design for the book.

I owe a great debt of gratitude to Brian Buffini, Chairman and Founder of Buffini and Company and the author of his own best-selling book, The Emigrant Edge . Despite his extremely busy schedule, Brian has made time over several years to help me with input that has proven invaluable in my editing of the many drafts of my book. One of the top Realtors in the United States, Bob Bohlen, who has authored his own real estate book, Clarity , reviewed and edited my book on very short notice and provided some very helpful insights and suggestions. Larry Kendall, best-selling author of Ninja Selling and a very successful real estate trainer and seminar leader, read the draft of my book and made invaluable suggestions and comments. Brian, Bob and Larry also took the time to give me a written testimonial, as did seven other sales, marketing and real estate icons. A huge thank you to these 10 people!

In the course of hand-writing all the many drafts of my book, I used untold numbers of yellow, lined note pad sheets with scribbled notes and arrows going here, there and everywhere. Karen Porras, my private assistant for over 17 years, did a fantastic job of deciphering what I had written and transferring my notes to a computer PDF. Michealann Nofzinger also was a great help in assisting with the typing and compilation of the final versions.

Many other colleagues and individuals have encouraged me and helped me with their advice over the several years that it has taken me to write this book, and I simply and humbly say a most sincere and heartfelt thank you to all of them.