Meet Mark
I was born and raised in Texas in a small town just outside Dallas/Fort Worth. My dad was an officer in the Army, and my mom stayed home to take care of me and my brother. We were the average middle-class family growing up and luckily didn’t have to move like many military families. Instead, we were able to stay in North Texas from childhood through high school, except for a small period of time living in California.
After high school, my brother joined the Army and went to fight in Operation Desert Storm. Later, he left the military and attended the University of North Texas. My father retired from the Army and my mom took a job at HUD, where she continues to work today.
Like my brother, I, too, attended the University of North Texas before leaving to work in the restaurant industry. My career in restaurant management took me out of Texas to Illinois and later to Arizona, where I settled in Tempe about 12 years ago. I continued to work in restaurant management until 2000, when I decided to move into the real estate industry. Before settling in Ahwatukee 6 years ago with my two children, I lived in Tempe, Scottsdale, and Fountain Hills.
My first year in real estate at Keller Williams, I was awarded “Rookie of the Year” at my brokerage. In the other brokerages at which I worked, I was consistently ranked as one of the top agents, winning almost every sales award available. Among the accolades I have earned since becoming a Realtor, is the designation of being in the top 1% of residential Realtors in the nation. I have also participated in many community programs and charitable sponsorships, including helping families who had lost everything during the Katrina disaster. After Hurricane Katrina, I assisted in pairing charities and investors, who together acquired housing and furnishings for many families relocating to Arizona. Most of these families had lost all of their belongings, and we worked to replace home furnishings, clothing, and toys, as well as assisting in jobs placement and getting the children settled into school in their new communities.
I later went on to open my own brokerage with several partners and served as CEO. We grew that enterprise to 4 offices, employing just under 200 agents, and managing about 200 properties.
Life’s Lessons
A few years after starting my brokerage, I purchased my dream home and, like many people, invested much of my life’s savings. Shortly after moving in, I discovered a major structural defect in the home that had been hidden by the previous owner. I also soon realized that the defect and settling of the house was more significant than originally thought and repairing it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. After two years of lawsuits and fighting to get the defect corrected or compensated, I had to settle for selling the home for $1 million less than I had bought it.
The seller, builder and others involved with the home had filed bankruptcy. During this period I had stepped down as CEO of my company, selling off the majority of my ownership in an attempt to save my home and most of my savings, which were invested in the property. However, in the end, I lost the home and the $500,000 which I had put down, relinquished control of my company, which was later shut down by the new owners, and at 35, I was faced with starting over.
Despite my best efforts, my home, savings, and company were gone and I was on the brink of bankruptcy. What do you do? The economy wasn’t helping, and our government, instead of encouraging and motivating us to stand tall and pull through, was telling us that nobody could save us but more government. That without them, we were hopeless.
When confronted with something like this, I believe you can either give up, accept the security blanket and handouts offered by the government and blame everyone but yourself, or you can have the courage to rebuild.
I admit, it took a little while to get over my losses and begin the reconstruction process, but I knew I had built a successful career once, and I could do it again. So, with that in mind, I started a new company and have been working to rebuild ever since. The experience I have gained in the past few years has made me realize: my difficulties can help others understand that through Life’s ups and downs, triumphs and failures, you can never stop trying to excel. We are here to create a better environment for ourselves and those around us, and our government is only there to ensure Equal Opportunity, not Equal Results.
Through the government’s policies of bailouts and welfare, they attempt to guarantee the end product or result but miss the point entirely. To truly provide opportunity, you must inspire people to take the journey of their own accord, not just hand them the prize. They need to earn it, respect it, and know that THEY achieved it.
I have watched over the years as elite politicians who, by virtue of their wealth and society, are often disconnected from “Main Street.” They decide the direction and fate of our country, but seem not to consider how their choices affect the average American. I have stood by and seen these same politicians waste billions of our hard earned money, offering handouts to those who do not need them and floundering with inconsistent foreign and domestic policies; in general, they create more chaos than order.
These elitists are not in your corner and act as if they just pass more laws and levy more taxes, life will get better for everyone. Yet, they do not listen to you when you call, write, fax, or even protest. Besides being responsive to their constituency, leaders and government should inspire, motivate, and encourage people towards growth and a better existence, not oppress, punish, and flat out discourage people from seeking success. Unfortunately, our government has decided to embrace policies that do the latter.
I am too old to join the military and fight our enemies abroad, but I can still enlist in the fight to protect this nation from those who wish to tear down everything for which it stands - and for which so many have fought and died over the years.
Only here could I have achieved so much, and after losing it all, have a second chance to gain it all back. Only here is there true opportunity to do whatever or be whatever you choose to be. Though through complacency, appeasement, and political correctness much of that is being destroyed. The far left wants to change “Equal Opportunity” to read “Equal Results,” regardless of one’s effort or drive to achieve it. In return, you are taking home less and less of your own money each time this Congress passes a new law. Will you continue to have true opportunity when Congress takes 60% of your income to support their inefficient and ineffective programs, or will you only have the “opportunity” that they allow you to have?
Thomas Jefferson said it best, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who will not.” I want to help Americans realize their dreams by encouraging smaller, more efficient government which promotes policies that advocate for and stimulate the private sector. American businesses and entrepreneurs need to know the government supports their efforts to expand and develop and the average citizen needs to be able to determine their own fate without excessive taxation and government interference. I ask that if you agree with the words written here, that you please stand with me and support me in achieving this goal.
