The agency’s CEO urged agents to shift from chasing success to being passionate. At Inman Connect, he shared how lasting fulfillment, not milestones, drives long-lasting careers.
Mauricio Umansky, the agency’s founder and CEO, didn’t get much sleep the night before speaking at Inman Connect New York on Tuesday. That’s what happens if you get food poisoning. But when he spoke on the topic of Reinventing Success, his determination to speak despite his illness matched what he was trying to say. “This industry hasn’t always been sophisticated.” It’s a matter of patience.
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“You have to change your mindset from success to passion,” Umansky says. “Passion is a completely different way of orienting yourself. It’s what drives you forward.”
Umankshi earned her real estate license in 1996 after being laid off from her previous job and having three children at home. Like most agents, he started with a goal of success. He wanted to sell luxury real estate. In his first year, he earned $183,000.
“It felt like that was everything at the time,” Umansky said. “I felt like I accomplished it.”
So he set himself a rule. “Every year has to be better than the last.” And so it was for a long time. But over time, his motivations changed.
“I realized I wasn’t really chasing numbers,” he says. “I was chasing the feeling of building something.”
That distinction came to light after the biggest deal of his career, the sale of the Playboy Mansion, Los Angeles’ first $100 million home sale, while Hugh Hefner was still alive. “It was a lot of fun,” he joked, eliciting laughter.
For many agents, it would have been the peak of their careers. When Mr. Umansky entered his office the next day, his colleagues asked him why he hadn’t taken time off.
“I told them, ‘It’s already happened. It’s over,'” he said.
This experience forced a change in mindset. Success, he realized, creates a finish line. Passion creates momentum.
“If your identity is built around accomplishments, you’ll feel empty the moment you achieve them,” he says. “But the passion never ends. We don’t need trophies to keep going.”
That philosophy shaped The Agency, which Umansky founded in 2011 with the goal of building a global brokerage firm. The company now operates in multiple countries, but the journey has been bumpy, especially during the depressed markets of the past three years.
“The last three years have been incredibly tough for real estate,” Umansky said. “The question is how to continue. You have to change your mindset. When you see your future, you start visualizing it through passion.”
To maintain her energy, Umansky relies on daily habits that keep her mind sharp. He meditates every day, even if it’s just for 10 or 15 minutes.
“Your brain is the most powerful asset you have,” he said. “Your habits shape everything.”
He also learned that growth requires vulnerability.
“To be great, you have to allow yourself to be bad,” Umansky said. “Be authentic. Stop trying to succeed and start living your work.”
In a business obsessed with metrics, rankings, and milestones, the deeper challenge for Umansky is to reframe what success actually means.
“Success comes to an end,” he said. “The passion continues.”
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