Millionairess Shares Her Success Secrets

Carolyn Shamis:
A Woman With Style

I first met Carolyn Shamis in 1970 at a modest apartment complex just off Cedar Springs road in Dallas. She was a gorgeous Kewpie-doll like girl who possessed a special charisma. I knew immediately that she was special. I had no idea how special. Now fast forward to 1994. Carolyn Shamis has since become somewhat of a Dallas celebrity. Most Dallas residents have seen her real estate company billboards, or her weekly ads in the real estate section of the newspaper under expensive homes. Many have seen her driving one of her exotic cars, her signature trademark for many years. Over the years numerous business articles have appeared about her in the Dallas Morning News and other publications. Those who read the society section of the newspaper have seen her hobnobbing with the social elite of Dallas and Hollywood. Her picture has even appeared on the cover of Success Magazine in 1982, along with a glowing article inside. And, oh yes, she has become a millionairess and probably the best-known real estate woman in Dallas. To misquote a cigarette ad, she has come a very long way, baby.

But she is not one to rest on her laurels. In 1994 she received an award from the U Dallas Board of Realtors for the 3rd highest individual gross sales volume of residential homes, out of some 6,800 agents in Dallas. Not bad for a diminutive 108 pounds gal who, when she first tried to find a job in real estate, wasn't hired because of her upscale fashion statement. Little did they know that they just overlooked the most power- packed, successful sales agent to hit the residential streets of Dallas. They wanted mediocrity, someone who would blend in, a plain-as-dirt real estate salesperson. She is the exact opposite. In fact, she is living proof that style, pizzazz, image, showmanship and a bit of flamboyance are key factors to success in any business.

She named her real estate company Carsha Inc., from the first three letters of her two names: Carolyn Shamis. She has a team of seven highly professional real estate agents, and has been in the same luxury, glass and chrome location for the past 15 years. She concentrates her efforts on expensive homes and properties--those selling for $250,000+. Her biggest individual sale was in excess of$13.5 million. When I met her at her office, she was wearing a red split skirt and an effervescent smile. She exudes enthusiasm, success, happiness and sex appeal. But she is clearly a very shrewd businesswoman who understands high finance and how to deal with wealthy people. Carsha Success Secret: "The most important ingredient in my formula for success is knowing how to get along with people."

A while back, she moved out of her 4,600 square feet, $1.2 million penthouse apartment and into another spectacular apartment on the 15th floor of anew, guarded high-rise right off Cedar Springs road, ironically about one mile from where I first met her 20+ years ago. She is still the glamorous Kewpie doll I remembered, but far more sophisticated and infinitely more successful. Carsha Success Secret: Daily exercise. Today her girlish figure has the same voluptuous curves it did when we met because she exercises for 45 minutes to one hour every day, and has for years. She said it gives her the energy to maintain her non-stop schedule.

We dance together occasionally at the Stampede, a. trendy country and western nightclub in North Dallas. Usually she is dressed to the nine's, but sometimes she wears just blue-jeans shorts and a simple top. She says in that outfit and at that place she can hide from business and just have fun. She admits that she loves to dance and twirl the night away, temporarily forgetting the big deals she is working on. That is where I first asked her about interviewing her for this book. I thought it would be about real estate secrets and insights, I but it turned out to be about how to become successful in life--something she is eminently qualified to speak about; and it just happens to be the main thrust of this book.

She recalled an old quote that said people are divided into three groups: (1) those who make things happen, (2) those who watch things happen, and (3) those who wonder, "What happened?" She puts herself into the group that makes things happen. Her reason for long tem1 success she stated in the Success Magazine article: "I won't accept defeat under any circumstances. " Moreover, she believes whole-heartedly in a constant stream of daily motivation. Carsha Success Secret: She has her own "Gold Book" of beliefs that she reads daily. It is a gold-bound book of inspiration and fundamental truths. She says it has been essential to her no-slumps success in real estate. Do you bathe your mind daily with motivational thoughts about success? If not, follow Carolyn's advice and refresh yourself daily with inspiration and motivation. Create your own Gold Book.

Everything about her is unique, including the clear plastic business cards she uses. Even her otherwise plain looking dog is in fact a special breed kept by the Royal Family in England. But exotic cars have been her signature trademark for years. She has owned many custom built automobiles. At $48,000 a copy, she has had 7 different Excalibur automobiles. She bought a new one every year. They are basically a body copy of a 1932 Mercedes with a Corvette chassis. But she has also owned a Zimmer, a Clemet, a Cord, a Rolls Royce Cornish, and soon she will be sporting around in a Baci, a new custom build car that is similar to the 1930-34 vintage of that automobile. It was the world's first new Baci, hand-made for her in Milwaukee. This is a woman with style and showmanship.

During the 1980's she was known for the diamonds imbedded in her finger nails. When I last saw her she had on some rather simple silver rings, along with perfectly manicured nails, but no diamonds. Carsha Success Secret: "If you look successful, you're going to be successful. People will have confidence in you if you look like you have confidence in yourself. As my mother always said, you rarely get a second chance to make a good first impression. Nobody wants to go around with someone who is not successful, doesn't act successful or doesn't think success." Do your project success? Do you have a unique thing about you that people remember? Have you made yourself distinctive? It has worked wonders for Carolyn.

For many years she has made it a practice to send out "Thank You Grams," They O r are short notes of thanks that she sends to everyone she meets during the day who has helped her in anyway whatsoever. She sends them to everyone from bank presidents to janitors. She confided that, in addition to thanking people, it is an excellent way to get her name in front of people in a way they will remember. Carsha Success Secret: She stated categorically that if anyone would send out 30 "Thank You Grams" a day for a month, they would have more contacts and become far more successful in their business. Her unqualified financial success suggests that it has been a good idea. Do you remember and thank those people who help you? Have you attempted to expand your circle of friends and acquaintances with any similar technique? You should, according to Carolyn.

Among her too-numerous-to-mention success insights, one struck me as particularly wise. Carsha Success Secret: She said that foresight is the essential ingredient. She does not like the phrase "Do not cross a bridge until you reach it." She added, "the world is owned by men and women who cross bridges miles and miles ahead in their imagination." She obviously advocates success visualization and thinking in terms of anticipated alternatives, instead of dead ends. Do you project out your success in your imagination, anticipating the problems and solving them mentally long before they happen? Heed Carolyn's great advice about distant bridges.
She has always been a person of high achievement. In high school, she made good grades and was elected homecoming queen and the class secretary. She was graduated from Woodbury College in Los Angles. Her first job was as a secretary
to a bank president. She would brown bag her lunch to save money. She bought her clothes at discount stores and didn't even own a car. She remembers waiting hours on busses (perhaps this is where the car thing started.) Later she won first prize in a sales contest for bringing in more money to the bank than any of her 6,000 fellow employees. For her sales effort, she got promoted. For two years she worked in cosmetics sales, traveling around the country. Nothing was given to her. She started at the bottom and worked her way up. Way up. She decided to come to Dallas. There she got her first big break, becoming the sales manager for the Fairmont, a fancy, new downtown Dallas hotel. She became "Miss Fairmont" and made many important contacts.

She began her real estate career selling condominiums in Mexico for Dallas developer Troy Post, who also owned Braniff Airlines. She sold exclusive condos in Acapulco at Tres Vidas. I was fortunate enough to have been invited to a complimentary visit to Tres Vidas. We went on a specially charted Braniff jet and our meals were prepared by a chef from Europe. It was my first time to eat chateaubriand. I was impressed. But to Carolyn it was probably as common as a tuna fish sandwich. When the Mexican government banned sales of real estate to Americans, she found herself out of a job, Carsha Success Secret: "Find out what you want most to do--do it. No matter what. And in the doing, be guaranteed a very difficult and very happy lifetime. " Finally, she began selling real estate. She started with a bang. She sold $1 million in real estate her first two weeks in the business! And remember that was over 20 years ago when a million dollars meant something.
She looked for a Dallas real estate company to join. As previously mentioned, her prospective boss told her she would have tone down her manner of dress, get rid of her jewelry and drive a conventional car. She left that place faster than Ivana Trump at a garage sale. Carsha Success Secret: She has been quoted many times for saying "Glamour is my trademark."

She works hard seven days a week, and plays hard when she can. Carsha Success Secret: Carolyn doesn't drink or smoke. Good for her. Are there any bad habits you should quit to make you healthier and more successful? She maintains a demanding schedule of meetings, business luncheons, appointments, countless telephone calls and social activities at posh locations with the elite and famous. She gets up early and frequently stays up late, living her life to the fullest. Carsha Success Secret: "Persistence, consistency and hard work is what it takes to be successful. I don't every hear no.' I don't let a lot of negatives get into my business. " Are you persistent and determined? Or are you easily defeated? Do you cram a lot of living into your days like Carolyn does? She says she is like a duck--calm and un ruffled on the surface, but paddling like the devil underneath. Do you appear to be "in control" when you are in front of people? How do you act in a difficult situation? Do you project the calming image of a knowledgeable professional while your mind searches for solutions? Are you a duck or a chicken with its head cut off?
I enjoyed her 26 "Karats of Wisdom," but was especially taken by one in particular.
Carsha Success Secret: "What you think means more than anything else in your life-- more than what you earn, more than where you live, more than your social position, and more than what anyone else may think about you."

Specifically About Real Estate

Carolyn was most interested in discussing success principles, but she did talk briefly about real estate. Carolyn reminded me that the old cliché was true. The three most important things about real estate are location, location and location. She has personally owned as many as 12 properties at one time. She said that quality properties are the best buy because you never have to worry about their value. "It can never be too nice," she volunteered. She also stated that foreclosure sales are wonderful opportunities. She has been to about 50 and has purchased many good deals. She focuses her attention these days on housing that offers gated security and other protective measures. She really likes high-rise buildings because of their security. She believes that this is the most desirable, up-and-coming feature important to her wealthy clients, especially women. She simplified success in the real estate business into these words: I! Selling real estate involves honesty, enthusiasm and truthfulness. You also need tunnel vision so that you have the single mindedness it takes to make the sale.

Carolyn is big on sharing her success secrets with others, and she does it from her heart. She regularly gives away a laminated flyer titled: Karats Of Wisdom It contains 26 pearls of wisdom about success, What is surprising is that there is nothing about real estate in her "Karats" It is all just success concepts, sayings and insights. It proves that success principles are universal, regardless of what business you have. :
1. All things are difficult before they are easy. So, if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.
2. First you make your habits, then your habits make you.
3. Persistance and determination are omnipotent.
4. Success comes before work - only in the dictionary!
5. Of all things you wear, your expression is the most important.
6. The six most important words in our language are: "I admit I made a mistake."
Five Words: ------------------------------------------------- "You did a good job."
Four Words: ------------------------------------------------- "What is your opinion?"
Three Words:------------------------------------------------ "If you please."
Two Words:-------------------------------------------------- "Thank you."
The least most important word is: ---------------------- "I"
7. Never argue with an angry person.
8. When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.
9. There is no market for gloom - you cannot sell it. What the world wants and will buy is cheer.
10. If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
11. A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.
12. The tongue is the most sensitive and the most effective part of the body. A word said by the tongue can go through the heart in a way in which no medicine can cure - and sweetness from the tongue can bring you total wealth of the world.
13. Not failure, but low aim is a crime.
14. Conversation is to love as blood is to the body, without it, it dies.
15. Guard your heart more than any treasure, for it is the source of all life.
16. Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to do work and forced to do your best will breed in you a hundred virtues which the idle never know.
17. When you make a mountain out of a molehill, don't expect anyone to climb up to admire the view.
18. What you can't communicate ruins your life.
19. I dislike the saying, "Never cross a bridge until you come to it." The world is owned by men and women who cross bridges with their imaginations miles and miles in advance of the procession.
20. Try to make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes.
21. What you think means more than anything else in your life - more than what you earn, more than where you live, more than your social position, and more than what anyone else thinks of you.
22. Whole heartedness is contagious. Give of yourself if you want to get of others.
23. My goodwill is my only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy.
24. If we really did what we felt when we felt it, we would continue to go beyond. It seems that when we are young, we worry about what everyone thinks of us. At about the age of 30 we realize that the world wasn't really paying close attention.
25. No pains - no gains.
26. Find out what you want most to do - do it! No matter what, and in the doing, be guaranteed a very difficult and very happy lifetime!

Interestingly enough, she told me she likes to be thought of as a teacher instead of a real estate super-star. She truly enjoys sharing with others her considerable knowledge of real estate. She is comfortable talking about high finance, the philosophy of success, or ordinary small talk. She has a cham1ing way of flowing the conversation to the interests of the person to whom she is speaking. It is a rare talent. Do you willingly share your business knowledge with others, or are you secretive? Do you go out of your way to be genuinely helpful like Carolyn does? It was this attitude of sharing and caring that helped to make her a millionaire.
She has three qualities that one rarely sees together: she is very pretty, very smart and very wealthy. Yet she is very easy to know and like. She even dances well. Equally as important is that she is a person of principle. On the bottom of her company folder is her business motto: "My goodwill is my only asset that competition cannot undersell or destroy." She simplified her definition of a happy life, saying "I believe there are three prime requirements: something to hope for, something to do that you like, and someone to love. " Thanks. Carolyn, for all the great advice.