Leadership, Discipline, and Purpose from a Life in Mortgage Banking
Mortgage banking is not a career people grow up dreaming about. There’s no college major for it, no clear on-ramp, and yet few industries shape the U.S. economy and the lives of everyday families more profoundly. That paradox is exactly what makes mortgage banking such a compelling profession, and why so many people who “leave” it eventually find themselves drawn back in.
My own path into the business was anything but traditional. I didn’t graduate college. I was drafted out of high school in Connecticut and spent 14 years playing professional baseball. Baseball wasn’t just my job, it was my identity. And then one day, it was over. Most retirements come with a sense of agency. This one didn’t. Suddenly, I had to reinvent myself, provide for my family, and figure out what came next. What came next was mortgage banking.
My family was living outside Houston when a neighbor suggested I might be good in the mortgage business. He was the president of a local bank and offered me an entry-level role inspecting homes. Every Friday, I drove the Houston metro area, checking construction progress so builders could draw funds. It wasn’t glamorous. But it was immersive. After nine months, I was originating loans.
That transition was easier than you might expect. Mortgage banking, at its core, rewards repetition and discipline. If you do the same four or five things every day for long enough, you either learn quickly or you don’t belong. Coming from professional sports, routine and repetition were already wired into me. In the early 1990s, every loan application was face-to-face. I sat at kitchen tables at seven o’clock at night, walking families through paperwork. Fax machines were considered cutting-edge. What mattered wasn’t technology, it was trust. And I loved that part of the job.
The real inflection point came when I was asked to move into leadership. Coaching, mentoring, and helping people grow felt familiar. In many ways, I never stopped being part of a team, I just traded the dugout for the office. Mortgage banking has a reputation for being hard to escape. Someone once compared it to Hotel California: you can check out, but you can never fully leave. The reason isn’t just financial. It’s relational. It’s developmental. Watching people mature in their careers, gain confidence, and build something meaningful, that’s addictive in the best way. And it’s why, after more than three decades, I’m still here.
Because no one grows up planning to be a mortgage banker, newcomers often struggle with where to start. My advice is simple: master one lane first. Whether that’s originating, processing, underwriting, or secondary markets, depth matters before breadth. Over time, you can gravitate toward the part of the business you’re most passionate about. For me, that was always the front end: meeting people, building relationships, and creating opportunity. The best careers in this industry aren’t built by dabbling. They’re built by competence, confidence, and credibility earned over time.
The mechanics of production have evolved dramatically. CRM systems, digital marketing, and electronic applications have replaced cold calls and in-person visits. But the underlying principle hasn’t changed at all: out of sight is out of mind. Today’s top producers are disciplined. They’re intentional. They consistently show up for their referral partners, whether that’s through technology or personal outreach. The tools are different, but the work ethic is not. The past few years have made that painfully clear.
In 2020 and 2021, loans were everywhere. If you struggled in that market, something was wrong. But that wasn’t real difficulty, it was reactive effort. People were sprinting just to keep up. A normalized market requires proactive effort. The same energy once spent processing inbound volume now has to be spent creating business. The professionals who understand that distinction are the ones who survive (and thrive) long term. Across decades and market cycles, the most successful producers share a few traits: Extreme discipline, attention to detail, time blocking and routine, consistency, not bursts of effort.
Plenty of people are smart and well-intentioned. Fewer can implement ideas day after day. Success in mortgage banking doesn’t come from brilliance, it comes from execution. Mortgage banking isn’t glamorous. It’s demanding, cyclical, and often misunderstood. But for those willing to commit (to discipline, to relationships, and to service) it offers something rare: the chance to build a meaningful career while directly shaping communities and lives. I didn’t choose mortgage banking. It found me. And like so many others who’ve spent a lifetime in this business, I’ve learned that when you do it the right way, it doesn’t just become a job. It becomes who you are.