Life & Work with Donna Nazir

Today we’d like to introduce you to Donna Nazir.

I am an entrepreneur and philanthropist who owns and operates several successful businesses related to the real estate industry, as well as non-profits dedicated to mindset and giving back. I am in the process of completing my first book, so add published author to the list soon. I got my real estate license in 2003, I burned the corporate America ship and stormed the entrepreneur island. There was no looking back. Success was my only option. I was hungry, driven, and 100% fueled by grit, hustle, God, and Cuban coffee. I read books, I learned to sell, I learned to overcome objections and rejections. became a master at my craft and fell in love with the process of building the woman I was becoming. I have been recognized by Real Trends and The Wall Street Journal as the top of 1% of all Realtors in the nation. NAHREP has ranked me in the top 250 agents is the US. I started a Legal Law Sales Division that catered to working with Attorneys and this meant working with some of the toughest sales and scenarios in today’s real estate market. That was tough. I witnessed and was around lots of pain, divorce sales and probates are tough. I had to work with people who had lost it all and I never gave up on them, never. It taught me I can do anything. It reminded me life was short and that at the end of the day it was all just stuff. We don’t take any of it with us. I built an LLC I started building. I was a woman working alone in a man’s world with my two daughters watching, giving up was not an option. It gave way to a new company, and LLC dedicated to building generational wealth for me and my kids. As a first-generation immigrant that was important. Having my kids watching was important too, it kept me accountable to doing it right, staying real, authentic, honest, kind, compassionate and business savvy all rolled into one.

2020 was the toughest year of my life as it was for many of us. I had a loved one lose her battle to depression. We lost her to suicide at 32 years old.

It was COVID and we couldn’t have a proper funeral. While grieving from this untimely loss and dealing with survivors’ guilt, my child gets diagnosed with cancer, the home we lived in flooded and we were forced to do an emergency evacuation with just my laptop, pets and kids. My kid was starting radiation and the first day of school took place virtually from a desk in a hotel near the airport. I decorated her desk with things I found around the hotel to make it look like as nice as I could for the first day of school annual pic. I have never felt sadder or more alone. I found out who my real friends were. Who was real and who I could count on. Alex Cabanas came to cook for us. Jacob Wagoner and Lilly Guzman held down my team. My mom, dad, sister and friends had our backs. I would walk on the beach along the shore, and I would remember this story my dad read to me once when I was 5 years old. These words kept me going. It was as if they had been for this specific time. I will share them with you here today. Whatever fight you are in stay in the fight. You are not alone. Nothing last forever, especially not tough times. here is the poem:

One night I dreamed a dream. As I was walking along the beach with my Lord. Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, One belonging to me and one to my Lord.

After the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times, there was only one set of footprints.

This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it. “Lord, you said once I decided to follow you, You’d walk with me all the way. But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints. I don’t understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me.”

He whispered, “My precious child, I love you and will never leave you Never, ever, during your trials and testing’s. When you saw only one set of footprints, It was then that I carried you.”

Life may knock you down, but you can never let it knock you out. I show up. I am present. I am grateful. At the end of a tough day, it may come down to being grateful because my pillow is soft or how my blanket keeps me warm. I get lost in gratitude of little, tiny things.

My daughters are the funniest people I know. They keep me laughing and not taking myself too seriously, kids have the ability to do that and remind us of what truly matters, and it’s never titles, awards or stuff. As far as material possession, my Peloton has been the best investment I have ever made. It keeps me healthy, fit and it’s the best mental reset ever. I also love the beach. I picked up surfing during the pandemic. It was a great way to unplug from technology, connect with nature and literally fight for your life, me vs. the waves, a great physical and mental challenge. The ocean makes me feel small, I got knocked down so much, every single day. I just got back up. I was horrible at it, but I kept showing up. I kept getting back up. I learned if I surrounded myself with better surfers who understood how to time the ocean, I would be more successful and catch more waves. I also learned that even the best surfers time the ocean wrong sometimes so staying humble always is a good recipe for life or surfing.

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