09/15/2026
“Why would you go to a Christian real estate conference? And what even IS that?”
Fair question. 😂
Real estate is a weird profession. I went from being a teacher, one of the most trusted professions, to being a real estate agent, one of the least trusted. And now I’m surrounded by money, achievement, competition, recognition, and ambition. I’ve literally sat across the closing table from someone who casually wrote a check for a million dollars. Never in my life did I think I’d see that.
People get weird around money. And I’ve realized lately that I can get weird around success, too. I’ve grown my business 367% since the end of my first year in real estate, and I’m incredibly grateful for that. But here’s what I’ve been wrestling with: the Bible doesn’t say ambition is bad. My good friend Damian Burris asked, “But who is your ambition accountable to?”
Because ambition unchecked can slowly rot something good. Over the last 6 to 7 months, I realized I had started chasing more. More transactions. More growth. More recognition. And somewhere along the way, “I want to work hard and use the gifts God gave me” can quietly become, “I need to achieve more to prove I’m worth more.” That’s dangerous.
Two things I heard this week hit me hard: “A gift is the thing you do best with the least amount of effort.” And, “When achievement becomes your identity, failure becomes death.” Oof.
So why go to a Christian real estate conference? Because I need people around me who won’t just ask, “How many houses did you sell?” I need people who will ask, “How’s your relationship with Jesus? How’s your family? Are you serving your wife? Are you looking after your clients’ best interests? Are you using what God gave you to serve others or yourself?” That’s a very different scoreboard.
I want to grow. I want to build an incredible business. I want to be excellent at what I do. But I don’t want success to own me. I want to be generous because generosity is good. I want to serve my community because I love my community. I want young people to know they can call me for advice. I want my family to see that success isn’t the most important thing.
Because you can take something really good and twist it just a tiny bit. From the outside, it still looks good. But it smells bad.
So why would I go to a Christian real estate conference? Because the closer I am to Jesus, the better husband, dad, friend, business owner, and Realtor I become.
That’s why.
And maybe the question isn’t whether you’re ambitious.
Maybe it’s: Who is your ambition accountable to?
- Cole Ordiway
(828) 214-0463