Chris Watkin: Tom, you said, "I'm not a product of my circumstances, I'm a product of my decisions." What does it actually mean to estate agents and letting agents?
Tom Panos: What it means if you're a lettings, you're an estate agent, whatever you are in life, I don't know. You're a schoolteacher, you sell... you're a mortgage broker. What I'm saying is that every decision and every action and every thought you've had prior to this moment, has got you where you are now. And that you shouldn't have a victim mentality to say, "You know what? Circumstances in my life have created it. My parents brought me up the wrong way. I got ripped off by my business partner. I'm actually ugly-looking. I actually didn't go to a good school."
Tom Panos: What I'm saying is that things get better by choice, not by chance. And that you have the ability to make decisions that change the course and direction of your life.
Tom Panos: Yes, I agree that if you were born in Somalia, versus being born in London, that maybe the cards you've been dealt have been different, and one would say better. But what I'm saying is, as a human being, like right now, if there's an estate agent that's sitting in an office, that's whinging and complaining... Hey, if you don't like it, fix it. Right? Fix it. How do you fix it? Well, great news. You're not a tree. You can move. Right? You can make a decision. Right? So stop whinging.
Tom Panos: So, what I'm saying is that, if you're fortunate enough to have been the odds of one in 400 trillion and to have been conceived as a human being on this planet, you have the luxury of being able to make a decision in your life. So stop whinging and complaining, and talking about your genetics, or your parents, or, you know, the school or the education or the office you're working for, and take personal responsibility and do something about it.
Chris Watkin: Thank you Tom.
A transcription of an interview between Chris Watkin and Tom Panos in the early Summer of 2019 .. all the interviews can be seen here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmTYyB3NtnI&list=PL8EVjavxiDxiLaG8_zkiUtX0iZC_FwHwM
