“Now I approach people who contribute something to me, who are unconditionally there, who have faith, who care about their family. You have to know how to say no to certain calls,” he said.
It was a day when he had hit rock bottom. Willy Escobar drove to San Pedro and looked for a suitable place. He wanted to commit suicide, to end a life that he felt had failed at that moment.
Some time ago, in 2008, California experienced the crash of the Real Estate market, hundreds of real estate businesses collapsed, including the one Willy worked for.
“I thought about taking my own life, but in an instant, I thought about my wife, my daughter, my mother. I couldn’t do it; I had to keep fighting, I couldn’t give up,” says Willy.
He turned around and began his rebirth, his struggle to get out of the hole he had fallen into.
Escobar owns Elite Mortgage Group Pasadena, where they specialize in loans, real estate, and other services.
Willy was born in New York, but due to his parents’ divorce, he moved to California with his mother and then spent a lot of time between Guatemala, his parents’ homeland, and Los Angeles, where his mother lived.
“They were very confusing years. I was 3 years old when they divorced; my mother worked either cleaning houses or taking care of elderly people. There were years when she sent me to Guatemala to visit my other relatives. I went through a very unstable period, the absence of an absent father, but there was also a lot of love from my mother and my relatives in Guatemala,” says Willy.
As a child, Willy Escobar didn’t have many aspirations; he didn’t dream of being a professional, but the education provided by his relatives in Guatemala prepared him for his studies.
Willy and Christine Escobar have had difficult times, but they have worked hard to overcome it.
“In Guatemala, if you’re not a professional, if you don’t have an education, you don’t have opportunities,” he says.
However, instability was part of this confusing and unstable period.
“Of course, it affected me. Spending time in one school or city and then another time in another place, in another school, making friends here and then others there left a mark on me. I had to defend myself, make myself be respected when I arrived in a new place,” he adds.
“I felt inferior, even though my relatives welcomed me, I felt like it wasn’t my home, my mother wasn’t there, my father was absent,” he mentions.
This forged an introverted personality in him, seeking solitude, distancing himself from people.
“I didn’t have much confidence in myself; I didn’t feel man enough to face all things. I grew up with women and felt more comfortable with them,” says Willy.
He spent some time studying medicine in Guatemala. On one occasion, he was looking for an excuse to “escape” from a relationship and found no better way to do it than by traveling to that country.
“It was always like that. I didn’t last in relationships, not even with my girlfriends. I wasn’t a popular guy, but I managed. But after a week or two, I would flee, maybe because of that history of moving from one place to another when I was a child and teenager,” he says.
He returned to California in his twenties. At the age of 25, he started working in this real estate business in which he has specialized after all these years. He experienced the market boom, where it seemed like everyone in California could get a loan and a house.
“It was madness; we were doing very well. The office was a party every day. It was a very toxic space; weekends were filled with alcohol, drugs, and parties. There was a lot of money,” he adds.
That shyness, that introversion that had hit him, disappeared. He began to drink, consuming drugs and organizing parties.
“It was a way to feel a little loved, wanted. If you have money and you organize parties and provide alcohol and everything else, then everyone comes to you,” he recalls. “I felt the need to feel loved.”
He had always defined himself as an insecure type. He wasn’t the one who roamed around seeking company or conversation. Solitude always accompanied him, and that dark period made him forget how introverted he was.
That hectic pace began to change when one of his coworkers approached him. He asked for his credit card and told him he had to take one of the courses offered by Mastery In Transformational Trainings in Marina del Rey. There, he would absorb more leadership tools and helped him understand what was happening in his life and how to improve his communication and relationships with people.
“One day, this coworker, whom I feared and who had a very strong character, approached me. He told me I had to take the course. I gave him my credit card more out of fear than conviction, and that’s where it all began. I took all possible courses, and that changed me,” says Willy Escobar. “I cried, I screamed, I learned, I changed.”
However, despite that, the aftermath of that wild life within an equally wild business market continued.
And came the lesson that began the ordeal that changed his life.
The Real Estate crash came, and I lost everything. The money I hadn’t saved, the million-dollar house, I didn’t have money even for gas or food.
“I lived with my wife and children on social assistance. I hit rock bottom. It was a turning point. After going through those lows, I said to myself, ‘this is not Willy Escobar, the person who started working at the age of 10,'” and he changed.
He began to look for work, but there was no work in his specialized sector. But slowly, thinking positively and with the mentality that ‘the worst was over,’ he became a person of action.
“I never cling to things; I knew that after going through what I had been through, things would change. Now I find myself in a beautiful phase; I have started to consolidate my company, but also not to take it so seriously. I think people should set their guidelines, work, and money are important, but also spend time with family, travel. Now I’m giving myself three years to semi-retire. I enjoy my family more, food. Before, I was very careful about what I ate, now, if I want a hamburger or a pizza, I buy it,” he says.
One of the most valuable pieces of advice he thinks he can give to people is about the friendships they surround themselves with.
“Now I approach people who contribute something to me, who are unconditionally there, who have faith, who care about their family. You have to know how to say no to certain calls,” he concludes.
Christine Escobar: “Every story defines us. The more we tell it, the stronger we feel.”
