Seven years ago, after losing her job selling women's clothing at a trendy boutique in Yorkville's Hazelton Lanes, Chioma Ikejiani made her one and only trek to a downtown Toronto welfare office to pick up a cheque for several hundred dollars.
"I couldn't do it a second time," says the Nigerian-born 34-year-old. "I knew I didn't belong. My self-worth wouldn't let me go back."
Penniless and single, Ms. Ikejiani was then living on a diet largely of crackers and pizza in a rooming house near the University of Toronto.
"I like schmoozing with wealthy people and I knew I could sell, so it was a choice between taking the real estate course or the securities course."
Today, she rakes in a six-figure income as one of the top producers for Prudential Sadie Moranis Realty, closing the door on $3.3-million worth of real estate transactions last year.
"My first impression of Chioma was that she was very motivated to make something out of herself." Recalls Sadie Moranis, who hired Ms. Ikejiani when they first met in April, 1994. "She was needy and greedy and I liked that."
Within two weeks of joining Moranis, Ms. Ikejiani had nabbed the listing on a $1.7-million home under construction near the exclusive Bridle Path area of Toronto and sold it to one of her clients, claiming the entire $80,000 commission for herself and Moranis.
A graduate of St. Mary's University in Halifax - her father is chief pathologist at Glace Bay Community Hospital - Ms. Ikejiani credits unwavering optimism and self-confidence for turning her life around.
She talks about goals with the passion of a motivational speaker. "I wanted it bad enough, so people were willing to bank on me. If you don't, they won't. When I was living in a rooming house, I could see myself owning this townhouse (a recent purchase in central Toronto) and what it would take for me to get here."
After grilling Prime Minister Jean Cretien about job creation at his televised town hall meeting in December, Ms. Ikejiani set her sights on hosting her own TV talk show, and she is about to make a demo tape. "If you dream big, it's going to happen."
Such positive thinking led her to take a huge gamble in 1990, when she enrolled in a three-month-long real estate course. To cover the $1,000 tuition fees, and living expenses, she used her Visa credit card to get a $2,000 cash advance - her maximum credit limit. A bank employee she knew helped her get a second card, this time with a $2,500 credit limit, giving her $4,500 of breathing room until those fat real estate commissions started rolling in. "I was so naïve that I thought once I got my real estate licence, I could start knocking on doors. I didn't know I had to be hired from a broker first."
Without a car or savings in the bank, Ms. Ikejiani was turned down by 30 brokers. At one point, she took several buses to get to an unsuccessful interview in Mississauga. "I had no idea where I was," she recalls. "The only part of Toronto I knew was the subway system."
Owing five months back-rent at her rooming house and with other debts piling up, Ms. Ikejiani finally landed a job with a Canada Trust real estate office in central Toronto. "She was trainable and impressionable," remembers Iden Ford, who ran the realty office and hired Ms. Ikejiani. "This was somebody I could motivate to get listings because she wanted the same thing. Chioma has a strong ego and that's a necessity in a service industry."
For nearly two years, Ms. Ikejiani's goal was to make 50 personal contacts a day, knocking on doors and making "cold calls" to find potential clients that would consider listing their homes with Canada Trust. In 1991 and 1992, her first two full years in the business, she earned $13,000 and $30,000, respectively - no mean feat without a car and the market in free fall. "I'd walk, bike or take a bus to meet a client. I used to worry that people wouldn't deal with me because I didn't have a car and they'd think I wasn't a good agent."
Today, she drives a new Toyota Camry. "I made it into six figures in my third year and I've been pretty consistent since then." Lounging on a Klausser couch in her trendy town house, Ms. Ikejiani says her biggest vice is clothes. She bought seven pairs of shoes with her first real commission cheque. "It was a wonderful feeling."
Ms. Ikejiani claims she has never encountered any blatant racism selling real estate. "My personality doesn't allow that to happen because I don't have a chip on my shoulder." On the other hand, "I honestly don't believe I would have been as successful as I am if I weren't black. It made me work twice as hard."