Alex Charfen, CEO of Inc. 500 Company, Authors Blog Series for Huffington Post on Success and Growth after Bankruptcy
July 31, 2012
Less than four years ago, Alex and Cadey Charfen were in bankruptcy court and counted among the many casualties of the U.S. real estate market’s boom and bust. In 2011, Inc. magazine announced that the Charfen Institute ranked as No. 21 on its list of the fastest growing private companies in America. Today, Charfen is sharing the keys to his comeback on a series of articles to be published by The Huffington Post, the Pulitzer Prize-winning online journal.
Charfen, CEO and co-founder of the Charfen Institute, credits his success to the lessons learned from being overleveraged in the past. “With zero debt, zero investor funding and some hard-won wisdom about leverage, personal worth and the need for values and a vision, we started our organization determined to help others avoid the traps that we had fallen into,” Charfen said.
The cornerstone of the Charfen’s comeback rests on a concept called Congruency. Clearly defining one’s purpose, casting a vision of that purpose for others and being open to shifts in one’s perceptions are key elements to being congruent as a business leader, according to Charfen.
“My hope is that by sharing our story and some of the strategies we used to take the Charfen Institute from literally less than zero to 10 million dollars in under four years, we’ll be able to help people find success in business and in life.”
After the housing crash, the Charfens founded an ethics- and values-based company created around core values and a cultural foundation that has proven critical to its success. The company teaches a wide variety of real estate and business development courses, including the Certified Distressed Property Expert® (CDPE) and Certified Investor Agent Specialist® (CIAS) Designations, as well as coaches business owners and real estate agents through the LEAD Experience™ and Agent GPS™ programs.
“We all go through challenging times,” said Charfen. “The secret is to learn while we’re there and come out on the other side with more knowledge and experience so we can improve ourselves and share it with others. I’m really excited to be able to share my experience with such a wide audience.”
Charfen’s first article for The Huffington Post can be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-charfen/an-unlikely-comeback
About the Charfen Institute
The Charfen Institute educates and trains real estate professionals and small business owners to find opportunities in chaos - either by providing solutions to the foreclosure crisis or empowering entrepreneurs with strategies to embrace their companies' full potential. The company produces more than 300 educational events each year through various divisions, including the Certified Distressed Property Expert® (CDPE) designation (cdpe.com), the Certified Investor Agent Specialist® (CIAS) designation (cias.com), LEAD Experience™, and its annual Breakthrough Conference (charfenbreakthrough.com). The CDPE designation is the fastest growing independent designation in real estate industry history, with more than 40,000 agents trained since 2008. In 2011, the Charfen Institute ranked No. 21 on the Inc. 500 List of America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies.
