purpose. This forced me to liquidate my entire
inventory in one month’s time at the time when
the economy started to plummet. It became
evident to me very quickly that it would not be
wise to reopen my shop in another location. I
now had to come up with a new business to
start in a plummeting economy; this is where the
value of a good name comes up.
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My mother was a very successful and recognized
estate manager. She was certified and qualified
to manage even the White House. I had grown
up with her being the estate manager of some of
the wealthiest people in America. I did not have
her certification nor did I want to do it the way
she did.
When I was young, 11 and 12, I used to spend
a few weeks of the summer working with my
grandfather at his auto garage. I am not a large
framed person, so as a child I was never the kid
that was picked to be a lineman in football. My
grandfather would buy auction cars that were
wrecked and he would have me tear cars apart,
dismantle them, and reassemble them to create
one good car from two or more wrecks.
One day I was underneath a car trying to remove
the transmission and there was a stubborn bolt.
I hollered out to my grandfather “I can’t get this,
I cannot get this bolt to loosen. I am not strong
enough! “ To my surprise my grandfather angrily
yelled at me with a stern face and pointed finger
saying, “don’t ever tell me that you can’t do
something. There is always a way!” Those words
were indelibly marked into my soul.
How RELATIONSHIPS created the possibility
for me manage over $30 million in real estate
assets.
This journey began at the end of another, as
they so often do. I was developing a successful
architectural salvage company. I would purchase
architectural salvage and design components
from around the world and sell them to architects,
designers, and decorators.
As my business was growing, the lease came up
on my retail space. The owner of the building
was a quirky man, yet very successful and very
wealthy. He had a plan for the building that I was
renting. (There is another lesson here, always
own the building.) He also really liked what I was
doing. With this in mind he could not decide
whether to continue my lease or to use the
building for his own plan. After several months of
My grandfather taught me a lesson I will never renting month-to-month, I finally had to confront
forget. He pulled out a 3-foot piece of pipe, him to demand a lease. I could not invest in very
slipped it over the end of the wrench and showed expensive inventory without knowing that I had a
me how to use leverage to help me break the place to display them.
stubborn bolt loose. I could bore you with multiple
stories of how these two jewels of wisdom have
helped me, but let’s get to the point of this article One of the best things that has ever happened to
me was his decision to use the building for his own
today.
9
most of the sub contractors and people working
on this house, the architect, designer X