Today I went I spent the whole day with my family. We had a very nice lunch together at the local Applebee’s (one of the best places for eating American food) and then we all went to visit a wild birds sanctuary right on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. The place is pretty small, but has all kinds of wild birds including some predators like hawks and vultures.
Be like this free pelican. Stay out of the cage of old style selling.
I was looking at the pelicans being fed by the hostess and I noticed a lot of fish laying on the ground and the birds not even considering it. Actually, as the fish was thrown at them, some pelican would let it fall on the ground and wait for a new fish to be launched. I asked the hostess the reason for such a peculiar behavior and she explained: “They are spoiled. They only want fresh fish and they won’t pick it up from the ground. We have to pick it up and put it back into the pool fort them to eat it”.
At the same time there were some free wild pelicans just outside of the cage waiting quietly for some extra food to be available for them while the captive ones were kind of running all around and spoiling what was thrown at them.
…
…
Observing this scenario it came to my mind that it looks exactly like the real estate market right now or like the media advertisement market since the arrival of the Internet. Buyers seem never happy with what they get and the more you discount the less they are willing to pay, and the salesmen and women that follow this route don’t understand they are doomed. Read the rest of this entry »
Last Saturday I was at a seminar on affiliate marketing and the speaker, Dan Sherman, opened his speech with the following quote by Johann Goethe, the famous German writer: “The moment one commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sort of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now”.
Alex and Stefano, our two twin boys, with their new pair of parrots.
In a nutshell, the moment you look for an answer, if you are really committed to finding it, life will come to your assistance. I decided I wanted to put it into action and it happened to me twice in the following two days.
The first assistance I got from life was during the very event itself. I had been participating with my whole family: my wife Maria was in the seminar room with me and our two twin kids, Alex and Stefano, were playing quietly outside, in the hotel hall. They are such great kids and they are always willing to help me progress in my work, so I wanted to reward them. They had been looking for a pet and they had picked “parrots” as their choice. So, just before leaving the conference room, I remembered my friend Chris Krimitsos had been dealing with parrots.
I am particularly proud of my twin kids, Alex and Stefano, because they have been able to leave a country and a culture and merge fully into a new one without a glitch, but actually supporting me and my wife all along and making it easier for us to be “modern immigrants” by just looking at them and how much they enjoy their new environment and the opportunities it offers to them.
Yesterday all the family went shopping to find two Halloween costumes for Alex and Stefano and my wife Maria found two wonderful ninja dresses that fit them perfectly and they couldn’t be happier.
Indeed there is a very major difference between Europe and the US when it comes to education and particularly to the training of younger kids. Given that you can have very different levels of quality in public and private schools, the las gives you the chance of not only choosing the school that better fits your plans and your standards, but also to home school your kids. And I talk with more and more people that are doing exactly that: getting their kids educated in their home, by a dedicated tutor, without exposing them to the dangers and the uncertainties of public schools.
A very special day today, dedicated to celebrate a house which sold in just 15 days and to build tighter personal relationships with the people I work with and with my family. The very fast sale of the house we have just finished rehabbing is a very clear indicator that the real estate market is far from dead, even in Florida, and that when you do the right things and partner with the right people you get results. But the real star of the day is my wife Maria, who has started working with me actively in the last week and has made all the difference in motivation, results and effectiveness.
Francesco Russo, my personal assistant, and his family meets my wife Maria and our kids.
But let’s begin with an early wake up: I usually get up at around 7:30 am even if it is Saturday and today I had to get some work done before my main contractor, Paul, was going to come and visit my house to plan some work on our bathrooms (they need some love and care). He arrived a bit early, as it is his usual habit, and we made a fast review of the work to be done and then we sat down chit chatting for a while and he gave me some very valuable advices on how to evaluate houses built between 70′s and the 80′s, and why you need to beware of black pipes.
Francesco Russo holding his son Alessandro, my wife Maria and Monica Russo
Polypropilene was used everywhere in those days for plumbing and it leaked pretty much at every junction. If you see black pipes in the house you are going to buy: run away. He has also given me some advice on how to recognize Chinese drywall in houses built between 2004 and 2007 (some can be found in remodeling as early as 2001). Aside from the smell of rotten eggs, look for blackened and corroded copper pipes and wires and you can just tell its presence by going in the attic and looking at the top border of the drywall (if visible) and look for some Chinese character: that easy.
Oldsmar flea market, representing the "family face of America"
But the most interesting part of the conversation was a comparison between European and US cultures and my introduction to the so called “Peter Principle” which is fascinating and that I will cover in detail in another post. Simply stated: “In a corporation or military hierarchy every one tends to rise to his level of incompetence”. That is you keep being promoted as far as you demonstrate outstanding results in your previous position and stop being promoted when you start to have bad performance in your current position which is what you maintain from there on out.
The old Roman would say that you must take your opportunities when they come to you and you should enjoy your day as it is, finding something that is pleasant and valuable right there, without looking elsewhere. There was also a very nice movie with Robin Williams centered in this very concept and with this very title.
This doesn’t mean of course doing anything wild that comes to your mind or looking for any crazy form of entertainment. Very often you just need to look at things from a different angle, like Robbins says in the movie and you will find a totally different world around you.
I have had this very experience yesterday. My kids wanted to skate with me and I wanted to inspect a property we are rehabbing. So we went to the property and then I looked for a park nearby were we could park and skate on a bike trail. We were at some distance from home, so it was an area of town we never visited before, We had simply driven by without ever taking the time to stop and look around.
We began skating on the trail and we soon came to the beginning of a new trail that was weaving its way towards the highway overpass. We decided to follow the path and we ended up in one of the most beautiful parks I have ever seen. Lots of trees, small, lakes, flowers, Florida swamps, including birds and wild alligators.
It was like being in a totally different new world, far away from everything else, and yet we knew we were in the middle of two highly trafficked highways and also pretty close to the house I am rehabbing. Me and the kids kept skating for almost two hours and had a great time out of it. In have discovered a slice of paradise just next door to where I live and I have also understood how valuable my work is: provide nicely renovated houses in a such a place so beautiful to live in.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the number of things that take your breath away.
Recent Comments