I managed to get a dream job back in 1972 working with a retired pharmacist who was a multi-millionaire. This man went through the depression and a couple of world wars and figured a few things out. When I met this gift mentor, he had three thriving Real Estate companies
PARTNERSHIP WITHOUT INVESTMENT
That's what the ad said when I found it. I was young, naive and by chance (?) answered the ad via snail mail that I was interested. No resume, no cover letter just a I am willing to work and sent it off. I forgot all about it until one day, I got a call SUNDAY morning...I passed the first test unknown to me..I answered my phone on a Sunday morning
HIRED BUT LETS SEE WHAT HAPPENS
After a very brief chat, he sets up an appointment for Monday. I am hired but on probation. They start me in on doing deposits. This guy gets mail everyday full of money from all his rentals and mortgages he holds all over half the state and its a daily money making machine operation.
GOT TO LET YOU GO..WHOA
After two weeks, he takes me down to his car and were sitting inside and he says...it is not working out. I pitched me for all I was worth and said give me another two weeks and if I don't rise to every occasion, then let me go. I didn't even know what I was talking about but I did know how to beg...pretty good too. I called him Rabbi and for all I know, that sealed the okay. We both were Jewish although 50 years apart in age. He looked like a grandpa-rabbi to me. BTW...Rabbi means teacher and I was a willing, needful and ready student if there ever was one
FAST TRACKED DO OR DIE LEARNING
I was a newly wed, wanted to start a family, needed a job and I thought that whatever this man says to do, I am doing it with haste and no questions. That's all I can do is how I reasoned it out. He sent me on errands all over Southern California to collect rents, manage property, deliver documents, do inspections and then trained me into handling all his court cases. Do or Die! It was all up to me. What you find out if you live long enough, it is always up to the individual
I WORKED...I WORKED HARD
I passed the two week mark. Then, from September to December, I was his obedient servant, no excuses doing everything I am told and getting it all done working long hours and then one day, in addition to my salary, he hands me a check for $500 on Christmas Eve and says...keep up the good work. That was the equivalent of $2000 back then. I went home to my young wife and in a sstate of ectasy said...Honey, we are going to make it!
I HAVE TO LEAVE A LOT OUT OR WE ARE TALKING A BOOK HERE
Twelve years later after learning about so many things that I could not list here having to do with life, people and multi-faceted subjects of Real Estate in every which way, I get an offer from some people who were buying land, building it out, keeping some and selling some to come join them. They never met a man that knew so much about everything...The money they offered me and the partnership in the new business they were starting was too good to pass on
FAREWELL AND THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING
I left my mentor, the old man. There wasn't anything he didint know. He was always one phone call away too. He was 84 years old and I did 12 years of working 7 days a week, 12 hours on week days and 6 hours on weekends. I went through a couple of recessions and wasn't even phased as I had this good recession proof job. I bought a home, cars and had 3 children too. It was time to leave...hard to do but I had a chance to become greater, earn more and with people my own age...SIDEBAR: When he died, I stood up at my dinner table and toasted this man telling my family that we are well off because he trusted me. One of the best set of tears I ever shed too
THE PUSH and PULL OF LIFE
I left. I took the leap. I swam. It was very hard to do for so many reasons. For one thing, I was depositing net into my bank account $5000 dollars a month for the last several months. Staying put would make me rich enough in due time. Try walking away from that if you could. Then, the what ifs came calling. What if I left and these new businesses failed? What if I didn't leave? What if...WHAT IF? The reasons to stay and to go battled it out constantly....Be still! I chose. Now go! I went! Dont look back. Focus. Steady on...
UNLEASHED MYSELF UPON THE WORLD
I started three successful companies and thrived for 3-5 years using all my accumulated skills and knowledge. I never knew how much I knew until I went out there and used it all thanks to the old man and his fifty years of do's and don'ts. With my former job, I just stayed in the office all day running one rich mans affairs. Here, I ran quite a bit more, drew an excellent salary and got to keep 1/3 profit of all I earned. That's three companies! More importantly; I am tasting life
HOW IS THAT WATER TEMPERATURE? LETS FIND OUT
If you don't take a risk, how can you gain? Isn't that the true journey? Why be comfortable and become lethargically happy when you can seize the day and command it to do what you tell it too. We have that ability but only if you believe and then act on those beliefs. There comes a time in every-ones life...enough talky...get to walky and you either do or you don't. Regrets? phooey!
OKAY..I AM NOT PERFECT
I have made many bad decisions that cost me homes, money, progress and huge losses but it also gave me an education to go within myself and take a long hard look at my core being. What truly drives a man and why? You see those storms of life wake and shake you up and that is precisely what they are intended to do. Send you on an inner journey. You must learn to cooperate with these systems or they will crush you. I chose to be refined instead. It hurts badly but only for a brief while and you get so much in return. I reccomend it highly. Go within!
LIFE IS AN ADVENTURE
The aftermath of all this. I learned to live and not just exist. Do not base everything on money outcomes. I also learned I am not the only person on this planet that wants things identical to my own beliefs thus keeping an eye out for the other guy made sense to me too. I have learned to work smarter and to catch life flows using less will and more heart. I listen to my soul and feed it well. I am well because my inner child and the adult me are having a jolly good time...
WE ARE ALL THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT
So far so good. What one man can do, another can do and when you face a new frontier, when those mountains and valleys look a lot larger up close, when you bet the farm forcing you to have to start working on another, when your bruises and setbacks leave little owees inside and outside of you, when it feels like your dying but instead your peeling another layer of the onion my friend take heart and look for my initials carved at the lowest points of the journey and know this ...I was there and now I am here...so it will be with you....One more thing. Heres the best part of it all
I was never alone even though I didint know this. I was never alone... NEVER...ponder this...
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