About Me
My Experience
You are about to meet a different kind of thinker whose mind has been shaped by fruitful experiences, agile socializing and reading. Whit & humor are not in short supply.
While some of my life has been “normal,” much has been different than many of my peers. Let’s start with some perspective: I learned to drive on a forklift and not a car! Now people wonder why I explore many angles in an attempt to accomplish something. My childhood & young adulthood was one shaped by sports, scouting, martial arts, disciplined parenting, paper routes, selling boosters, being an altar boy (FYI-no issues with priests), working on trucks, working in warehouses, installing material handling equipment (lockers, shelving, industrial storage racking, etc), Bergen Catholic High School, Syracuse University, building loft beds, selling t-shirts & other college “needs,” founding & running a student summer storage company, running Hamptons share houses, working in a family moving business, staring a global office-moving company network, buying and selling several NYC apartments, founding a large annual golf outing that caused the merger of competing trade organizations, moving to Harlem before it was completely chic to do so, leaving NYC as the vampire that killed me slowly & moving to Durham.
The family business was a life shaping and changing experience for close to 30 years. The lessons learned are almost immeasurable, but I lost a good many opportunities to gain more valuable experience at other companies, in other industries, etc. Above all else, I should have listened to my father’s usual response to my ideas “not in this business.” Problem was, he had no way to explain the reasoning behind this as he lacked education, perspective and emotional intelligence. Therefore, I was never clear that it was a warning or an encouragement to leave without regret.
Regrets are where my journey begins.
My Skillset
Canvassing: Cold calling mixed with research & documentation. Needs to happen so that you are on point with your questions and statements to potential clients & vendors. This is a multi-step process and is sometimes purely research oriented.
Networking with people. Much of my network is comprised of professionals within commercial real estate at all levels, but more connected with those in technology, capital markets or asset management functions. Additionally, I try to stay in tune with the start-up community and networking regularly with other entrepreneurs.
Connecting people, ideas & capital. I make quality introductions.
Understanding the relationships between systems.
Seeing possible outcomes.
Asking better questions than providing answers.
KNOWN FOR:
Abrasive Charm
Humorous conversation and intrigue via lively questions & debate.
The ability to get along with a large diversity of people & social circles. Can bridge divides and connect unlikely partners for a common cause.
Unique wardrobe.
My Passions
Aikido: Have studied this art for over 10 years now and cannot live without it. Working on my 2nd Kyu.
Systema: A new art for me. This training regimen is very different and quite challenging.
Men’s Bible study: Wed 7-8am at Immaculate Conception. A great way to read about and debate life’s issues. Keeps me thinking.
College basketball: Go Orange! However, will cheer in conference (ACC) when SU is not playing.
Baseball: (NY Mets & whoever the Yankees are playing)
Grilling: Ever had coffee and black pepper on your steak?
Golf: Even a 30 handicap can enjoy playing sometimes.
Backgammon: Yes, I can play marathons and get upset when I lose by poor rolling of the dice.
Poker: I enjoy playing Omaha (split pots) with structured betting.
Traveling unlike a usual tourist: Yes, I prefer getting native.
Politics: I am a right of center thinker on most issues, save for some social ones. More in the Libertarian wing of the GOP, but believe in a strong foreign policy. Regardless, I always want something to be debated and examined before judgement.
Music: I am a classic rock junkie, but very much love jam or blues/boogie rock. Other styles include punk, heavy metal, new wave, funk, opera & tango. Just got back from JamCruise 18, which is something for everyone's bucket list.
Past Reads: Ayn Rand (all), Moneyball, The Firm, biographies of Keith Richards, Hamilton, Marquis de Lafeyette, Washington, Adams, Ben Franklin, Teddy Roosevelt, Lincoln and George Patton, Many Lives-Many Masters, Good to Great, The Last Word on Power, Built to Last, The Ethical Slut, Confessions of 400 Men & Major Dudes (an interesting collection of interviews & album reviews of Donald Fagen & Walter Becker). Just started The Adams-Jefferson letters by Lester Cappon, as well as Thomas Paine and the Clarion Call for American Independence by Harlow G. Unger. Just finished The Lamb's Supper by Scott Hahn and "Love your Enemies" by Arthur Brooks.
Lessons Learned
Trust your first instinct.
It will be right more than 80% of the time. Know yourself, believe it and trust it. You may need to leave your extremely comfortable place if your self-awareness points to another direction. Just do it sooner so you can take the utmost advantage of the situation or give yourself more recovery time should the venture fail. You will only need one or two significant events to provide you with financial & personal freedom.
Define everything in your business relationships...
...and put in writing. Document all of your expenditures on behalf of a company and insist on written acknowledgement of the $. If someone does not sign, they are not legit.
If someone sends you BS documents for you to sign and is not willing to make requested changes, they are not legit.
If someone is reluctant to have you speak with supposed business partners, they are not legit.
If you need to rely on people you don't trust, it is time for one of you to leave. Note there are many types of trust, but in this instance I am not sure it matters. Life is too hard already to only be constantly looking over one's shoulder or doing double work.
Always ask for clarification of meaning
You may be able to do something useful with this information. My mother, on so many occasions when we worked together, would say “when are you going to take your mother to lunch?” I never really did and missed a rich opportunity to learn her thinking beyond the normal “mom” stuff. Later in life, before she passed in 2017, she would constantly say “you have no idea what I live with.” Not asking her to explain what she meant will always haunt me, as I only learned of her independent thinking via her tap dance friends and me seeing the difficulties of dealing with my father, both only after her passing.
Change
Changing a location does not change relationship fundamentals (or lack thereof).
You can learn a lot from a bad incident. For example, I learned more about business by closing one than running it. NEVER LOSE THE LESSON!
Happiness
You cannot be responsible for someone else’s happiness; only your own. This is actually your job within any relationship to keep yourself happy so others can accept & utilize your power/energy.
Misc. Tidbits
Focus on building wealth and not making a living. The latter is not sustainable in the world of the “new normal.”
Things are not always as they seem. Do not jump to conclusions!
Do not stop reading and every 3 months try reading about subjects and/or from sources that are different than usual.
Looking Ahead
Some thoughts about the future
Need to keep learning about new businesses methods, seek to partner with f and continue to pursue complete mindfulness.
My eventual goal is to work when I feel like, networking to learn about new opportunities in the start-up world, merge companies or buy/sell buildings.
There is a battle being fought every day. One side is incumbent, politically connected business who milk the status quo by winning via politics over superior products and/or methodologies. The other side is marketplaces of complete informational transparency, where nobody has an obvious advantage until they develop new ways to use this information to cut down the path to a job done. I will always be on the latter side.