One of the most jarring things to me is when two people I know, know each other and not through me. Maybe it’s ego, maybe it’s my preferred philosophy of solipsism, but it always surprises me that people can know each other without me being the catalyst of the relationship.
Last week, my friend and mentor, Mike Lutz, shared a video with me of him being intereviewed on Pace Morby’s podcast. Now, if you follow the real estate business at all, you know Pace. He’s the hot commodity right now, largely because his education philosophy is built on really helping those people who become his students. He and I are in a mastermind together and I’ve seen him work behind closed doors and his conversations are always premised on “What can I do to help?”
So evidently, Lutz knows Pace and they do a podcast where he starts to unroll his story on how he got started investing in real estate and it’s a barn-burner! He’s one of my very good friends and even I hadn’t heard all the ups and downs, twists and turns of it all. If you want something good to watch, that makes you feel good for the good guy to win, this is for you!
If you’ve ever wanted to learn the basics of investing in real estate, Pace is the guy to start you on that road, for sure. His stuff on SubTo financing is amazing, check it out here.
"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."
— Marcus Aurelius
Men and women love differently. It’s a broad statement but don’t sic the woke mob on me. I have circumstantial evidence to support my thesis.
A Swiss cookie manufacturer was famous for its small, salty, fish-shaped crackers. Margaret Rudkin, the founder of Pepperidge Farm, visited the factory while on vacation in Europe and found that they were formulated by Oscar J. Kambly who created them as a birthday present for his wife, who was a Pisces. Rudkin licensed the cracker and the little yellow goldfish cracker came to the United States. I love the way men love.
A young man in welding school got a girlfriend for the first time and bought her some roses. When they died a week later she was in tears so he went to the forge and made a rose made of steel so that she wouldn’t have to watch her roses die again. I love the way men love.
Rubber surgical gloves were invented when a surgeon noticed that a nurse who he had fallen in love with had dermatitis from working with chemicals in the operating room. She had grown up on a plantation in the South and her skin was fair and delicate. He contracted with the Goodyear rubber company to make very thin gloves so that her skin would be spared contact with the harsh chemicals. I love the way men love.
A Ukrainian immigrant to the United States was a cobbler. When shoes no longer needed cobbling, he closed his business and enlisted his grandson to help him clean out the space before selling the building. The younger man was annoyed that his grandfather was living through such a failure so late in life. “Why would you even choose to be a cobbler in today’s world?” he asked the older man. “They buried my mother without her shoes. We couldn’t afford enough shoes to let hers be lost to the grave when my sisters could use them. My children always had clean shoes,” was the reply. I love the way men love.
When I was three, all I wanted to do was play golf with my Dad and his friends. I remember how much fun he seemed to have and how happy and carefree those times were for him. He would sometimes let me ride in the cart with them and I learned to be quiet and to cheer a good shot. I desperately wanted to swing the clubs like the big guys but they were much too big for me. In those days, there weren’t kiddie clubs, so my Dad took one of his irons and had the pro cut it down to about 18 inches for me. He put a grip on it and I carried it every time we went to the course. He included me at a time when the most important thing on earth was to be like him. I love the way men love.
A friend knows that her grandmother’s time is near. She’s 83 and has lived a long and happy life. She mentioned wanting more experiences with her before she is gone forever. I opened an Ancestry.com account for her and built out a family tree for them and sent her the password. Older folks love to discuss the past and to share stories and memories with younger folks in the hopes that those stories are never lost. My hope for them is that they spend happy hours in fun conversation telling the old tales of the family and they both benefit in different ways. It’s an act of love because I love the way men love.
What about you? Do you have any examples of how a man’s love has shown up in your own life?
“I think a father’s job, when it’s done best, is to get down on both knees, lean over his children’s lives, and whisper, ‘Where do you want to go?’ Every day God invites us on the same kind of adventure. It’s not a trip where He sends us a rigid itinerary, He simply invites us. God asks what it is He’s made us to love, what it is that captures our attention, what feeds that deep indescribable need of our souls to experience the richness of the world He made. And then, leaning over us, He whispers, ‘Let’s go do THAT together.”
― Bob Goff
I’m a Ryan Holiday fan and have been since before he was a Stoic. I do like his Stoic stuff and reread The Obstacle is the Way every year. I’m reading it to my kids now (and yes, I’ll read to my kids for as long as they’ll sit still enough to listen).
Ryan has written a post that’s being widely circulated amongst my circle right now. It’s 27 Pieces of Career Advice I Wish I Had Known Earlier and it’s so so good. This is worth sharing, folks. The people entering the workforce now are more educated and less prepared than any in history, in my opinion. Strong statement but I see so many high-potential contributors washing out because their expectations are so far removed from the reality of working life. Maybe the same was said about my generation, but I don’t know a CEO who isn’t facing an almost existential crisis arising from onboarding younger workers and the despair that accompanies their lack of assimilation.
Here are a few of my favorites but feel free to share the article (and this newsletter) to those who aspire to join us at work:
I remember once I called Dov Charney, founder of American Apparel, (Ryan was the Director of Marketing there) about some little success I’d had on some project. He was very busy and frustrated that I’d interrupted, but politely, he said, “Ryan, you are calling me to tell me that you did your job.” I thought of that conversation when I saw that famous scene in Mad Men where Peggy complains that Don never says thank you. “That’s what the money is for!” he tells her.
Very rarely have I ever let anyone go because they did not have the skills to do their job. It’s almost always their unwillingness to learn those skills or their inability to take feedback.
When you’re lacking motivation, remind yourself: discipline now, freedom later. The labor will pass, and the rewards will last.
There is a story about an exchange between Jerry Seinfeld and a young comedian. The comedian approaches Seinfeld in a club one night and asks him for advice about marketing and getting exposure. Exposure? Marketing? Seinfeld asks. Just work on your act. Your Work is the Only Things That Matters.
If you never hear no from clients, if the other side in a negotiation has never balked to something you’ve asked for, then you are not pricing yourself high enough, you are not being aggressive enough.
Another thing that Ryan emphasizes in so much of his writing is access. Access to me, the boss, the creative vision for the company is a privilege and it’s diluted, diminished and blunted if it’s shared too widely. Small doses that really pack a punch are what should be valued, not continual open-loop feedback time.