I don’t know about you but I have always enjoyed people and business. In my life I have done many exciting things – started my first business, been on a few startups that have been very successful, had a few failures, worked in other countries, traveled around the world both for business and for pleasure with my family, and best of all, being a dad and a husband.
All these experiences and the knowledge that came with them I’ll share with you in any way I can to help you achieve some of your own amazing experiences, to learn from some of my mistakes, and/or to share with you what I wish I knew that I didn’t find out until later.
I think not knowing what you don’t know is the most difficult but that is what makes the journey!
So I know you clicked here to find out who I am…I am just a person just like you. I have had some great people come into my life as you will read that changed me. I hope by reading some of this it might be able to help you….
If you want to see my professional work history, feel free to go to my linkedin profile that has all the details.
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So this is about me….
Did you ever think “If I could just get $1 from everyone, I would be a millionaire..?” I did … When I was young my parents provided the main staples – clothing, roof over my head, and food. My mom was a super fantastic cook! But everything else I wanted we had to earn – BB guns, go-carts, scooters, special shoes.. Now I’m not saying my parents didn’t give me cool things, they did. It was just for our birthdays and Christmas. With that came the responsibility of having to make my own money. I think it was one of the gifts my parents gave me. I didn’t think so then that’s for sure! I went around the neighborhood and sold seeds, delivered newspapers, helped my mom file at job, and many other creative things to make money…some good, some not so good.
Were you one of those kids that had to learn the hard way? I was I guess. I liked everyone but wasn’t really popular. So I hung out with some of the wrong people sometimes, got myself in trouble and wish I could take back some of the things I did…I also hung out with some of the right people and learned some amazing things I would have never known had I not. I found that no matter what their color, race, lifestyle, thoughts – they are all valid to them…but that doesn’t mean they are valid to me nor I should look down on them.
In high school my parents hit a hurdle – we lost our house and the business my mom had been struggling to build for two years. Bankruptcy became their path. My dad broke down from the heavy weight of his job and losing all he had. So me and my mom took care of it. We were homeless and had to move into a hotel. Now you might be thinking, “oh how sad, your family of four kids homeless”, but it wasn’t like that at all! My parents just worked with it and explained what was going on and went on with life. See I don’t think we were brought up to value the things but rather the experiences. I wouldn’t change a thing! Because of those experiences it made me who I am today. I learned how to organize the paperwork, that you could mismanage your money, how to deal with agencies, etc…
In my early years I did many jobs – pumping gas, scrubbing boat bottoms at the harbor, working at a local winery. I started a couple of businesses – removing labels from bottles and software, specialized key chains that matched your car, and a package delivery service. School was filled with trying to find out what I wanted to do – architect, CIA, electronics, and business.
I went to school not because I wanted to but because I had to. I barely graduated from High School and as soon as I did I left home. At 17 I moved to Tahoe to be a ski bum in the winter and be in construction in the summer. Boy am I glad I left! Best thing I ever did. Sometimes the grass isn’t as green as it looked from afar! I ending up doing one season because of the people I met and their lifestyle and ran home to get an education.
Do you wish you had TONS of MONEY? Many people wish and aspire to have tons of money because they think that it will solve all their problems and life gets easier. There are some truths to that but if you aren’t ready for a lot of money, then maybe it is more of a curse then a gift.
When going to college, I worked for Mr. Kim who owns one of the largest in an eye glass companies in the United States. One of the things about being dependable is that you get more work – like it or not. He used me for everything! He put me in every department where there was a need. He even had me put furniture together at his home… but he placed me in the warehouse department. After a few month’s of being in the warehouse, he asked me to stay longer to deliver some shipments to UPS. Well, while doing this for him I noticed the boxes being delivered every night – sun glasses and Rascals…and every night there was a steady increase of Rascals…
Well Rascal turned out to be Turbo Pascal (Pascal looked like Rascal). The next day I saw an add in the paper from a company looking for night workers to help ship this new exciting product. I called them up to learn more and a person named Spence wanted to see if he could see me right now. I told him the best I could do was stop by after dropping some deliveries off at UPS that night. Spencer hired me that day. The computer industry was just starting to launch. Microsoft has just come out with their operating system on a CPM80 and there was us, Borland, who was launching our product – Turbo Pascal.
What a super fantastic opportunity! The management team allowed me to follow many interests from manufacturing to accounting and almost everything in between. Because I had such a broad and in-depth knowledge of business, many times they would place me in areas where they needed solutions and they would allow me to work with all the teams and people in the process. People like – Spencer Ozawa – Yoda of business. Taught me to use my creativity, fight for what I think is right, and if you really want it then you can get it or do it. Phillipe Kahn – Have a vision and study how to make it work. Brad Silverberg – there is balance in work and play.
Do you remember the question – Do you wish you had TONS of MONEY? Well in the 13 years with them I made a lot! I was a millionaire and I wasn’t even old. I had purchased my first house when I was 21 because of Spencer. I would talk about real estate with him a lot and shared with him I wanted to buy a house. My dad used to purchase a few of the “No Money Down” home programs and just let them sit on the shelf…. Not me. ( I also took note that one of the regrets my parents had was not buying more .. they would have been rich.) But when I shared this with Spencer he got me to drive around on weekends, see if I found one I liked, and report back to him what I had found. Only after a few weeks, I found one by the beach. At lunch he asked if we could go drive by it so of course I took him. So he asked me, “So, when are you going to make an offer?”.. Huh? I couldn’t afford it! But he helped me write and offer and it was accepted. Oh NOW I was scared!!! Now what was I to do …
”Well, the first thing is to get a loan”, Spencer said…and quickly sent me to a few people to fill out the paper works. ACCEPTED! WHAT? ACCEPTED? “NOW what do I do, I can’t afford this”, I told him. “Rent a room out”, that will cover it!” ..”I don’t want to rent a room!. I want to live in it by myself”…”I thought you wanted a house?” That was a huge moment in my life! If you want something bad enough you will think of ways to achieve them even if you don’t like doing it. I did end up buying the house and rented the room out for only six month’s. What if I never did?
Well, I made a commitment that I was going to buy a house every two years! We have invested in real estate ever since….(but didn’t end up buying a house every other year)
Borland had grown from an 8 person business at the time to over 3,000 employees. Just the lesions of growing from nothing to that large were exciting. I could fill a pages just in these experiences alone – how Philippe would get ads in magazines for no money, how he would create an appearance of a large company when we were little, the strategies when competing with Microsoft… But after ten years the business was corporate and I didn’t like it much any more. The new corporate management team that was being built wasn’t focused on doing the right thing for its customers, employees, and product development, but was filtered for quick profits, personal achievement, and bonuses…. So I had an opportunity to quit and get hired in Germany GmbH to launch it European division.
Boy did I love Europe! I was able to live in Munich Germany, help build a company from the ground up again, and get 34 days of? Oh Yes!! ..And my wife could come along as well! We set up offices in the main cities : Milan – Italy, Paris – France, and Munich – Germany. And I didn’t know a stitch of German.
Unions, language, cultures, growth – challenge or opportunity? Whatever it was it was a blast! We traveled all over Europe for work and pleasure and I was able to do things that many thought couldn’t be done. Not because they couldn’t but because of the people, the relationships in place, and just the spark of change – it all became possible. This was also a big lesson in my life! Some time it takes change and because of the circumstances sometime it is easier thought a third party.
I checked out the German American Society while I was living in Germany. It is an organization that meets regularly with American and German businessmen. Here I got enlightened and had the chance to learn a life session without having to do it myself – without ever going down the wrong road and not being able to recover. I met some of the men and many had the same story. They were much older than me, most in their late sixties. The common theme was that they had worked all their lives, focusing solely on business and money; they had kids but didn’t know them, they had wives but didn’t have anything in common any more, they went back to do what they do best – work. I remember having a sick feeling in my stomach – you know the one that you get when you know something is wrong, intuition, a warning? Was this where I was going? Just as when I was younger and experienced the Ski bummer part of my life, I didn’t want to be as lonely and sad as some of them… I made a commitment to myself that I would NOT! Family needs to come first….
Do you remember the question – Do you wish you had TONS of MONEY? Well while in Europe I wasn’t paying attention. I had created a plan because of Spencer of what to sell and when to sell to maximize the gains, reduce risk, and to not live in regret. Well up to this time it worked perfectly! I had purchased a few homes, I was traveling, I had money in my 401K all was looking good. But just as fast as things rise – things fall. Now I have enough knowledge and experience under my belt to understand what another mentor taught me – markets climb a wall of worry but I will share that with you later. But the sell price for major chunk of stock hit, it went past it…You know, YA BABY!!! Do you sell? Well…I didn’t even thought I said I would….and promised my wife I would….because wow …look I just made MORE…. You have heard the story before….It hit its Top (My new bottom) and I didn’t sell. There were other complexities as well so it isn’t as easy as this because I had negotiated a tax equalization statement when I moved overseas so the company would have had to pay a huge chuck of change in taxes…but non the less.. I didn’t sell. Why – I had a new bottom? It will come back up…right? RIGHT? Well, no, it continued to drop while I was sure it was going back up. I had been on the phone with the sales staff, my stock advisors, my CPA…getting as much info as possible but still with the belief it WAS GOING UP…. NOPE! From $85 – $2
Acquisition – Management decided to grow we needed to take out one of our main competitors so we merged. What did that mean? All the places we had offices so did they and more. They assigned me to move to Dublin Ireland and work on consolidating all operations, determine what operations go where and I had two years to get it done. Seven months later I was offered a new position in Paris because it was all done. I had been able to work with government agencies and each of the offices to make a fast consolidation and met some awesome people in the process.
I didn’t take the position – we wanted to start a family. My wife didn’t want to spend another two years traveling around Europe so we headed home. I had enough money when I returned home that I didn’t have to work. So we took my parents small RV and traveled around the US for a few weeks, hiked, went bike riding, and enjoyed life.
Do you know you know you need to step up but you don’t want to? I wanted to plop my money into an account and let the “experts” manage some of them. Some of these “professionals” that wanted to manage our funds were very interesting to say the least. Ever see the guy pull up in the broken down vw beetle who starts telling you how much money he will make you? Or the person who tells you he is a master at real-estate but has never purchased any? We saw a few of those but we quickly learned how to do or due diligence to find the right ones! But in the process we also learned that we HAVE to take an active role in our affairs. It sure is easier to point the finger at others then to take control myself. I saw the results from others pointing their finger at others – their 401K manager, their stock broker ….they continued to lose money but receifvd the rights to complain.
Do you remember the question – Do you wish you had TONS of MONEY? I have seen and experienced both sides of money – lack and abundance. For anyone who gets money and they are not ready for it, it is quickly lost. On the same token, you have to be ready for the RESPONSIBILITY money brings. You have to be educated on managing it, using it, growing it… You cannot leave this to others. You can look for others for guidance, but you cannot put it in their hands. My dad was a good example….
My dad used to tell us – one day I’m going to win a million dollars in the lottery. So every week he would purchase his lottery tickets. He would visualize this. He would tell us what it looked like, how he would spend it, and who he would help with it. We didn’t pay too much attention to it at the time. After he lost everything, the stress was overwhelming and he was shortly after diagnosed as a bi-polar. This was very difficult for me. Not that he had a disease but the consequences of the disease. Like many, he would go on and off his medications giving me the opportunity to go get him out of trouble. I learned a great deal about mental illnesses and the effects it has on the ones around them. I won’t write much about it here, but if this is an areas I can help you in, feel free to contact me….maybe I can blog about it… But in any case, HE WON! He won a chance to go on the Big Spin. They invited all of the family to attend and the night before they shared with us the odds of him being picked. Wow – I don’t know if you believe in visualization but I DO! In many times in my life. But they had to go through a warehouse with a person, stop in front of a stack of pallets three high in a warehouse of many, pick a pallet, and then in the pallet pick a box, and then pick an envelope out of the box.
The Big Spin – he was third up and after the little ball bouncing around stopped on a million dollars! Because of his disability he choose to take the money over twenty years. We talked about how this would help him manage the funds otherwise he would loss them. He didn’t have the skills to manage one million but he could manage a check for $50,000 a year.
By the way, my dad told a few people that he would win a million when he went out looking for ways he would spend the money – get a new car for himself and my mom, take a trip each year. You know, I think he went to every person he made a commitment to and fulfilled them. He even purchased a car that wasn’t his first pick because he told the salesman he saw he would.
Did you ever know someone who was so happy in life they didn’t want to have kids? That was us. We were so comfortable in our life we didn’t want to be bogged down with kids. Besides,we would say things like “ if my kids ever acted like that – I would” … or..” My Kids will never act like that, that’s rude…”
Well we had our first daughter. And I thought life was good. You just don’t know what you don’t know! Amazing, astonishing, love, joy…just wow. But then you have all these decisions that need to be made and the responsibility of a PERSON – how to parent, vaccines, what is the best to feed them….
When we were in Germany, we learned a lot about our (American) food. It was hard to find. The stores there were all fresh. You had to get up early in the morning to get your bread, the butcher was only open in the afternoons, and there were no grocery stores like we have. And the ones that were there had none of our stuff. To add to it, Chernobyl had happened a few years earlier and they shared with us how we needed to be careful about eating some wild game and fish from land locked lakes. But why didn’t they have food like us or better yet – why not ours? Well the answers didn’t make sue happy, it scared us. This was the beginning of our steps into wanting to have a better understanding of health. And now the health of our kids….
I don’t want this to become a good vs bad – it just is what it is. We are all a part of the creation of the problems in our food here in the United States. We want to have it now, in mass quantities, and cheap. The tobacco companies purchased many of our food companies to diversify because of the challenges of smoking . Why would we be surprised to find out that their goal is to make the food they make more desirable or even want us to want more? They did. That is what they are in business for and they took their past ethics and integrity with them. Well in all of Europe when we were there, they would NOT ALLOW our food in. I recall reading in the paper how it was unfair trade yada yada but I never paid much attention to why. I thought – ya, that isn’t fair. Why can you ship pour stuff here but you won’t let us? When you pick up a package of crackers in Italy, Germany, France… you will find three ingredients (Flour, Salt, and water). Have you checked out the ingredients in ours? And if you keep researching you will find out a lot of them are not good for you, me, or our kids….
Did you ever wish you could change something you did but you just never knew you should? I wish we
-never warmed milk in the microwave.
-understood MSG has different names
- reduced sugar intake in a huge way
- understood our wheat has been abused and controlled what my kids eat better protecting them for abuse and gluten intolerance.
After more traveling, four more startups, and twin boys – it is time for a change.
In my last startup I was having a harder time putting in 110%. For a few reasons. Philippe Kahn is an amazing man. He has vision, focus, a large network of people, and the ability to make his vision happen. I am very grateful for his continued belief in me and his support in the past. He is a very driven person and will not take no for an answer. Business is business – personal is personal. As he has built each of his businesses, he takes a larger % of the company sharing less and with less of the employees. I respect him for this – he is the one building the business and it is his vision. He deserves it! But that also changes the business environment and the people that you attract to manage the business. I no longer found the drive ….
Did you have a family for a reason? I did… I love my wife, I want to experience life with my kids as they grow up, I love them dearly … but I couldn’t spend 16 hours at work and also enjoy my family. I could always make money, but I can NEVER replace time. Even when we were homeless…we were still happy…
When it came time to move on after we were purchased by Verisign, I had to make some decisions. I had access to many studies, trends analysis, technology, inner circles.. so I started working on what to do next…..
One of my goals was to take my family on a trip around the world. Within a few weeks of taking about the possibility of taking such a trip, I was out of my job, found a person to live in our home, purchased a RV in Florida and off we went. We traveled around the US in a RV for three month’s, came home for Christmas to be with the rest of the family, and then took off around the world.
Did we talk about visioning things that you want to happen? Ya – we did. Well years ago my wife and I were going through and drafting what we wanted to do in the coming years. We do this yearly. Well on one occasion years prior we put down the trip and where we were going to go. Guess what, when we got back and moving our stuff back into the house we found our goals at that time and guess what? We went to exactly where we did except one. And that one my son was having a fit to go to ..but we didn’t. hum….
As anyone told you that you can’t do it or you shouldn’t? Oh boy did we hear it all. How could you do this to your kids? Do you know how dangerous it is out there right now? They HATE Americans. A shining right star is always there if you are willing to look. My wife’s father was just that. His name was Bob.
Do you know what a God Whisper is? A God whisper is when you get little messages in life or direction that you need to do something. They come over the radio, something a person says or does, an article that shows up just at the right time, or a opportunity that just seems to good to be true? Ever follow them? How about not? Ya, me too. Sometimes the messages come in a bigger and bigger stick.
Bob had retired from years working at a cement plant as an electrician and was living with his other daughter. He needed to move out of the small apartment because they were selling the house. About the same time we were thinking / talking about taking off and traveling around the world. He was the final spark… Lets Do IT!
Do you have a hero or a person you look at with respect? I know, there aren’t many anymore! I referenced Tiger Woods in one of my books ….had to rip that one out. Well Bob was one of those people. He deserved respect. When he spoke I listened because he earned it. I didn’t always DO what he said but I listened and respected every word he said. Why? Because he always tried to do what was RIGHT. Not because religion told him to, not because the law told him to …but because it was the RIGHT thing to do.
Before we left for our trip around the world his aunt passed away. It was his second mother. Years prior she did her will and her intentions were to split her estate three ways giving it in equal shares to her three “kids”. When she passed, Bob ended up being responsible for the estate. The other person originally couldn’t – they were almost blind. When all the accounts were reviewed, it was no longer equal. Because she split the estate up by assets, some had done better than the others leaving the ones in his name 10 times more valuable then the others? What would you do? You have a windfall! Hey, that’s just the name of the game – right? You get what you get… I think unfortunately that is how many might react. I hope I’m wrong. He didn’t. He sold the assets and distributed the funds as she originally intended. To do so, he had to even pay personal taxes and it cost him money. This was just one sample of his integrity that he gave everyone around him examples of – is friends, me, my wife, MY KIDS.
What would life be like if we had that kind of people all around us? Rather than the greed and it all about MINE and ME?
Well before I left, using all the research, and paying attention to what was going on around me, it seemed like we were heading right where we are now because of efficacies, technology, and markets. I never expected it to be as bad as it is but it sure pointed that a major change was going to happen. There were plenty of people talking about it if you listened…and were open minded..and we’re not trying to protect something we had. Look at retail and how it has changed with the internet and how it is so much easier to buy online… and overall, more efficient and less expensive.
An overpriced real estate market. Did I tell you one of the best lessons I learned from a mentor was – A strong market climbs a wall of worry? I’ve invested in real estate for awhile. I’m not a flipper and hold real estate for cash flow. Heck – one house purchased properly gives more security and cash flow then Social Security… we treat it like a business. That is us…many have a different skill set … just not our goals. Boy did we think we were making a big mistake. So many of our friends and people in the communities we are a part of were talking about all the money they were making . But when we did the numbers we just couldn’t get them to work (Cash Flow). Then, gas attendants, family members that had no experience in real estate investing, and the local realtors were all running around making money and making statements like – “you can never go wrong in real estate”…”Real estate always goes up!” …. The strong market (Real Estate) climbs a wall of worry? When the sentence doesn’t fit – WATCH OUT! There was NO worry! I can’t tell you how hard we were trying during this time to purchase real estate that would cash flow for us…almost making dumb decisions. Due to our history and a lot of luck, we didn’t. EVERY one of our friends and contacts that were heavy into real estate is now in deep shit.
So where did the research point to as a solution? You might not like this. Growth in small and home businesses. So how is that going to happen?
By people getting over their fear; fears of change, fear of thinking they might fail, they don’t know how, and stepping up to follow their passion and god given talents and skills as an individual and community.
Right now, because of the economy and the transition that we are going through, many people are trying to figure out what to do. History tends to repeat itself. My belief is that we are entering an economy of consolidation in large corporations and the expansion of small business and entrepreneurism. Technology is now making us more efficient but we haven’t caught up by continuing to learn new skills or changing. Many people don’t want to change; they like the stability, they like the consistency and security. Well, the more we try to hold onto that, the worse it is going to get. Why you ask? Because it is going to change if we like it or not….we designed it to. People start making decision that aren’t the best when they are trying to protect rather than go with the natural flow of change. You can see it all over – in our education, corporations, our jobs. Even with Obama’s stance on change and everyone voting for it was interesting. Everyone wanted change – but they wanted someone else to do the changing.
Many know they need to change but they are either afraid or don’t feel they know how. Those are easily overcome with the right tools, right community, and support. That is why over the past three years I have spent time researching and studying the direct sales, multi level (MLM), and network marketing industry. Not an area that I felt comfortable in – I didn’t have a good experience in the past with how it was presented, the methods people were taught, how it wasn’t supporting people overall.
Ever been in a business incubator? Business incubators are programs designed to accelerate the success of an individual who is starting a new company through an array of business support resources and services. It allows for the development of the individual or team to grow and use their skills in a nurturing and supportive environment where there is constant feedback. Hey – with a few changes, there is a perfiect solutions. What I found was an industry getting ready to mature and shed the bad name it has rightfully gained to become one of the best solutions available today.
Which lead me to what I do today! Helping people or small business transition and grow in this new economy through couching, technology, sharing, and caring.
We are in exciting times! Enjoy the journey, enjoy life and respect and support all that is good around us – people, communities, and most important our families.
