When the Door to Opportunity Opens, Walk Through It!
My first door of opportunity opened when I was fired from my job in 1967! It was a door that would lead to many others.
When I was young, my father had invented the masonry saw and founded Clipper Manufacturing, which began in his garage and went on to be an international business with headquarters in Grandview, Missouri, and factories in seven foreign countries. I worked in the family business and continued after it was sold to the Norton Company, a New York Stock Exchange member. It was a match made in hell and it did not come as a surprise when I was fired.
Condominiums? Skiing? Luckily, another door opened when I received an offer from a friend of mine from Northwestern University to partner with him and build a condominium in Aspen, Colorado. I had heard of Aspen but had never been there, and the concept of condominiums was completely new to me. It seemed like it might be a fun experience and it wasn’t hard to convince my wife and three kids to live and ski in Aspen for a year. We rented our Kansas City home, packed our bags and pets (Priscilla, the Newfoundland dog, and Carmel, the cat) and were off!
Luck and timing are everything. Our first 48-unit project was a huge success. The concept of owning a second Aspen home you could rent when not using it made so much sense that we were able to sell the entire project by word-of-mouth—no realtors involved and an advertising budget of less than $500.
None of the buyers wanted to live in their unit. So, another door opened, and I immediately found myself in the property management and rental business. Satisfied customers and referrals led to the success of two more condominiums and then an office building. Resale market? When I noticed that units were being resold by local realtors, I decided to get my real estate license and went on to become quite successful selling condominiums. Shortly thereafter, another door opened when Kay Reid, owner of the largest home-sales firm in the area, approached me about buying her business. This was a huge door that I eagerly walked through! I bought Kay’s business thus becoming the largest real estate and property management business in the Aspen area; we were the second-largest employer in town, after the Aspen Skiing Corporation.
Later, just down the valley, a new ski area, “Snowmass Village,” opened. My good friend, Fritz Benedict, proposed that we build a shopping center on the land he owned at the base of Snowmass Mountain. The timing was perfect, and I was able to rent the entire shopping center before it opened.
Doors opened even while vacationing! On one of my vacations in Puerto Vallarta, I ran into an Aspen acquaintance at a local bar. Before the night was over, we decided to build luxury homes together. After our four-unit project was successfully completed and sold, again without realtors, my friend lost interest. I went on to successfully build and renovate seven luxury residences, the largest of which was over 20,000 square feet and had two elevators. A door closed on me ten years ago when I lost my eyesight and one slammed shut when I lost my wife of almost 40 years. But then another door opened in 2015, when I received my wonderful guide dog, Hercules.
My philosophy: When the door to opportunity opens, only a fool doesn’t walk through it!