Read to the end to hear about my affair with a Hollywood Starlet…..
If you took the time to do the math, you would easily figure out that I founded SoundBroker.com 27 Nov 1997 (16 years ago). That is a long time to do anything even when you love what you do. Sure many of you have trees in your back yard that 100s of years old and I do not underestimate, how difficult it must be to stand in the same spot, without clothes, never to able to sit down, or for that matter take a break. Fortunately for me, I have taken many breaks, not stood in the same spot for any length of time and changed my clothes so often, I have lost count.
When you love what you do, it makes it easy to get up in the morning and do it again. I love what I do and I can’t wait to do it again.
In our industry, you get to meet a lot of interesting people in your life some you do business with, some you do not. Some you bond with and some you do not. Those that you bond with makes all worth while to get up and do it again.
One such person, that I have had the privilege to get know and bond with is Lauren Harakidas. Over the last 10 years, Lauren has been with me as my office manager, bookkeeper, secretary, inventory manager, why she has basically done everything any employer would hope for in an employee and more.
As you might imagine over the last 10 years we have become family, so it is with sad heart that I have accepted Lauren’s resignation. I know that she has also touched everyone of you that is reading this newsletter. I urge you to reach out and wish Lauren the best of luck in her future endeavors, I am sure that if you feel like I do, she will surely be missed.
My life is going through a myriad of changes at this moment and I am not sure what any of it means, I just know that I am a winner and a champion and living well is the best revenge. I must say I do live well. However, on to the list of challenges I face:
1) After 61 years of next to perfect health and never having surgery before, on January 25, 2013, I fell to the floor in the most pain that I have ever experienced in my entire life. The pain lasted until April 9, 2013 at which time, I under went a double Hemilaminectomy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminotomy). Now I am getting healthier everyday and I would say I am at 96%. Still have some numbness in my things, but I will take numbness over pain any day of the week, including today. Physical therapy is a wonderful agony.
2) After almost 10 years living in the same place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I find that my roommate and I have decided to give up our place. I am sad about this, although I knew that it was going to happen for over a year, I just didn’t know when.
3) I broke up with my girlfriend. Although she was imaginary, I can tell you the pain feels real, unlike her. I alway have had a good imagination, but this time it had me going. I am sure given time my mind will come up with another one for me, but right now, I need the time and space to heal.
4) Lauren quit after 10 years of working for me. The change in the office environment, the time I will invest in hiring her replacement and then the training. I have come to terms with the training as, I am going to take on the training personally. I have come to know myself to a point where I can almost second guess myself.
5) I will be going through a rebirth of sorts as I will be in the thick of training. I am actually looking forward to this as I am sure that will reinvigorate me to strive to make the most of what I have built and make the necessary changes to forge into the future. What better way, then to go back to the basics? And with the training I will trust back to the basics.
6) I am wondering who is still reading this
7) The bank that financed my office building 5 years ago, would not refinance my loan and the balloon payment is coming due, instead they extended the loan for a year. That by the way is the good news, I am not in the street and they lowered my mortgage interest from 5% to 3.4% and that is a significant monthly saving. Here is the bad news, I did not want to go through the refinancing next year, so I applied for a loan with a different bank, one that I do almost all of my business with, they have my home, my car, my, my, my…. And it turns out although they approved me for a loan, the appraisal came out so low that and the interest raised to 4.5% that it doesn’t pay to move the loan. Very depressing.
8) I am getting older everyday and James Wood is dating a 22-year-old.
9) The NSA is monitoring my phone calls and I have nothing to hide, not like when I was in my 20s and living in the Hollywood Hills of California.
10) I will never have an affair with a hollywood starlet.
11) My dog doesn’t love me. No wait!!! I don’t have a dog, that must be someone else’s’ life. But why not keep in here for the humor.
12) Paula Dean is called out for being a racist, rather than for all the people she’s given heart problems to with the amount of butter in her recipes.
11) I need to save more for later. Did I tell you I am remodeling my house in Vegas and I am Rio?
My friend Peter, told me this week that when one door closes an other opens. So it is at a time like this when I am feeling down in the dumps and wondering what the future holds in store for me, I remember my Uncle Al’s words to me. “You are a champion and when a champion gets knocked down, he back up and gives it his all”.
The one and only thing that is certain in life is that our lives will not stay constant. We are born (no one knows why) and from that moment on we are on a path to die (no one knows why). From time to time, there are moments of joy, happiness, achievements, friendships, magic moments and myriad of other occurrences that for a moment or two allow us the opportunity to forget that eventually……
I ran out of room on this blog to cover the part about me and the Hollywood Starlet, tune in to my next post.
