Do You Have B. O.?

Now that my pogo stick resides in the trunk of my car and the memory of it dwells in the file folder of my mind, I feel a bit at loose ends.  What will I write about this week?

Last night I lay in bed musing and just as I fell asleep it came to me.  A question.  Do you have B.O.?

No, I’m not talking about body odor.  Do you have Boundless Optimism?

I founded my company, ACF Property Management, Inc. on March 1, 1968. We will celebrate our fiftieth anniversary this coming Thursday, March 1, 2018.  It’s been a wild ride.

We’ve survived three major recessions. Those were difficult times when tenants were pleading for rent reductions every single day, and investors were distressed because their monthly cash distribution checks were severely reduced.  Our properties have survived earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods. As of tomorrow morning, we will have met 1,200 consecutive payrolls.

In short, we have thrived through good times and bad while facing many challenges.  I used to complain about the challenges to my father, who will be 104 years old in July. Every time he said to me, “Alan, if your business didn’t have problems then they wouldn’t need you.”  It took me years to hear Dad’s message and stop whining to him.  While he did not appear to be sympathetic, he was quite helpful.

Every single time a problem arose – the need for an expensive new roof, the bankruptcy of a major tenant, the departure of a valued employee – I always said to myself, “I can solve this.”  Often I didn’t know exactly how I would solve the problem, but I was always sure I could.  My mindset has always been one of Boundless Optimism.

I believe it was Samuel Johnson who wrote years ago, “A man’s second marriage represents the triumph of hope over experience.”   How about a fourth marriage last year when I was 76?  My optimism remains boundless, and the result has been spectacular.

I know that there are times when each of us can feel hopeless, beset by excessive worry. As Shakespeare writes in Hamlet, “There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

I wish you many happy thoughts today, together with an endless supply of B. O.

Alan

P.S.  A video of my short-lived pogo stick escapade is below: