It’s official! Today is the first day of my early ‘retirement’ from the company.
It doesn’t mean that everything has become involvement free. I am sure that over the next couple of months it will require a small level of engagement. We have to ensure that everything is running properly as well as make the people we hired to fill our shoes not feel abandoned.
My brother and I are taking over the purchasing of inventory. Every monday we will go to the auctions to check out the cars and then Tuesday will bid on them through the online portals. We will also take Tuesdays to review some of the marketing, backend, and future growth of the company.
What will I do with all my extra time you ask?
Right now I have a strong urge to play video games! I know for a fact, that won’t last long. I’ll likely play a couple hours for the next few days and grow bored. After that, I’ll put everything else into overdrive.
I recently took real estate courses and have applied for my license so that I can become an agent. I hope to do that part time and see if it is something I enjoy. If I do like it, I could see myself opening up a brokerage in the future.
I also plan on focusing a lot more with my short stories for adults or any longer novels that might creep into me. I should be keeping myself to a longer schedule that should allow me to pump out more content for all of our benefit!
Lastly, I will be spending more time with my family. Rachael has been very supportive throughout the whole time, especially on the days that I’ve needed it most and she deserves all of the attention she would like. My daughters and son will be going to the dog park more regularly and we have planned to take day trips with them to different areas.
On the dealership side, things are looking good. We fell just shy of our goal for this quarter, which isn’t a bad thing considering that we had set it higher than needed in order to push ourselves. I see that as a win and I hope our team does too.
One specific person of our team deserves recognition. Not because they sell the most or because they do what they are told the most. I have recognized the level of drive this person has within them and realized that they are someone that I want around in my life from here on. They are someone who continues to give, never once caring about looking stupid or messing up. They have taken everything I’ve thrown at them and gave it their full effort. Seeing the way this person is makes me want to help guide them forward. If they read this, they will know full well who they are.
I am very proud of you.
The property we closed on has started to be worked on and looks like it is on track to finish by the end of this month.
The contractor that has been working with us has been attentive and extremely communicative throughout the process. He is punctual and so far has kept to all his deadlines.
The property we were working on had to be paused due to some outside factors but he will be returning to it this week in order to complete the remaining part.
I’ve also hired another contractor to handle the electrical and plumbing and am having a bit of an issue with his deadlines. I can tell he is spreading himself too thin and am not fully understanding why he doesn’t just focus on a single job and see it through before he starts making promises everywhere else. I’m trying to figure out how I can help him see that so that he doesn’t lose his reputation, as well as financial gain.
If any of you have suggestions, please contact me here. I’d love to get a different perspective.
We are still trying to close on a third property that has been a pain in the ass. It seems like everyone is running around without being able to remember what is what and who is who. Ultimately, it’s my fault for not following up with people enough.
I’ll make sure to get it all figured out in the next couple of weeks so we can close.
Last year, I gifted Rachael a trip to the Grand Canyon for her birthday. Specifically flying over it.
We drove to Arizona and stayed there for a few nights with one of her friends. They took an RV, which really helped since it was a bit on the warm side and we got to occasionally cool off in there.
Rachael had never been to the Grand Canyon before and I thought flying over it would be an amazing experience for her.
It was, for both of us.
When I first saw the Grand Canyon a few years back, it left me feeling small and insignificant. I don’t mean insignificant in the sense that life is meaningless and I felt depressed. I mean, that everything in my life, all my problems, all my aspirations, everything, were tiny compared to how massive our world truly is. We are only a speck of dust.
Imagine if we were to see it from space.
It reminds me that we should all dream bigger, even if we don’t get there.
Speaking of getting there, we finally got to the end of the Last Astronaut! Now, I will say that I’m extremely disappointed in whoever told my wife I was blaming her for not finishing it…
Definitely recommend this book to everyone. It was captivating from beginning to end and I thought the occasional interview style inserts really helped visualize everything. It made it feel as if it was a movie, with commentary from the people who had lived through the experience.
We barely finished the UK version of Utopia a few days back. It felt a whole lot darker than the US version but it was a great watch. I’m a little disappointed that they cancelled it after season 2 but at least the bulk of the story was finished. The set up for further seasons can be ignored and a pretty decent conclusion can be drawn from the original story.
It’s scary to imagine a world where we are manipulated that strongly.
I finished the book Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork by Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy this month. It’s a great book to help you realize that you don’t need to accomplish everything yourself and can instead leverage the power of other people who may be better suited to accomplish those things.
A show I recommend this month: Utopia UK version
A book I recommend this month: The Last Astronaut
Clemmy and Nova are still inseparable.
We took Clem to the dog park and let her down for the first time and she had a blast running around with her sister. She gravitated toward people more but the more we take her, the more comfortable she feels being on her own.
We did have a bit of a scare with her a couple of weeks back when she started peeing blood. I took her in and it turned out it was only a UTI. A few antibiotics later and she was good as new.
She has now started to terrorize her big brother Spartacus. Since he wants nothing to do with her or Nova, she decides on a daily basis that she will bark in his face for hours on end until she gets a reaction.
She’s an instigator.
She also chewed a small hole in our wall when we weren’t watching her, so I will be fixing that in my retirement.
Overall, they have created an amazing dynamic within our household and we are glad Nova and Clem play together enough to leave Spartacus to act like the grumpy old man he is.
I should be done with the new story soon but I can’t say that I’ve had a great experience writing it.
My thoughts feel jumbled as I go through it and it feels forced. You will have to let me know if it comes off that way after you read it.
I get the feeling that I didn’t take enough time to get into the character’s mind. Normally while I write, their thoughts float around in my head as if they were my own. This is even more prevalent when it comes to dialogue. I don’t ever have to do anything other than write down what they talk about, which makes things very easy.
I also feel like it hasn’t helped that I’ve taken too many breaks at a time between writing (days). The trip to the Grand Canyon forced a pause for about a week, some of the early morning planning for the company put a damper. My routine hasn’t been consistent and that’s completely my fault.
With more time now, hopefully I’ll be able to read through it and see what worked and what didn’t.
If you haven’t checked out the other updates, you can do so here: Updates
That’s all I have for you.
See you on the next one. Ok, byeeeeee!
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