Today marks the one year anniversary of my retirement. I can honestly say that I hate not working. I have kept busy but I feel like I am not building accomplishments and I am very accomplishment driven.  I have talked to a few companies about going back to work but my resume (click under my photo on right to view) makes some back off a bit. It’s funny (not ha-ha funny) that success can be an obstacle. We all strive for it and then it becomes a hurdle. People sometimes think…what will be the next, great thing you will do? Under their breathe they are saying, “but you won’t be doing it with me.” It’s odd, really.

As you get older, your skill sets are your skill sets. You can be wildly proficient at them but don’t expect that you will be moving from investment banking to brain surgery. If “lawyer-ing” is your gig, it’s likely to remain so. You won’t drop everything and start teaching micro-biology.

I did drop everything to move from investment management, which I know a fair amount about, to real estate development, which I knew virtually nothing about. I learned a lot about real estate development but I learned a greater amount about people.

Here’s what I learned:

1. Get it in writing
2. Make certain that the money is as big as the mouth
3. Buildings are the manifestation of a developer’s ego
4. If you’re the new guy, you’re always the new guy
5. If you’re not family, never, ever go to work at a family business
6. Borrowing is good when the economy is good but otherwise refer to #2
7. If there’s a laundry list of firings at a business, expect that there’s trouble at the top
8. Get your money up front. Never take a back-end participation when you have no control
9. Look at a company’s failures before you look at their successes
10. Expect that you will need to retain a lawyer and a forensic accountant

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