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The Ultimate April Fool’s Joke

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Each April 1st I post the story of my Grandfather. He was a great man if even only in my eyes. He has inspired me to accomplish things I never thought possible. When I think of him and look back on things he said and did (which I do often) I find yet another lesson he was trying to teach me about business, about people and most of all about life. The more time that goes by since his passing the more legendary he becomes to me. Oh well he is my Grandfather and I can magnify him as I choose. So once again I give you The Ultimate April Fool’s Joke and thank you.

Please forgive me for departing from my usual message today. I am truly honored that you have allowed me the opportunity to send you messages each week and I certainly do not want to over step any boundaries or take advantage of this privilege, but today I would like to share something rather personal with you.

On April 1, 1998 a man who had had a tremendous influence on my life, my grandfather Aaron Carafiol, passed away. The ultimate April fools trick was the one the universe played on him. You see even though my grandfather was 82 years old when he passed away he truly believed he would live forever. This is not as strange a position as it sounds. Aaron was a firm believer in science and our ability to do whatever we set our minds to.  He looked at the advances that had been made during his lifetime (he was born in 1916 so you can imagine the changes he saw!) and noted that year after year our life expectancy increased. He figured that he hit the curve at just the right time so every time he would get close to “that age” science would advance it a little further.

My grandfather was the son of immigrants who came to America for freedom and opportunity. He quit school after the 8th grade to help support his family by delivering sacks of rice door to door in St Louis’ Hill neighborhood. From that simple start he went on to create the largest retail furniture company in the state.  Although that business was flourishing he learned an important fact by watching other businesses come and go. That fact is vital for all of us who desire to create wealth and security for ourselves and our families.

That important fact is that all businesses are temporary. An economic down turn, a change in technology or new government policy could make any particular business obsolete. He knew it was essential to build wealth through more permanent and diverse assets. So my grandfather took the profits from his furniture stores and built shopping centers. Today the furniture stores are all gone (one too many recessions) but the shopping centers still remain.

My grandfather shared many life and business facts with me, too many to discuss here.  One discussion that I will never forget took place while we were stuck in traffic. It was a hot, humid, St Louis August afternoon. We were headed to meet with our accountants when we were trapped in traffic due to road construction. Out of the blue my grandfather asked “what do you think it takes to become wealthy?” Being the wise old age of 25 I answered “hard work, I guess”. He must have known that that was how I would answer because he pointed to the construction workers outside of the car digging ditches in the August heat and asked me “do you think those guys are working hard?” I said of course they are. Then he asked “do think they are wealthy?” He did not wait for an answer he just went on to say working hard does not make you wealthy, working smart does.

The greatest lesson I learned from my grandfather came after he passed away. My grandfather built an impressive business and financial legacy from nothing. Many people, me included, thought he was able to do this because he was a risk taker. While this seemed obvious from the things he did in business it was in sharp contrast to everything else in his life. He was not a risk taker in any other respect, in fact, he was quite conservative. It was not until after I left my job as tax director at a local CPA firm to start my own business that I figured out the contradiction. And it was not really a contradiction at all. My grandfather was not a risk taker, not even in starting his own businesses. You see, he knew that success or failure in his businesses was completely determined by his ability and devotion. And he knew if he was depending on himself there was no risk.

The greatest lesson of all when it comes to success in business or success in life its self is to put yourself in control and know that you can do it, no matter what, because you can.
As you can tell, Aaron Carafiol was and is an important icon in my life. Thank you for allowing me to share some of him with you. I have made a promise to myself and a few other people to write a book about this great man one day. Consider this e-mail a small down payment on that promise.

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This Week's Quote

I don’t know much about this learning from your mistakes nonsense but I sure do learn a hell of a lot from my successes. - Aaron Carafiol 

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