21-24 July, Tuesday-Friday: hung out with the Robinsons. Traded my tent to young Knox Robinson after we went camping in the back yard. Searched for duplexes and found some great ones. The Robinsons are in contract on one now.
As I was driving, I was thinking about “get-rich-quick” books. I have recently read several of them, mostly about real estate, and it occurred to me that many of them aren’t scams at all. They appear that way because their titles are usually something like “Multi-Family Millions.” I can verify it personally that the advice in that book is solid. So why don’t people usually take advantage? Really, why not? I think the real barriers are
- Social life: People really like having a job because they meet a lot of people through their job. It is their social life. Even people who hate their job feed off of the shared hardship and it deepens their connection with their coworkers.
- “Get-rich-quick” is a misnomer: try this: read any get-rich-quick book, but instead of focusing on all the $$$money$$$ the book is talking about that you can make, focus on the work it says you have to do. It really is a lot of work! Plus, you have to compete with others and there is a lot of personal risk. If you aren’t good at what you are doing or make a mistake working for yourself, it will affect everything about your life, not just a promotion. The reality is, they are not “get-rich-quick scams,” but actually “work-for-yourself options.”
23-25 July, Thursday-Saturday: departed in the evening for Memphis, slept in the car along the way and arrived in Memphis mid-day on Friday. Met my goddaughter, Julia and her brothers Shane and Brian the triplets. They were awesome. Went on a bike ride around the neighborhood with my cousin just like old times biking to the gas station for a pack of gum. Departed on Saturday evening for Chicago.
Again I was thinking along the drive, this time about my phone. Our grandparents’ generation said that kids were not to speak unless spoken to. I feel like we are going to say the same thing about phones as we get older. My phone is constantly trying to guess what I want to know instead of waiting for me to ask. It is surprisingly good at guessing, but it is still not worth it to have it “notifying” me all the time about random junk. “30 minutes to home via such-and-such route” “there is a back-up on I-70, such-and-such route will save you 5 minutes.” Thanks, but no thanks. I’m not going home right now and I really don’t care about 5 minutes. Shut up phone. If I want something, I’ll ask!
26-28 July, Saturday-Tuesday: didn’t sleep at all Saturday night because I was driving and listening to the audiobook Unbroken and arrived in Chicago at 4AM on Sunday morning. Got my bike out and went for a ride. I ended up riding more in Chicago than anywhere else. Brittany was a great host despite that she couldn’t ride with me š We went to Kingston Mines and saw J. W. Williams play the blues. That was the highlight–other than the Chicago Bean of course!
28-29 July, Tuesday-Wednesday: drove west to the ‘burbs and visited my cousin Rachel and her husband Tony for a day. Tony made dinner, then we went to sleep. In the morning, visited with Rachel, skateboarded their parking garage, then taught her about the phases of the moon and the tides. Drove home to Ohio and arrived on the evening of Wednesday the 29th for a game of Scrabble that I lost!