2005 - 11-29-05

You know what I tell those people? I tell them,
"Look, that sounds great to
me. I'll make you a deal. I want you to write a $500 check
payable to the Children's Hospital of Miami and send that
check to me. As soon as I receive the check, I'll hand it to
the Hospital and tell them to cash it the same day. After
that, I will consult with you for a couple hours on
the phone. Just think, the worst case scenario is, you and I
don't do business together. But some sick child who
desperately needs medical help will have a $500 assist in
getting that help. However, the best case scenario is you
and I end up doing business together and we each make a
small fortune. That sounds really fair to me, doesn't it
to you?"

And you know what? Absolutely nobody has ever
taken me up on that offer. It is remarkably curious how many
people claim to be making hundreds of thousands of dollars a
week... but... can't seem to get $500 out of their
accounting department (it's always because of accounting
difficulties) to get a consultation with me and help a
worthy charity.

Now please permit me to tell you an old
joke... but... it's a joke with a lot of truth in it.

Two real estate guys are working as
partners in Miami. One of them

comes back from an afternoon
meeting and has supper with his partner.

He tells his
partner, "Ron, I've got good news and bad news! You know

that building they wanted $230-Million for? Well guess what?
I was

able to get them to lower the price to only
$190-Million."

To which his partner, Russ, says,
"Well,
what's the bad news?"

Ron replies,
"They want $5,000 in
cash."

Really cheap people are curious to me. If
they work in real estate, they will ignore 99 extremely
profitable deals... just to find one deal that is insanely
profitable... maybe because the widow who owns the property has
only a couple weeks to live because she is dying of cancer.