Daytime TV - Exposes Scams

Today on "Guiding Light" the youngest Spalding talked about an ponzi investment scheme, another scene was a victim of someone who invested "everything" because he was bored with his 401k that wasn't doing anything year after year.

"It was a friend of friend...it was about pooling money together. The returns they were promising were amazing."

I chuckled - there seems to be two ends of the take advantage spectrum - the "super safe" side which has its own risks, but at the end of the day, nothing happens. Then there is the "super risk" sure fire deals, too good to be true, but sounds really good and the returns are "guaranteed" - and it's either a total scam, or a super high undisclosed risk situation.

I've read news reports of advisers saying "Anything paying over 6% is an absolute scam!"

It's interesting to have created a business process that is not rooted in predatory practices, simple logic and common sense. The baseline #'s I guess are "amazing", and that very fact is a red flag based on mass media reporting.

I and my family have been dealing with head colds over the last few weeks those are all clearing up. It was interesting because we got hit with these head colds around the same time the whole swine flu thing surfaced.

During the last two months I've been helping Lawrence and his wife Jeanne with their new Health Care Practice (I.T. stuff mainly), they are pioneering a new wellness approach which optionally includes a "lipo-laser" which is a fascinating device.

We are on each others "team", he's taking care of me and Jeannie. On the nutrition side of things they got clinical with a full blood analysis nutritional exam and low and behold I had an undiagnosed medical condition hiding in the background, probably been there for years, perhaps decades. Nothing serious and in fact that is all part of their wellness program - to get well.

Anyway, now almost 3 weeks later I've gone from 34% body fat to 26%, and I've lost about 10 lbs of weight and am under 210 lbs. I'm looking and feeling better than I have in years (not that I've ever felt bad) - but I'm amazed at the immediate results.

I'm a high energy and focus person to begin with. I've been changing my health over the last 5 years anyway. What I learned from Lawrence and Jeanne was sort of a missing link of understanding. I'm considering writing a report about what I know. About 4 years ago I was 260 lbs. Not a good place to be.

It is an honor to work with Lawrence and his family. Though that project has nothing to do with Commercial Real Estate we continue to deepen our working relationship and friendship. To me this is critically important in forming a team.

We are having an IQ Meeting tomorrow (Lawrence, Peter and I), right now we have this awesome business plan, team and resources and each of us have our own individual business interests. Lawrence in the Health Care Industry, Peter in the Construction Industry and (your's truly - me) in I.T.

We may have to "conform" and put together a traditional syndication and work our business plan on a smaller scale. I am realizing more and more that whom ever we bring together as financial partners are people we are going to want to know and build relationships with.

I was reminded of that yesterday when a client of mine (who does very well financially), advised me that he couldn't afford my I.T. services (I spent the last 8 months in a dog and pony show trying to help this guy and his business), we finally started making headway over the last 3 months because he authorized getting the work done that needed to be done.

Then he pretended to be surprised by the costs which made no sense to me. He rejected every cost saving proposal over the last 12 months choosing the highest cost path at every turn. It has been an odd journey and experience. I like the guy but he never got or understood the reality of the care that was given to take care of him and his office.

It all boiled down to life outlook and his is and has been hurting his business. No appreciation, no loyalty unless it is at first self serving, and yet, a nice guy. Just very odd. One of his key staff members "went off" on me a few weeks ago when I politely pointed out an about 18" string hanging down her back. Something most people would say "Thank you" for.

My point is - Peter, Lawrence and I enjoy our pathing together and the work we've been doing on our business plan rooted in quite literally "Creating the World we want to live in". We need to expand "our world" with a few key people that understand our mission and vision that have the funds to back a venture rooted in solid strategy and common sense.

Maybe I need to lower our "contract ROI" from 10% to 6% so we are not lumped in with all the scams. I don't think anyone would complain if we paid them an additional 4%, even though we were not financially obligated to do so. I don't think anyone would complain if we set aside a % of limited partner ownership in a trust for which they are beneficiary because that is our plan, and the world we wanted to create.

So, they'll get their 6% by contract backed by commercial real estate, the rest -we'll just work our plan, in our world, our way. Wouldn't that be a hoot.

Last year an attorney looked me in the eye and said "Why would you pay that if you didn't have to?", Lawrence and I smiled and said "Because that is the world we want to live in, that is how we would want to be treated."

Star Trek is theaters now (an absolutely AWESOME show, I finally saw it earlier this week with one of my clients at an IMAX Theater, it was worth the extra cost and seeing it a 2nd time gave me greater appreciation for the film). Anyway I always liked "Scottie", who always under promised and over delivered thus creating the reputation of being a "miracle worker".

Everyone wants a "lotto" level win it seems with their investment dollars. In our plan, the first 5 years is an asset and cash flow building stage which in the traditional business community also creates a "proof of concept", the next step from that asset base is usually forming an IPO to raise hundreds of millions of dollars (or a few billion dollars) to advance the business process/plan to a new level.

I noticed a lot of REIT's have had financial difficulties and I think the reason for that is they often just have to buy up assets, but do not necessarily have a business plan to optimize each asset. They buy based on balance sheets and financial data. That is an accounting function, more than a business or investment.

5 Million, 20 Million, 1oo Million, 500 Million, 1 Billion, it doesn't matter with our dynamic plan because it can be scaled up or down. Bigger is "safer" in my perspective and 10 - 2o million dollars of capital is an ideal amount to have available to move quickly on good deals that are too small for REITs, and too big for most individual investors.

But working and functioning as a team is more than than just ROI, it is having fun, trusting each other, believing in each other and being a person on that team that is dedicated to each other person's happiness, healthy and success in all areas of life.

Our core team has all the talents and resources to be that, and bring that. I think it would be interesting to take a company IPO and experience one of those "Lotto" win business experiences.

Well, that is all for now. Lawrence's office foundation has been put in place (it's a lot of work doing I.T. right, and I've never seen anyone do it right outside of my approach.) I should teach what I know around I.T. and consulting. Maybe I will some day.

Tomorrow (in the morning) I'm going with my son Josh to ITT Tech, he's decided to follow in my footsteps in Technology. He's 18 years old. (He's also a great CREI deal finder!) Everyday is an adventure for me lately. I do enjoy helping others and making contributions.

I even had a new design modification for the "Lipo Laser" technology, in my spare time I'll have to do some research into a few things.

Now that my head cold is subsiding and Lawrence's initial office setup is completed I can get back to work recording audio and video for sharing the IQ concepts with people on the website.

I still haven't seen anything better than our approach. What is amazing to me are the scams and the amount of money people are getting bilked out of and really there isn't and shouldn't be a need to get great returns without scamming anyone.

Maybe the secret to fund raising is only offering 3%, trillions of dollars in banks around that. (laugh). Everything in its proper time - step by step.

Namaste'

- David