A niche to spread my wealth of bullshit and real stories about my unconventional life.
“even when I lie, I tell the truth”
I stumbled upon you as I learned that the OSMO Foundation had appointed Emma Williams as the Director of Notman House, in Montreal (where I am from, and where I live). Emma, who I do not know, chose medium to share her exciting news. After reading it (and I do wish her the best of luck in her new functions), I quickly browsed other articles and I was quickly hooked as I felt the platform might have been what I have been looking for for a real long time.
Yes, I am one of those guys who posts long Facebook messages, write long emails (some of them drive my business partners crazy) and enjoy putting shit down in writing. As you can see below, I consider myself to be an upcoming author, amongst many things.…
As a “to-do list” type of entrepreneur, I try my best to balance my life as a husband and father of 3 young children, with multiple fascinating entrepreneurial projects in the fields of real estate, finance, technology, and the movie business. Where I find the timing of stumbling upon medium most intriguing is that I have recently been approached to write a pilot about my crazy life, and this could be an ideal platform to see if my life really is as entertaining, funny and inspiring as some people think it is (I think not). I can also tell very funny stories, but sometimes maybe they are some of those “you had to be there” type of stories, and the viewers would certainly not be in the same state of mind as my usual audience. When it comes to my friends, I don’t judge anyone and sometimes must sing the song “Whatever gets you through the night” (by John Lennon) to myself during long nights with them.
From a real estate investing perspective, I have accomplished things I am very proud of, and my Facebook timeline is filled with many of these stories. As an entrepreneur constantly looking for new investors and financial partners to get excited about my projects, I sometimes feel my social media presence only partially represents who I really am as an individual. I sometimes feel like I am a bit of a mangeux de marde, which is french for being full of shit. All my close friends know who I am, but social media acquaintances probably don’t have a clear picture of who I am and I plan on using medium to share other sides of my life/career. That is if anyone gives a shit, obviously.
I have learned quite a bit from my failures. I have once worked over 14 months on a project to end up losing 20K. When all your employees have quit, and there is shit to shovel, the boss indeed shovels shit, even if there is no one to witness it. I have made the same mistake twice on numerous occasions, and can even admit that I have made the same mistake three times on a couple of times also.
By no means I think I got it all figured it out and I think many young ambitous entrepreneurs will benefit from learning from my experiences, and some of them are really humbling. I will try to include funny anecdotes, stories, my own advice and maybe even precious pieces of advice I have received from some of my mentors over the years. (you need to have relationships with two bankers, and make sure neigher one knows about the business you got going with the other. -Dr. J. Walsh).
I stumbled on an article about what I would need to provide in order to build myself an audience…
- What can I teach someone?
I could write a book about real estate investing in Montreal, especially about condo conversions and flipping homes & small buildings (or firing an entire crew of guys, receiving death threats, breaking up fights amongst my employees…). My mom was staging our homes when the term hadn’t been invented yet (how to get a 100K kitchen out of a 40K budget…). Many of our kitchens, bathrooms and entire houses have been published in design and decor magazines over the years so I could share a bit of knowledge on this also. I have also renovated (Canada) / rehabbed (U.S.) single family homes, buildings, and apartment complexes, and have learned a thing or two about the construction business along the way (having to remind myself that even though I sound like I know what I am doing, to an average American contractor, I have a funny sounding name / accent, and this means he must absolutely try to abuse me. Later keeping in mind that their ancestors are cowboys… don’t get me wrong, I love America). I also learned a couple of things about the cut throat environment of corporate sales in a business to business environment. (Being on the phone, trying to engage with a potential customer on a cold call while trying to prevent my file folders from falling off my bookcase because my colleague in the cubicle next to me is repeatedly punching his desk while screaming and swearing, after learning that (what he tough would be…) his 8K commission was going to be $500, after he had too heavily discounted the projet without proper approval from corporate…). I have also leaned a few valuable lessons from being in the movie business, and from being in too many businesses at the same time (“Mathieu, you think you will come to my office, tell me about these 5 complexes in North Dallas you got under contract, and I will cut you a check for 11 millions dollars” -R. Dubrovski).
2) How can I make them laugh?
Just like any contestant at American Idol, my friends and family think I am pretty talented… On this one, my followers (or non followers) will be the ultimate judges. I had things happen on my job sites that even my brother, who is a filmmaker and pretty creative guy, said you can’t come up with. I have many 5-star stories to tell.
3) How can I make them feel good?
The stories, mixed with funny anecdotes, combined with sound advice, should make for interesting reads. If not, I will simply go back to playing with my kids.
I really look forward to telling all of you about how I built my business, step by step, one punch at a time.
When will I start sharing this gold? I have no choice but to draft funny stories for my pilot. I never really have time for anything, I prioritize. I swear this will not be an item which will forever go from # 7 to #14 on my “To-Do” list…
Stay tuned.
