I arrived on a Sunday night. Jet lagged. Second time I crossed the Atlantic. I woke up early. Full day of meetings. My head was hurting. Jet-lag… and the Quebecois accent. 4 years without having said a word in French, and now… that weird accent. At 6pm, I was really in bad shape. I said… I go to the hotel, I need a quick dinner and a sleep. “Yes, Vicente, do that… and remember that at 10:30pm, we are leaving” “?????”. Well… Apparently, with all that accent, I had not understood that I had to...
1 day ago • 1 min read
This email contains the formula to learn anything. It’s not a secret. And it’s obvious. And you know it. But your ass loves to be comfortable. Look. Most of us learn to ride a bicycle only by falling off a few times. We learn to walk by falling a few times. Then we get to school, and we are taught not to fall. We are taught that people who fall are stupid. We are taught that smart people are people who sit like the three birds on the fence and memorize the right answers. I was a nerd. Less...
2 days ago • 1 min read
Before answering that question whose answer may change the way you see life, let me tell you something. Today is settlement day for me. Another deal. Aristotle once said this: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”. I like deals. I do deals. I become a deal maker. With more deals, I’m becoming a better deal maker. This thing that may seem simple or easy to you is less usual than you think. Excellence is achieved by repetition, and improving through each...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Do you believe that Amazon could be built by Jeff Bezos doing 15$/hour tasks? I have this debate very often with entrepreneurs from all sorts of backgrounds. They believe that they need to do everything by themselves. If you want a business not to grow, or you want your business to get stuck or simply your health going to hell… do all by yourself. Schedule meetings, take minutes, actions, do follow ups, check the receipts, upload this into the accounting tool, etc. etc. etc. All by yourself....
5 days ago • 1 min read
I like saying “be gentle with yourself”. I see too many people being the worst critics of themselves. Never enough. Never done well. More, and more, and more. Don’t take me wrong. I’m a fun of self-motivation. I’m all-in in improving myself, in challenging myself. But how you do it matters. The words we speak have a direct and definite effect upon our thoughts. Thoughts create words, for words are the vehicles of ideas. Words also affect thoughts and help to condition if not to create...
6 days ago • 1 min read
It was winter in Montreal and I was making a tour to some VIP guys from Madrid. It’s normal that if you’re building a $1.5bn project, you are interested in knowing first hand how the project is going. “Fascinating” “So cold” “So white” “Snow everywhere” They pointed out a place outside the construction site. And then I saw it. A dad had made for his children a hockey field in the lake. Smoothed the ice. Put goals. Painted the field. Even he put some lighting. The lake was in his backyard. My...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Let me share with you a lesson that can change how you see things… and if not, you should talk to the doctor in case you have no blood on your veins. It was during my time at JP Morgan. Investment banking. There was a guy. Italian. Name, Luca. Very nice guy. There we were. At around 2 or maybe 3 am at the office, in London. We finished a presentation for important VPs that needed to take 8 copies of it for an important meeting in a huge deal. We had sent the presentations to print. They...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Closing now the acquisition of two new units. All seems ready for starting a new project with 4 new units. All in Airbnb. Just waiting for some permits for two buildings. One full rehabilitation and transformation in 10 units, and another built new, 15 units. Medium and long term rent. New Zealand, Spain, Panama. I’m going all in, some would say. And so do I. And so you should. As Marianne Williamson said in her mega bestseller A Return to Love, “Your playing small does not serve the world....
9 days ago • 1 min read
You should read this, if you feel stuck in anything you’re doing. In Atomic Habits, James Clear talks about the importance of systems versus goals. “Winners and losers have the same goals,” he writes. “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” Weak systems provide weak results. No matter your goals. I’ve seen this many times. Agencies spend millions in creating the most beautiful contracts. They hire the best lawyers… who tend to be very expensive....
10 days ago • 1 min read