Excellent professional. First in coming in. Last in leaving. Sacrificing holidays, family time and even health. Limited recognition. Or not recognition at all. Tried to change career path. “If only you had specific experience”, “It would be great to have it done it before”, “But this is complicated”, “If you had more exposure to clients”, “what’s your commercial experience”. Don’t blame those questions, or the messengers. Fear is logical. In today’s world where you have to cover your @ss at...
1 day ago • 1 min read
You talk to that person and think, This must be someone important. Vice President. Well… time to listen. It was urgent. And my agenda always has room for interesting people. Then… 30 seconds into the conversation, you realize this is going nowhere. How he talks. What he asks. The rush to prove the title… something I wasn’t interested in. Well… Disappointment. Then… You check LinkedIn and notice the company has more Vice Presidents than assistants, associates, managers, and project managers...
2 days ago • 1 min read
These days I’ve been asked many times what I think about the Conejo Malo. Or Bad Bunny. Until the Super Bowl I had no idea who was the guy. I don’t listen to much music those days… So as he is only 31, I guess that I have not heard much of his songs. And still this is irrelevant. People like judging more than complaining. And my answer about the question is simple. Whoever has what you don’t have knows what you don’t know. And whoever has achieved what you haven’t achieved has done what you...
3 days ago • 1 min read
By the answers of yesterday’s email, I see that people love Canada. I do. So here you are more meat. Montreal… or as we say in Montreal… Montréal. Early 2010s. Project: McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) PPP Value: ~ CAD $1.3 billion Model: DBFM Canada again. Sophisticated market. Experienced advisers. Polished risk matrices. I was there practising kung fu and delivering infrastructure. The goal? Deliver one of the largest hospital redevelopments in North America through PPP. And make it...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Toronto. 2015. Project: Eglinton Crosstown LRT. Value: CAD $5+ billion. Model: DBFM. Jurisdiction: Canada — the global gold standard of PPPs. The agency wanted efficiency. Faster procurement. Faster close. Cleaner risk transfer. Put a medal in the chest for opening the day before election day. So they did what PPP manuals love to say: “Allocate risk to the party best able to manage it.” That sentence has probably financed more claims for lawyers than any other in infrastructure history....
5 days ago • 1 min read
This is the key question that made his face change. Last week. A mentee. Shocked by a very simple question. Look, I’ve seen through the years people living in a cage. Of self-imposed believes and limitations. You can blame your parents, your wife or husband, society, the lefties, Bad Bunny or Donald T. Whatever. These limitations, self-imposed, are holding you back. If you believe that it’s impossible to multiply by 10 your income… You’ll miss the opportunity of letting your brain being in...
6 days ago • 1 min read
Once I had a friend called Valentin. His parents gave him that name long time ago because he was born on 14 February. In Spain, there are still many people naming their children with the name of the saint of the day… or the day they were married, or things like that. Well… His parents could not foresee at the time the long term consequences of their choice. San Valentine was not at the time the word-wide phenomenon that it’s today. But still… there was some noise. Well… The thing is that...
7 days ago • 1 min read
You do your offer of services. Of course, as it couldn’t be otherwise, extremely expensive. And then… they rejected it. That’s fine. Part of life. Interesting challenge, but with the risk of becoming a frustrating job. Difficult stakeholders. I did not ask for it, but the gave me anyway. The reason for they decision was “interesting”. It was not price. Not the onerous payment conditions. Or the absurdly harsh terms and conditions. Nope. It was a… “We want to do it ourselves”. Then, you...
8 days ago • 1 min read
More than you think. And it’s everywhere. Some people call it laziness. Even ignorance. Or worse… unawareness… Or insufficient understanding. The fact is that my team called the guys. The water guys. Aqualia in Spain. Once. Twice. Finally, they came. They installed the new device to measure water consumption. We wanted to change the contract, using the new device that comes with lower fees (it was a development site). No answer. Call. No answer. Call. They answered. The device is not correct....
9 days ago • 1 min read