Reconnecting with Mentors

The Westchester-Putnam Association of Realtors has featured me in their monthly spotlight in the Real Estate In Depth publication. The link is a pdf and the article is on page 11. It is a nice piece, and as much as I am tempted to beat my chest, much of my interview for the article was actually on Paul and Kevin Crego (misspelled “Prego” in the article), who taught me the real estate business. 

Kevin was my college roommate at Villanova and recruited me for years to come and work with him and his father at their brokerage in Rochester. I was with them for 5 years. 

It is tough to summarize a 14 year career in a short article, so Paul and Kevin did not get a big role, although I am gratified at the last sentence of the piece- 100% true. 

I had a chance to catch up with Paul and Kevin, as well as their better halves, Helen and Elle, when I was in Ithaca on June 13th. We met in Aurora, New York for lunch, and had a wonderful reunion at the Aurora Inn overlooking Lake Cayuga. 

There is no closer friendship than those with whom you have shared such an intense part of your life as building a career. For 5 years Paul and Kevin treated me like a son and brother as I grew in the business, and when I felt it was time to go come home to Westchester and build my family and career here they remained my biggest supporters. 

We all still work very hard in this economic climate, so getting together in the middle of the state for lunch was about as much as any of us could spare. I was in Ithaca to stand in for my late brother at the Cornell Crew Alumni row, and they were able to play hooky from business in Rochester for half a day. It was not lots of time, but it was quality time. 

I could write a book on each of the things I’ve touched on here, but there is work to be done, and I’ll indulge another time. Suffice to say that time like this are too rare, and one of my goals is to make them more common. 

Time with loved ones is what it is all about.