Dormant Asset to Deal to Cash
Shooting from the hip with a double-barrel Berringer – looks like a great real estate deal after 40 years, as the most photographed home shot from the street other than the White House, new owners in November began charging $275 per person for an inside tour. An average of 30 people per day is $8,250, which is $3,011,250 annually.
Lesson – Brainstorm a product that you are giving away that could be upgraded to a paid one – totally different feel from camera vs inside tour of orange kitchen, green shag carpet, and floating staircase.
Millennials/Gen Z – worth watching one episode to understand parents Linkedin strategy – Greg and Marsha Brady.
‘The Rockford Files’ Reboot Gets NBC Pilot
Too damn far. Can’t copy a stylist product or person.
James Garner, as Rockford, created a new male category: cool, smart and all over the map. Replacing the western John Wayne macho, I don’t think a guy from Buffy Vampire Slayer will suffice.
Lesson: Copy and improve are often a solid entrepreneurial combo strategy unless you are trying to emulate a stylist product or person – the original that created the category.
Create a new category instead. They will always choose the original. A&W Root Beer.
My One Morning in Iran
It was summer of 2006 when I was tagging along with Florence Eid in the Middle East, where she served as MENA’s Chief Economist for JP Morgan.
Jamie Dimon hired Florence right off the speaking stage, and overnight, she went from a finance professor to war zones as JPMorgan was hocking war bonds for Iraq.
We were in her Beirut condo when the call came in – meeting is a go in Iran in 3 hours. We rushed to the airport, where our driver escorted us to a chartered flight already cranking loudly on the runway.
Inside Iran, the vibe felt really nice, but a bad cloud hung over the side. I went inside with Florence as a prop so they would not pushback a woman traveling by herself. It worked until the Iran guys asked me to sit in the lobby. No problem.
Afterwards, when I asked Florence how the meeting went, the PHD from MIT said, “Systematic layered, entrenched assholes.”
I bet Zelensky would say Putin was a bigger one.
We seem to have the asshole thing covered too in the Epstein Files, which show sides are bought and paid for by the same people – Marshall Tucker Song – Can’t You See.
By the way, the Pentagon sent Treasury a note yesterday – need $50B to restock ammunition.
The dinosaur guy, Professor Jack Horner, who was the inspiration of Dr. Grant in Jurassic Park, was fired this morning by Chapman University for appearing in Epstein’s email. “We had fun with the girls,” digging up bones. Literally, Horner has a bone ranch to search for Dinosaurs where they dig up bones.
NYC – Best Hotel Deals
Ritz, Merrion Row – West House – contact us.
Best afternoon Manhattan coffee shop – ‘Mika’s Direction’ is a Japanese tea café in New York founded by Mika Hatanaka. The cafe known for its matcha lattes (especially the strawberry), hojicha, and simple, artisanal goods, provided a calm space in the city.
It’s her spirit. You walk in – it feels like the White Lotus, calm but with a slight sense of danger until you meet Mika. And you will never drink another Matcha latte from anywhere else.
And it’s why I’m paranoid in 2026. 2025 was one of the best years of my career, but I dodged 2 freight trains coming down the track.
More to come. Sooner or later, more than less.
