Page 38 - EQ Mag-issue 5
P. 38
REAL ESTATE INVESTORS RESOURCES
Mastering the Lazy Gene
The Entrepreneur – Part 1
By: Lilyvette Rodriguez
When you first meet Albert, you can't help but be a price for spreading the silt. Plus, he also mowed
drawn in by his genuine wide-eyed expression. It's as if lawns.
he is in search for and excited to get answers. He didn't
start out to be an entrepreneur or real estate investor. Albert was the only boy in his neighborhood who
None the less, his twenty year journey in the Baton would babysit “I'd charge $2/hour, watch their cable
Rouge, Louisiana real estate market has encountered TV, eat anything in their refrigerator and all of their
interesting twists and turns. He jokingly says that he is snacks,” Albert recounts. When his parents had a
mastering his lazy gene. I can tell you there is nothing garage sale, he didn't have anything to sell so “I would
lazy in his process. In fact, he has efficiently mastered buy fudgesicles, a block of dry ice and sell ice cream
how to simplify, leverage and instead”…always making a return
execute his investment strategy. He o n h i s i n v e s t m e n t . T h e
has artfully purchased, maintained, entrepreneurial spirit has always
and sold various pieces of his real been in his DNA. “What do people
estate portfolio. He's applied need?” was Albert's approach.
knowledge and experience in the
residential, multi-family, and lastly When Albert attended college, he
the commercial leasing space, originally majored in electrical
which he has discovered is more engineering. His counselor told him
lucrative compared to his housing a year into the engineering
revenues. This two-part story is program that his profile didn't fit
about how desire, need and the engineering curriculum. In
opportunity can be leveraged when other words: rethink engineering as
you cultivate your mindset. a career. Albert was three years in
before finally admitting that his
A l b e r t a t t e n d e d L o u i s i a n a counselor was right. Albert shared,
University in Baton Rouge. Albert “I came to the realization that
was a full time student and college can brainwash you into this
stumbled upon and developed a college business. status quo of get a job, work for a company, do your 40
Upon graduation, he decided to make Baton Rouge his years, get your retirement, and get your gold watch.”
new hometown. As he shares his journey with me, it is What contributed to the wakeup call was his best
clear Albert was resourceful. “Growing up, money was friend, Ken, from high school, who was also his college
tight; and I found a way to pay for my cable, stereo roommate, observing how he missed Albert's starting
equipment, model trains – the nice things which, if I “all these crazy businesses.” He realized he'd totally
wanted, I would have to hustle for them,” states given up and bought into the system.
Pellissier.
That was a significant marker in Albert's life. He was
In New Orleans, because of its swampiness, the soil part of a fraternity. Each of the fraternities and
sinks 2”-3” every year. The soil would, at some point, be sororities would turn in a phone list to the Greek
lower than the house's concrete slab. To this day, it is council in case an officer had to get a hold of someone.
customary for property owners to have a load of dirt This was pre-cell phones, land lines only era. It was
dumped in their front yard. Its Mississippi River silt or how you reached everyone, via land line. The cost of
river sand and dirt. The silt is spread to fill in the gap. At copying the list required selling ads to offset the cost
Age 12, Albert would knock on the doors where he saw of printing. Albert asked if the council would be open
the dirt piled in front. Obvious to him, the property to him selling more ads to print more phone lists. The
owner didn't want to do the work. He would negotiate ads “sold like hot cakes,” states Pellissier. He raised
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