Don't take this as a commercial. It's not. But nearly ten years ago, my company in NJ offered me a position as National Sales Manager. They said if I accepted, I had to move out West--somewhere near a major airport, west of the Mississippi. "You choose," the boss said, "and we'll move you there." My Darlin' chose Arizona. Together, we chose Tucson, and we've never looked back. When I told my boss I was separating from the company in 2003 because we didn't want to move back to NJ, he didn't believe me. He knew we had kids and grandkids in NJ, and he figured I was negotiating for a better pay package. Wrong!
I'm my town's biggest fan. Town? We have 1,000,000 people here in the desert. I love Tucson! My life is here. My new business is here. Our friends are here, and the ones who don't live here travel from around the country to vacation here. Tiger Woods was here this year, and he's coming back next year. God bless golf!
Imagine living among one million people, in a town that grows by 20,000 people each year, and griping about business opportunity! "Oh, man," I hear, "the real estate market is in the doldrums. Business is hard. There are 9,600 houses on the market. Buyers are too picky, and sellers think they own the Taj Mahal." I'm in the residential lending business, and God bless my Realtor friends, but some of them are hard to be around. I want to hang with fans.
The telephone switchboard belongs to the old Historic Hotel Congress in downtown Tucson. I say "downtown," but Tucson ten years ago had less of a downtown than Lawrence, Kansas. (I like Lawrence; it's a university town like Tucson.) Back in the 1980's, an attorney put together a group of investors and bought the Hotel. It wasn't in great shape, but they thought it had potential. And the downtown area had theatres, shopping, and food.
Then the mall concept came to Tucson. Shopping moved out. Food followed shopping. One by one, the hotel investors wanted out. In the end, only the attorney remained, but he believed in himself and Tucson. He was the Hotel's Greatest Fan. And he believed in the concept of Downtown. He still does.
Today, I had lunch with Deborah Kelly, Banquet Manager for the Hotel Congress. She and I are members of a BNI breakfast referral group, and we spent an hour exploring what we could do to help grow each other's business. I was late for lunch, because the streets downtown are under construction. Progress is breaking out all over the place. A new train station and museum are complete just to the northeast of the Hotel, and there's a new parking garage to the north. Fourth street underpass is closed for the foreseeable future, because a new, wide, modern underpass connecting downtown with the Arts and University district is underway. It has the noise, the confusion, the action, the smell of success!
And it has its critics. I have no time for critics; I can't afford to listen to them. I'm looking for fans. People with a CAN-DO attitude. People who believe in themselves and their ability to improve their surroundings. Individuals as different from the plodding complainers as a racehorse is from a mule. If you're in business, you put down roots. It can't be helped. So it only makes sense to ignore what you CAN'T fix and focus on what you CAN. Didn't your Grandma say "Bloom where you're planted?"
Today's Historic Hotel Congress is home to a successful nightclub. I'll never go there. I wouldn't fit in. But so what? My darlin' and I love to have breakfast at the Cup Cafe' under the Mesquite trees. We're big fans.
And in talking with Deborah, I found what I think is the perfece venue for my next mortgage seminar. I'm going to call my Financial Planner and suggest he book it for his next seminar. There's a New York Life guy I know who's going to hear from me. And I know a few Realtors who are leaders of the pack who will join us. Like I said, I'm a big fan.
While I was blogging here, I googled a website for comments on the "Historic Hotel Congress." Until today, I didn't know that the hotel still has an operating switchboard like the one above for its 40-some rooms. It does! And the rooms don't have televisions.
Comments ranged from "Fell in love with the Hotel Congress and Tucson" to "overpriced dump." My favorite comment was "Rachel Ray's $40 a-Day ate at the hotel restaurant. I had the same breakfast she had and it was great."
I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.
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