Monthly Archives: February 2017

Nick Cripps, a talented real estate broker, sent me this tool called “Let’s meet in the middle.” If you are meeting a couple of friends for lunch and want to know what’s the midpoint, you can use this to find out, https://www.geomidpoint.com/meet/. #awesome But for realtors, it’s even better–say a client has a daughter attending Algonquin, and […]

I have worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs. What often separates the successful ones from the unsuccessful ones is something I call, “fear of success.” It’s not easy to understand, but it’s a very real phenomenon, at least in my experience.  I used it in a novel I wrote (Jenna’s Story). Here’s an excerpt […]

I am often asked, “What are the keys to success?” I have developed some ideas about this over the years and, like any such list, mine is bound to be incomplete. Worse than that, many of these ideas about success are contradictory. Things that I learned from my Dad, Professor O. J. Firestone, like “Never […]

Why do artists create works of art, ones for the public eye to critique? Here’s Wolfgang Tillmans’ answer: “The pressure of experimentation is greater than the fear of embarrassment. That is the essence of art.” It is also the essence of entrepreneurship where every startup, every project is an experiment until proven successful… or not. […]

A couple of young realtors I work with recently asked me why, when requesting a seller take back 2nd mortgage, we have to put a line in the agreement of purchase and sale that goes something like this, “the seller shall provide a seller take back second charge to the buyer upon completion in the […]

Before trying to make a deal with some bureaucrats (aka Vogons) yesterday, I used this video to teach my entrepreneur client how to deal properly with them: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbN1NaQ7yQI?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=540&h=405] @ profbruce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbN1NaQ7yQI

Years ago, Las Vegas star Wayne Newton apparently got stung by a threesome of rip-off artists.  Here’s his story as told to me by all-seeing, all-knowing ROYAL LePAGE Performance Realty broker of record Ralph Shaw. First, you have a single Arabian horse worth $1,500. It’s owned by “Chad”. Chad sells it to Bill for $1 million. […]

Bruce M Firestone, PhD, Interview with Sylvain Rochon [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-qvpadXc4I?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=540&h=304] https://youtu.be/w-qvpadXc4I In this Feb 14th 2017 interview, Mr Rochon asks Prof Bruce nine wide-ranging questions about technology and the real estate industry; here are the questions: 1.       What kind of technologies are changing the real estate business these days? 2.     […]

We’ve been seeing a lot of this in overheated markets like Vancouver and Toronto, but when you start seeing it in small Ontario communities, you know the markets are really stupid. What is the greater fool theory? Here’s my definition: THERE IS ALWAYS SOME GREATER FOOL WHO WILL BUY MY STUPID PROPERTIES FOR MORE THAN […]

Tom Brady in his Super Bowl LI post-game interview said there were about 30 plays that had to go right for the Patriots to mount a successful comeback. So I wanted to know how old I will be before I see another improbable result like this–one I must admit I didn’t see since I turned […]

In a cold northern shelf city like Ottawa Canada, when does the spring market start: a. February 2nd, groundhog day b. March 21st, the first official day of spring c. never, it’s always winter d. none of the above? I would (arbitrarily) argue “d,” none of the above. For me, the spring market begins when […]