All Posts by Bruce Firestone

[This is the second in a 3-part series written for Ottawa Business Journal by OBJ columnist, Bruce M Firestone, PhD, who is working with the city of Ottawa to develop a new OP, official plan, one that is suited to 21st century conditions—both economic, sociological and environmental. An edited version of this article appears at, […]

A client of mine asked me today about helping him sort through a very complex contract to fit up his new swim school. Obviously, the construction industry is perfect, right? Wrong. Here’s what I wrote him: This is scary for everyone. The four major things that can often go wrong in this biz are: 1. […]

I believe it’s time for a new approach to taking care of yourself and your family for at least three generations. By “new” I actually mean hundreds of years old–wealthy families the world over have known for many, many generations that the best way to provide for themselves and their families is by owning their […]

My friend and adviser Corey Oliver helped me develop my very own GaVinci Report. It rhymes with “da Vinci” for a reason–not that I am Leonardo da Vinci but rather Corey is! Actually, it was named after his son Gavin… The GaVinci Report developed by Corey is a storytelling strategy piece; it helps anyone or […]

Developing a message map for a business, organization or even a sole practitioner like me, is really important. It helps you quickly tell folks what it is you do and why because, as Simon Sinek says, people don’t buy what you do or how you do it, they buy why you do it… Here’s what […]

[The difference between a city accountant and a country one explained…] Clients of mine, first time home-buyers Katie and John (not their real names), are not on a path like others. No, they want to buy a home that pays them rather than one they pay for. What’s that you say? A home that pays […]

I teach/mentor/coach a buy and hold strategy when it comes to real estate investing. It’s also a truism that you make money in real estate when you buy not when you sell (and since I teach folks to hold property for at least 3-generations), purchasing well-located properties at a decent price (ie, buying smart/buying low) […]

By Richard Paul Evans (2005) Review (from Amazon): When Richard Paul Evans was twelve, his father, a building contractor, shattered both his legs. With no insurance, no income, and eight children, the family was destitute. At that difficult time young Evans was introduced to a kind multimillionaire who taught him the five secrets of wealth. […]

To be honest, I’ve long felt that baby boomers (of which I am one) have acted in a way to favor their generation over younger people. Here’s an article written by Lyman Stone for the Atlantic (June 24, 2019) that extends and builds on that argument… The political ascendancy of the Boomers brought with it […]

I’ve written before that it’s a mistake in my view that many companies in North America these days push out employees over 50 (and, in tech, anyone over 40). These people are your time machine, your Wayback Machine (aka, internet archive) if you will. Plus, they know how to work hard, which means, basically, they […]

Charles “Chip” Esten (better known as Deacon Claybourne from TV series Nashville) was asked by his writers to come up w/ a song (in just 3-days) he could perform on the show (season 6) as a tune his daddy had once taught him. The result is the fabulous, Itty, Bitty, Ditty, https://youtu.be/ZmMz1UQu0u0 Play it and […]

Bruce M Firestone, PhD, keynote at FanSaves Event May 2019 YouTube video link: https://youtu.be/ZY6j-PgjUFU What is covered? -even Ice Fishing Huts are sponsored! -and keynotes are sponsored! -Ottawa 67s find a way to say “Yes!” to every sponsorship request by turning such asks into a new sales channel by harnessing the give a person a fishing […]