I can’t believe that other landowners/property owners haven’t figured out how to repurpose their retail space to live-work-play-make spaces, all at grade. There is demand for these types of spaces from gigpreneurs who, for example, want to work in a street-facing studio and live behind their store, all on one level (ie, the ground floor). […]

Over the Christmas holidays, I was rereading The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. I read it when I was a kid and enjoyed it, so I thought I’d see what I think of it now. It’s about five Union soldiers who escape Confederate captivity during the US Civil War in a balloon that is swept […]

[By the way, I have a few paperback copies I am giving away for Xmas. If you’re in Ottawa Canada and would like to drop by and get a copy, let me know, bruce.firestone@century21.ca. These proof copies have a few spelling errors in them (an absolute no-no in any book but especially one written for […]

How old are the modern Ottawa Senators? To answer this question, I just ask my daughter Jessica (the youngest of our five kids) how old she is. Why? Because my spouse, Dawn Macmillan, was 9-months pregnant with our baby who was due the day after I had to leave to arrive on time for the […]

Main Street Makeovers He must have received his law degree in the snail-mail. The guy didn’t know the difference between foreclosure and power-of-sale. Why is this even important? Foreclosure versus Power of Sale Because I advise a number of funds (REITs, MICs, Private Equity Funds, Mortgage Trusts, Mutual Fund Trusts, individual private lenders such as […]

[Excerpt from Gadgets and Gizmos—how to tell if you own a real business or just an expensive hobby  available from, https://brucemfirestone.com/product/gadgets-and-gizmos/] I realize this is a somewhat self-serving headline since I am a real estate investment and business coach and my spouse is a California-based CTI[1]-trained life coach, but don’t take my word for it—listen […]

Years ago, I wrote, Why Cheering for the Maple Leafs is… Unnatural. Essentially, I argue that when your home team does well, whether that is in Van city, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa or now Winnipeg or, for that matter, Montreal, it’s good for the local economy, so cheering for the Leafs anywhere but in Toronto is […]

[Here’s a book review I wrote in 2010 that is still relevant today (circa September 2020), so I’ve now added it to my blog, Prof Bruce] For the first three quarters of my advance copy of the book Delivering Happiness (Hachette Books, June 2010) by Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh (pronounced ‘Shay’), I felt like this […]

Kind of a nice problem to have, n’est-ce pas? Well, this is the challenge that Apple is currently facing seeing as it is sitting on a mountain of cash that most of us can only dream about. CNBC reported in Q1 2020 that: Apple now has $207.06 billion cash on hand, according to the company’s […]

I’m sure there are many people who work from home and enjoy that experience. I am not one of them unless forced to by, say, for example, Covid-19 or because of economic constraints. I had a home office for 14-months in the mid-2000s and came to really dislike it for a number of reasons, the […]

Book review of Pitch Anything, an innovative method for presenting, persuading and winning the deal by Oren Klaff, https://youtu.be/0ihMwKc2Sow With insights from Bruce M Firestone, PhD Plus, how a yoga teacher went from earning just over $30k a year to more than $100k Plus, how Prof Bruce successfully pitched the NHL for an expansion franchise […]

[This is an excerpt from Don’t Back Down, the real story of the founding of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators and why big leagues count written by Sens founder Bruce M Firestone, PhD, available from, https://brucemfirestone.com/product/dont-back-down/] You have to laugh at the expectations of leadership in the US where they expect their leaders to have a […]