Morning Folks!!
Kindred spirit? Maybe. Possibly. Probably. Definitely!!
Want to know what we might have done if we were out there doing this sort of thing 50 years ago? Well let me introduce you to Mel Simon. He just died but we all know him and most never heard of him. He changed how we live and he changed how we shop. He did not invent the mall but he certainly took it to another level. He changed how we do business and most of all where we do it. He changed our social behavior. He gave folks a destination and filled it with everything they may need. Bottom line, he changed the world. Many of you were in one of his properties within just the last days. Maybe this very moment.
The man with a small dream and a very big result. All of us follow in his footsteps and some like Jeff Bezos just take it to the next level.
2009 is a tough year. Just be sure to do something GREAT before it ends! Make sure your greatest success comes in 2009. Mel had a lot less to work with and in much tougher days.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
Kevin
Very well spoken Rick!
Mel Simon got 2.8 BILLION visitors a year to his 399″domains” aka shopping malls.
Imagine that! Now that is TRAFFIC!!
Simon was a man who came from nothing and became something, a Billionaire and”The King of Shopping Malls” and in the process gave us our favorite place to go and shop and hang out when we were in high school.
I knew of Mel Simon’s great real estate empire but had never seen his picture until this morning in The New York Times. The first thing that came to mind was that man you can just tell is a”Born Salesman” and sure enough salesman he was, hawking encyclopedias door to door in his early
years. You can see the passion for selling in his eyes and in his broad smile. His malls sold $60 Billion a year in merchandise!
You’ll often see our greatest business leaders have a common thread in their bio’s and that is they were once SALESMEN!
One of the best jobs you can have when you first enter the world of business is in the sales department if you work at a corporation or being an independent sales rep if you like going it on your own. Nothing will teach you more valuable knowledge than when you are on the front lines selling and closing and interfacing with the people who buy your products and service. And once you learn how to sell something you become the most valuable person in the company cause you are the one who gets the orders to come in. If you look at any company you’ll find the highest earners behind the CEO’s are the in the sales division. That’s where the big money always is.
Rest in Peace Mel and thank you for all the great malls you created for America!
Adam
Hi Rick,
Didn’t see a contact form on the site so I thought I’d post this here as I thought it might be of interest to you and your readers.
Dr. Kevin Ham or Reinvent Technologies (god.com, religion.com, vancouver.com and others) gave a talk in Vancouver on Tuesday night and I capture it on video. In the talk he discusses his start in making money on the web and how a simple website he owned turned him on to the domain name game and how he built a $300 million portfolio.
Check it out: http://www.adamkillam.com/dr-kevin-ham-at-the-vancouver-enterprise-forum/ (17 videos in total)
Best,
Adam
James
He was always known for attentiveness: Forbes in 1989 reported that he took the call from a merchant upset about signs in a parking lot.
“Why should he call some stranger?” Mr. Simon said.
Fantastic!