Ep46 Faith, Focus, and Fortune: How Lemar Koethe Built a Legacy

[00:00:00] You've got to make up your mind what you want to do, and then you don't ever look back. You keep following through.

[00:00:05] If the Lord isn't part of your life, then you're not going to be able to accomplish what you want to accomplish and do it the right way.

[00:00:12] From cornfields to high-rises, office to industrial, houses to hotels, and every other asset class in real estate, we cover the people, the projects, and the profit.

[00:00:23] Welcome to the Investing in Iowa Show. This show is for go-doers, action-takers, and business owners.

[00:00:30] It's for people like you who are sick of Uncle Sam taking a huge bite of your apple.

[00:00:35] If you're looking to get ahead of what's taking place in Iowa, learn who is doing what and how you can get in on the action.

[00:00:42] You're in the right place. Hosted by Neil Timmins, an Iowa native who has been involved in over $300 million in real estate right here in Iowa.

[00:00:52] Recording in studio from West Des Moines. Here's your host, Neil Timmins.

[00:00:58] I've got Lamar Cothie here on the show. Lamar, welcome.

[00:01:00] Thank you, Neil. It's good to be here.

[00:01:02] I appreciate you being here. Say, for the audience's sake, who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?

[00:01:08] Hi. I'm actually originally from Dubuque, Iowa, a little town of Sherrill's Mound, and from a little farm up there of like 132 acres.

[00:01:16] Okay.

[00:01:18] And that's why until I was 23 years old, until I was 23. And to be honest with you is that we never got out.

[00:01:26] We ended up 10 miles from town. And there was like, let's go to town maybe twice a year.

[00:01:33] I'd be going to Dubuque.

[00:01:35] Really? Yeah.

[00:01:35] Because my dad was a workaholic and he expected us to be the same way.

[00:01:40] You have siblings?

[00:01:42] I have one daughter. Yes.

[00:01:45] Do you have any brothers or sisters?

[00:01:46] Oh, siblings. I'm sorry.

[00:01:48] Yes.

[00:01:49] I have three brothers and one sister. And my mother was told after she had my oldest brother that she couldn't have any more children.

[00:01:58] And so they adopted my sister. And then after that, she had three more kids than I'm the youngest.

[00:02:04] Okay.

[00:02:05] I'm glad she didn't leave me out.

[00:02:07] Yes. Yes. Thankfully.

[00:02:08] Okay.

[00:02:09] What was that? I just know certainly through everything you've accomplished over your lifetime, I can imagine there was a strong work that could instill in you at a very young age.

[00:02:20] It was. My father was a very driven person and he expected us to make something of ourselves.

[00:02:28] He said, get up, make something of yourself. You're going to be a good for nothing.

[00:02:32] And so that was always the thing that I thought about. Wow.

[00:02:36] And I was the youngest and I thought, wow, I don't want to be a good for nothing.

[00:02:40] So he had that driven in my head, but we worked, we get up at five o'clock in the morning to milk the cows and a dairy farm, pigs and chickens.

[00:02:49] And bottom line is that after we get in the house and have breakfast, I either go to school or in the summertime, I'd go out on the farm and we'd do the farming.

[00:03:00] And then after that, why that wasn't that near enough, the evening after milk of the cows at five o'clock while we get in the house by at six and have something to eat.

[00:03:10] And we just happened to have a 10 acre garden. My father used to go and stand, stand on guard at a police department every morning after we picked all the stuff.

[00:03:20] And so that night after we got through the chores, we call it, we go in the house and wash all the vegetables and box them all up or what do you want to say?

[00:03:32] And we get maybe done 11 o'clock, five o'clock was when we got up.

[00:03:37] And sometimes I had really trouble getting up at fives or, and so I said, dad, come on.

[00:03:44] I said, listen, we'll get it done. And he, I said, listen, it's not when you get up. It's what you do when you get up.

[00:03:50] That's what people don't do. They don't focus. And I said, so come on, dad. He says, I don't care what you're saying.

[00:03:57] Listen, you can focus because you'd focus anyway, but basically we're going to get this done today.

[00:04:03] And so it was never tomorrow. Anything we could do that day, you just let us off the hook.

[00:04:09] We had to work until we got it done.

[00:04:11] 23 years old, you eventually leave the farm. And then what happens?

[00:04:15] Because I was worried all the time. I was worried I was going to be a good for nothing.

[00:04:19] And at 18 years of age, I went to the National Guard and put my six months active duty in Fort Ord, California, and then got out of there.

[00:04:32] And so I missed the first semester of college, which I was going to go into.

[00:04:36] So I did the second semester of college at University of Iowa.

[00:04:41] And then what happened? I saw an ad on the bulletin board that said sales.

[00:04:46] I go, wow, that's always what I want. I thought I should make some money. Sales.

[00:04:51] Yep.

[00:04:51] So I went and answered the ad and blow and behold, here was selling pots and pans.

[00:04:58] And the guy that was in Dubuque was the district manager.

[00:05:03] Why? I hate to say this, but he had a girlfriend named Mary and a wife named Mary.

[00:05:07] The bottom line on that is that he had always quit early where we went out of town to sell to get back to spend some time with his girlfriend before he went home.

[00:05:17] So he never got caught.

[00:05:19] And so that was just a thing that we got in the airplane.

[00:05:22] He had a little Piper airplane.

[00:05:24] We flew down to Iowa City.

[00:05:26] That's where the home office was at.

[00:05:28] And it was called Lifetime.

[00:05:29] It was Division of West Bend.

[00:05:31] And I always thought, wow, West Bend, that's something else.

[00:05:34] And big company.

[00:05:35] So basically that night, that afternoon, after we got through at the meeting, while we flew back, and bottom line is that I just said, hey, give me my sample case.

[00:05:49] I got to go to work.

[00:05:50] And so basically that night I got back about midnight from flying down there in a long meeting and so forth and getting back.

[00:05:59] And we had a milkman that had a daughter.

[00:06:04] And our job was to see single working girls before they get engaged or married and not college students, just single working girls.

[00:06:15] And I knew our milkman.

[00:06:17] He always used to pull over to his truck and he used to roll down our driveway.

[00:06:21] Cans of milk was $10 in a can.

[00:06:24] But he always was drinking.

[00:06:26] And so it seemed like all the time he was back.

[00:06:30] And when he'd get the milk, he'd back up into our silo and put another hole in the silo.

[00:06:35] Bottom line is I knew that he had a daughter.

[00:06:38] So that night, I got home at midnight and I go, wow, I got to get going.

[00:06:44] So I went up and knocked on his door, his family's door up at Cheryl's Mound at midnight.

[00:06:50] Got the whole family up, got the daughter out of bed.

[00:06:53] And he came down like with a sheet on it, looked like a ghost.

[00:06:56] When he first came down, they answered the door.

[00:06:59] And believe it or not, I didn't know that much about it.

[00:07:02] But I knew it was the best product in the world and enthusiasm radiates.

[00:07:08] I sold her a set of pots and pans.

[00:07:11] And so, yeah.

[00:07:13] So I got home, I don't know, 1 or 1.30.

[00:07:15] And so that was just the way it was.

[00:07:18] And I always used to say to the guys, hey, listen, never put it off for tomorrow.

[00:07:23] What do you do today?

[00:07:23] But make sure you get enough sleep.

[00:07:26] Because if you don't have enough sleep, why?

[00:07:29] You won't have a good attitude.

[00:07:31] And you won't be able to go out 100% and really get the job done.

[00:07:37] Bottom line is on that, is that I let them sleep till they wanted to.

[00:07:41] But after that time, why?

[00:07:43] We'd be up and at them.

[00:07:45] And we'd go out there and just freak hard in the street.

[00:07:49] Hey, have you received your free gift?

[00:07:51] And all that stuff.

[00:07:52] And that's where we got our leads from.

[00:07:54] Our oldest school knocking doors in the apartment area.

[00:07:57] It wasn't a huge apartment area.

[00:07:59] Sure.

[00:08:00] But that's what it was all about.

[00:08:02] And so we got to keep our deposits if there was, because I made 20% commission.

[00:08:07] So I always made sure I got 20% down.

[00:08:10] And I used to see this girl.

[00:08:13] I used to pull in Dubuque Bank and Trust in Dubuque.

[00:08:16] And if I give you a check or whatever, I'd have to put it in the bank right away.

[00:08:21] So this girl there was named Jeannie Martel.

[00:08:24] I'll never forget her last name.

[00:08:26] And so she'd always go, where are you getting this money from?

[00:08:30] And I said, well, the higher I work, the luckier I get.

[00:08:34] And so that's what it was.

[00:08:36] And so basically, I got started selling pots and pans in Dubuque.

[00:08:39] I love how you and or the company identified that single.

[00:08:43] You had a target market of who's most likely to buy the product.

[00:08:47] They could afford it and get it paid for before they get engaged.

[00:08:50] Otherwise, they have the excuse, well, I'm getting married.

[00:08:53] They can't afford it or whatever.

[00:08:54] So we saw single working girls before they got married.

[00:08:58] And when I first joined the company, why during the summertime,

[00:09:02] they only used to do like a fourth of their business.

[00:09:05] In the other nine months, you three fours.

[00:09:08] And I said, what's this about?

[00:09:10] I said, look, oh, it's awful hot outside.

[00:09:13] The girls don't want to be.

[00:09:15] Most of the houses back then was that were changed over to apartments.

[00:09:20] Didn't have air conditioning.

[00:09:22] And they'd say, hey, listen, it's too warm out.

[00:09:25] These girls are cooking upstairs.

[00:09:26] They want to get out and do something in the summertime.

[00:09:29] I said, well, that's fine and dandy.

[00:09:30] But I'll tell you what, if you think about it, why will the girls just get out of high school?

[00:09:36] That's when they get their job.

[00:09:38] And when does that happen?

[00:09:40] That happens in the summertime.

[00:09:42] So if we're not out seeing these girls and getting their sale before someone else comes along, we'll miss out.

[00:09:50] And it was just, it was really hard because it was really hot up in those apartments.

[00:09:55] So I'd always take another shirt along with me because I'd have to change.

[00:09:59] Right.

[00:09:59] Because it would get soaking wet sitting up there talking.

[00:10:02] And so I'd go out to the car and put another shirt on.

[00:10:08] But what it ended up being, the company ended up doing three-fourths of our business in the three summer months and only a fourth through the other nine months.

[00:10:17] Wow.

[00:10:18] Just because we changed that whole thing around and really made it happen when this should be happening.

[00:10:25] How long did you do that for?

[00:10:26] I did a total of 15 years.

[00:10:29] Okay.

[00:10:30] And I was in Dubuque, Iowa.

[00:10:32] But then they could never get an office started in Des Moines.

[00:10:37] Because what happened was, is that there was a dog-eat-dog business down there.

[00:10:42] Most of the guys that sold pots and pans from other companies would basically just sell by themselves.

[00:10:49] They wouldn't have a group.

[00:10:50] And so what happened was, is that they could never get somebody started because what?

[00:10:56] Down there because if they come and sold a set there in Des Moines, probably the salesman from another company would go in and cancel it and say, hey, if you get it for me, I'll give you this.

[00:11:08] And this and this too.

[00:11:09] And so I said, so they never could get one started.

[00:11:12] They had even guys from bigger companies and from management and so forth.

[00:11:17] They could never get one started.

[00:11:19] And one night, after five years of selling in Dubuque, we always just meet up.

[00:11:24] I was at a bar.

[00:11:26] And lo and behold, I walked in this bar and who's sitting there with the guys out and got armor on her?

[00:11:33] My fiance.

[00:11:36] And I go, oh my gosh, I can't believe this.

[00:11:41] So I just walked up to her and I said, hey, give me the ring.

[00:11:45] She says, what?

[00:11:46] I said, give me the ring.

[00:11:48] It's over with.

[00:11:49] It's over with.

[00:11:50] Because I said, listen, I won't put up with this.

[00:11:54] Right.

[00:11:54] So I got the ring.

[00:11:56] And the next morning, why I get my car and I get loaded up and I called the president of the company.

[00:12:04] And I said, Ed, his name was Hufflebee.

[00:12:06] We called him Bumblebee.

[00:12:08] And I said, Ed.

[00:12:09] And I said, hey, I'm on my way.

[00:12:11] Where to?

[00:12:13] I said, Des Moines.

[00:12:14] What do you do there?

[00:12:16] I said, you never could get your office started down there.

[00:12:19] Could you?

[00:12:20] No, there's nobody down there.

[00:12:22] And I said, guess what?

[00:12:24] I'm on my way.

[00:12:26] He says, you're what?

[00:12:27] Actually going down to Des Moines?

[00:12:28] I said, yes.

[00:12:30] We had a very large relation in our family.

[00:12:33] And both sides, my parents had a lot of brothers and sisters here.

[00:12:38] And so there was like about 300 of us that lived maybe in a five-mile radius.

[00:12:43] But nobody ever left Dubuque.

[00:12:46] Everybody stayed around there.

[00:12:48] And so I said, wow, you know what?

[00:12:51] I'm going to Des Moines.

[00:12:52] I just had to get myself my attention again.

[00:12:57] And I said, wow, I'm really going to Des Moines, aren't I?

[00:12:59] I drove down to Des Moines.

[00:13:01] And basically everything that we had, that we did, we never got any perks from the company.

[00:13:08] In fact, your samples you even had to pay for instead of giving them to you.

[00:13:13] You had to pay for your samples.

[00:13:15] And guess what also?

[00:13:17] When I went on a trip to Switzerland from personal sales, why?

[00:13:21] I thought, wow, it's a free trip.

[00:13:23] No.

[00:13:24] They charge you back in so many sets of cookware to pay for the trip.

[00:13:28] So there was nothing free.

[00:13:30] So I learned that a long time ago.

[00:13:32] And so basically what I did in Des Moines, I just worked night and day.

[00:13:38] And in fact, the president of our company, when I was 23 years old, he came to me at a meeting.

[00:13:43] He says, Lamar.

[00:13:44] I said, yeah.

[00:13:46] He says, I got to tell you something.

[00:13:47] I said, what are you going to tell me?

[00:13:48] You got to slow down.

[00:13:49] I said, what do you mean slow down?

[00:13:51] He says, you're going to have a heart attack if you don't slow down.

[00:13:54] I said, listen, my dad told me hard work never killed anybody.

[00:14:00] And I'm not going to die from overworking.

[00:14:02] No, thank you very much.

[00:14:04] But listen, I always worked a 12 or 14 hour day.

[00:14:09] That was minimal.

[00:14:11] And everybody always used to say at the evening, hey, you don't knock on the door after nine o'clock.

[00:14:17] I said, you don't?

[00:14:18] Why?

[00:14:19] Because it's just not the way to do things.

[00:14:21] I said, oh, my gosh.

[00:14:23] So basically, I thought, that's right.

[00:14:25] There's my opportunity.

[00:14:26] I'm knocking after nine o'clock.

[00:14:28] People aren't expecting you.

[00:14:30] Maybe these girls aren't expecting you because they've had a lot of salesmen there and so forth.

[00:14:34] Because we worked areas that were hit hard by salesmen.

[00:14:37] And I'm knocking the door and get in and get my last sale.

[00:14:41] It was just something that I taught my people.

[00:14:44] I said, look, you're not going to work hard.

[00:14:47] Because when I was interviewing, I'm always hiring people.

[00:14:49] I said, if you're not going to work hard, you might as well leave right now.

[00:14:52] What do you mean?

[00:14:53] I said, look, I can't have anybody working for me that isn't working hard.

[00:14:59] You know what?

[00:15:00] Because you're going to be a bad example for another person in the company that's working for me.

[00:15:04] So we can't have that.

[00:15:06] So listen, if you're not going to make up your mind right now, there's a door.

[00:15:10] You might as well leave right now because I'm a workaholic.

[00:15:12] And I expect you to really pull out all those stops.

[00:15:15] And if you're not that kind of a guy, then listen, or girl, we hired both.

[00:15:20] Then bottom line, hey, it won't work out.

[00:15:22] I don't want to waste your time.

[00:15:24] You set that culture early on.

[00:15:25] I said it right after from the very beginning.

[00:15:28] It had to be.

[00:15:29] Because in the fact that sales meetings, when I walked in, I'd have maybe 40 or 50 guys in the room

[00:15:36] that I had working for me.

[00:15:38] And some of the different ones that whenever a person was not producing or not working hard,

[00:15:45] I'd say right before the meeting, I'd say, hey, can I see you for a little bit in my meeting, in my office?

[00:15:50] And they go, what for?

[00:15:52] I said, just come on in.

[00:15:53] In fact, bring your sample case in.

[00:15:54] I want to go through your sample case with you.

[00:15:56] Okay.

[00:15:57] So you'd walk into the office and I closed the door and I'd say, look, this isn't working out very good for you.

[00:16:03] He said, what do you mean?

[00:16:04] I said, look, you could probably do a lot better somewhere else because we got to have somebody does working.

[00:16:12] And that works very hard.

[00:16:13] You're just not doing that.

[00:16:15] I don't think you're built for it.

[00:16:17] And I think whatever you went into, you're probably going to do a lot better something else.

[00:16:21] But thanks a lot for trying it out.

[00:16:24] And so I'd walk out of the office and he'd leave his sample case there because I owned all the sample cases.

[00:16:28] And he would sometimes have tears in his eyes.

[00:16:31] Sure.

[00:16:31] And the people said, what happened?

[00:16:34] What happened?

[00:16:35] And I said, you know what?

[00:16:37] We can't have anybody holding the rest of the group down, holding them back.

[00:16:41] So basically, I let them go.

[00:16:44] You left them go?

[00:16:45] I said, yeah.

[00:16:46] So this really got their attention that if they're not going to work hard, they're not going to work for me.

[00:16:52] That's the way it was.

[00:16:53] And it was just exciting because I always say that the devil's playground.

[00:16:58] Yeah.

[00:16:59] And I said, listen, if you have idle thoughts, if you're not always busy, that's what's going to happen to you.

[00:17:03] And so basically, I just wanted you to know that, look, it was good working with you.

[00:17:08] I hope you learned something.

[00:17:09] But good luck in the future.

[00:17:11] What year was that you came to Des Moines?

[00:17:13] In 1960.

[00:17:15] Let's see.

[00:17:16] 1967.

[00:17:17] 67.

[00:17:18] Uh-huh.

[00:17:19] So you came to Des Moines.

[00:17:20] You built a machine, a whole sales army of folks in this business.

[00:17:24] And it sounds like it was a tremendous business for you for a number of years.

[00:17:28] 15 years.

[00:17:29] 11 years.

[00:17:30] Yeah.

[00:17:30] Make some money doing it?

[00:17:31] I mean, yeah.

[00:17:32] I got to tell you, it's 27.

[00:17:35] I had a million dollars in the bank.

[00:17:37] Yeah.

[00:17:38] That was from selling pots and pans door to door.

[00:17:40] That's right.

[00:17:40] Because I saved.

[00:17:41] I was a saver.

[00:17:43] Yeah.

[00:17:43] Everybody always used to say, oh, they'd be driving a Riviera or this kind of car, that kind of car.

[00:17:49] And I'd drive my 55 Chevy.

[00:17:51] And we go, hey.

[00:17:52] I always used to tell them, I said, listen, I'm saving up money because I want to pay cash for a house and whatever in the future.

[00:17:59] Because you never know what's going to go on.

[00:18:01] So I don't want to deal with that.

[00:18:03] My dad always said, listen, if you can't afford it, you don't buy it.

[00:18:09] You pay cash for anything that you get.

[00:18:13] What you just said is lost upon this country.

[00:18:16] Yeah.

[00:18:17] If you can't afford it, you don't buy it.

[00:18:18] It sounds so simplistic, but we're $34 trillion in the hole.

[00:18:21] Yeah.

[00:18:22] Then the average American is challenged.

[00:18:24] Yeah.

[00:18:25] I got it.

[00:18:25] On that point, I got to say, which maybe I got a bunch of onlys in my life, but I never had a loan in my life ever to this day.

[00:18:33] Never, ever paid a cent interest because I thought, wow, the banks, they look really wealthy.

[00:18:40] And they make their money off of interest.

[00:18:43] And I thought, why do I want to give my interest away if I don't have to?

[00:18:47] Why not keep that too?

[00:18:49] I said, okay.

[00:18:50] So I never had a loan in my life.

[00:18:53] I got to admit though, when I first came to Des Moines, after about a couple of years of being, this one real estate salesman come to me and says, Amar, you ever thought about buying any apartments?

[00:19:05] Apartments?

[00:19:06] I said, I work in apartments all the time.

[00:19:09] There's one coming up.

[00:19:10] You might be interested in.

[00:19:12] I said, really?

[00:19:13] I said, show it to me.

[00:19:15] And because of my DNA or whatever, I always looked real young for my age.

[00:19:20] And so I can't remember.

[00:19:22] I always remember when I walked into this guy that owned these apartments and his brother, why I walked in and sat down and they said to the realtor, who's this?

[00:19:31] I said, he says, this is a guy that wants to maybe buy your apartments.

[00:19:35] This guy?

[00:19:36] I said, yeah.

[00:19:38] I said, okay.

[00:19:40] So what happened was when I first started, I got into apartments and my first couple of apartment buildings, I bought them on contract.

[00:19:50] Didn't pay a set interest, but told the guy, I said, listen, I'll put $50,000 down and I'll have it paid in three years.

[00:20:00] I'll have it paid out.

[00:20:01] So it's a three-year contract.

[00:20:02] After that time, I paid the balance.

[00:20:05] Okay?

[00:20:05] So that's how I got into it.

[00:20:07] And so from that, I ended up having seven apartment complexes that I bought throughout the time.

[00:20:14] So basically, in Dubuque, excuse me, in Des Moines, why 50 guys is a lot of guys in this one area working, correct?

[00:20:25] And I thought, wow, the company never had anybody that was a district manager, which I was a district manager at the time, had more than one office.

[00:20:35] And I said, why not, Huffleby?

[00:20:38] Why not?

[00:20:39] So I took my best man and I put in Omaha, Nebraska.

[00:20:43] And that was where we used to go over there a lot and blitz, blitz the area we called it, sure, and really make it happen.

[00:20:51] And then after a few years, I said, you know what?

[00:20:54] We got a lot of guys here.

[00:20:56] Why don't I, why are we over Lincoln?

[00:20:58] I'll put an office in Lincoln, Nebraska.

[00:21:01] And then the last one I did was I went to Denver, but I wasn't in Denver very long because off my people in Omaha and Lincoln, I only made that 3% commission override.

[00:21:16] Yeah.

[00:21:17] And I said, gosh, I have to pay for their offices.

[00:21:20] I have to pay for the ads of hiring people.

[00:21:23] And I said, I'm praying to these people.

[00:21:25] I went to the president of the company.

[00:21:27] I said, help me.

[00:21:28] I said, look, let me ask you something.

[00:21:30] I said, would you work for nothing?

[00:21:32] He said, no.

[00:21:34] Why?

[00:21:34] I said, I don't want to either.

[00:21:36] He said, what do you mean?

[00:21:37] I said, tell you what I'll do.

[00:21:39] I'll give you Omaha, Lincoln, and Denver.

[00:21:44] And just give me a better deal in the Des Moines area because I'm not making very much money from there.

[00:21:51] And they said, no, you just keep your offices.

[00:21:55] I said, no.

[00:21:55] I said, you can have them free.

[00:21:58] Just give me a little bit better deal.

[00:22:00] And all these guys are going to collect all their money.

[00:22:02] I won't have any override for them.

[00:22:04] I understand.

[00:22:05] But I said, just basically, just give me a little better deal.

[00:22:08] He said, we can't do that.

[00:22:11] I said, you can't do that?

[00:22:12] He said, listen, I know you can't.

[00:22:15] No, we can't.

[00:22:16] I said, okay.

[00:22:18] Damn.

[00:22:19] I said, I'll probably leave the company.

[00:22:21] He says, no, you won't.

[00:22:22] You always call me Blondie.

[00:22:23] No, Blondie, you won't.

[00:22:25] I said, yeah, I will.

[00:22:27] And he says, no, you won't.

[00:22:29] I said, okay.

[00:22:30] So what happened was I went out to a company, a manufacturing company, and told them what I wanted.

[00:22:37] And lo and behold, I got a set of pots and pans that made sense.

[00:22:42] That was even better than maybe a few things better than what we had to cook where we had a six-ply bottom.

[00:22:49] And he used to cook faster, cook on a lower heat, save all the juice in the food so it tasted better.

[00:22:55] The food wouldn't shrink up.

[00:22:57] And we guaranteed the set for a lifetime.

[00:22:59] It was all stainless steel, so it was really easy to clean.

[00:23:02] And this is what it was.

[00:23:06] And I knew that basically when I first started selling, the most expensive set in the store was Revereware.

[00:23:13] And there was also those aluminum kind sold on the market, but the store was Revereware.

[00:23:20] And it cost $50 to get the whole set.

[00:23:22] Our whole set, because of the cost, $3.29.

[00:23:27] And basically, so you just had to make sure that before you're talking to a person, you want to really do what?

[00:23:37] We call them the setup.

[00:23:39] Find out everything about them before you pull out a sample of what you want to sell them, before you show them any product at all.

[00:23:49] Because I said 90% of the sale should be done before you show the product.

[00:23:55] And so basically, by asking them enough questions, how much they make, what kind of other obligations do they have?

[00:24:02] Why?

[00:24:02] Just are you going to somebody?

[00:24:04] Just finding out all, I won't go into it.

[00:24:06] But an awful lot of information.

[00:24:08] You're going to qualify them.

[00:24:09] There you go.

[00:24:10] You want to understand that they can actually afford what you're about to present.

[00:24:13] There you go.

[00:24:13] And at the same time, what I hear you saying is you're doing an ETH analysis.

[00:24:15] You got to be able to present features and benefits as soon as you do pull it out.

[00:24:19] That was it.

[00:24:20] Yeah.

[00:24:20] So qualify is a perfect name for basically of what you had to do before you showed them anything.

[00:24:26] Okay.

[00:24:27] Okay.

[00:24:27] So anyway, what I did is I got my own sets of pots and pans made.

[00:24:33] And then actually, because we financed it, I had to start a financing company.

[00:24:38] So I financed all the orders in the 18-month number, months.

[00:24:43] And that way they could pay from $12 to $15 a month, which was a lot of money back in the

[00:24:48] other day.

[00:24:48] And they could afford it.

[00:24:51] So what happened was first week that I had started my own company here at Huppley.

[00:24:57] I couldn't believe he did this because I was so loyal to him.

[00:25:00] He came down to Des Moines and took all my salespeople, talked to him in the leave-in

[00:25:06] for a week with him, which they never used to pay anything like, especially like hotel

[00:25:11] rooms or food.

[00:25:13] Are you kidding me?

[00:25:14] But he said, listen, go with me.

[00:25:16] I'll take care of the hotel rooms, the food, and everything else.

[00:25:19] I just, I want you to go with me just for a blitz for a week.

[00:25:23] And so after that week was up, I thought, see what happens.

[00:25:29] All the guys, not one left me.

[00:25:32] They all come back and say, Lamar, no, listen, we want to work for you.

[00:25:36] Because I just listen.

[00:25:38] You mentor us all the time.

[00:25:39] You're always there.

[00:25:41] We learned a lot from you.

[00:25:42] And we want to keep on going in the future.

[00:25:45] And we know that you just are going to be the right person to work for in the future.

[00:25:51] So it's not going to change.

[00:25:53] So that's what I did.

[00:25:55] What did that do for your confidence, that event?

[00:25:57] It really was something because of the fact that, you know, I just never knew anything about

[00:26:02] buying from a factory or about financing.

[00:26:06] Or that was the furthest thing from my mind because I didn't even like financing because

[00:26:10] I never did.

[00:26:10] So bottom line, I just, you know, I just said, hey, if they can do it, I can do it.

[00:26:18] It's, hey, it's right in front of me.

[00:26:20] What do you mean?

[00:26:21] You can't do it.

[00:26:22] It's, you're seeing it done every day.

[00:26:24] And so basically, yeah, you're exactly right.

[00:26:29] I got a lot of confidence and hey, there's nothing you can't do if you really want to.

[00:26:34] If you make your mind up, if you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it.

[00:26:39] Nothing can stop you.

[00:26:41] Come on.

[00:26:42] That's the answer.

[00:26:43] Nothing can stop you.

[00:26:43] So bottom line, I, for the next 10 years, I had my own company.

[00:26:48] And, and about during those 10 years old, I started buying more apartments, complexes.

[00:26:55] And then I got into strip malls and started buying them because I thought, hey, they take less time than an apartment.

[00:27:01] And they're business people.

[00:27:03] They have a little bit more reputation to them that they won't move out in the middle of the night like they do in apartments.

[00:27:09] And so I started buying some strip malls.

[00:27:12] And then what happened was, lo and behold, I never built anything before.

[00:27:18] Front of the apartments, which was the first apartment complex I bought, was called the Glory Ann Apartments.

[00:27:24] One guy's wife was Glory and his other, the other guy's wife was Ann.

[00:27:29] So they called Glory Ann Apartments.

[00:27:30] What I did is I moved a house out of there.

[00:27:34] And because I thought, wow, the thing in the future are having party rooms for the complex, a place they can, meeting place or whatever.

[00:27:45] So I thought, I'm going to, I'm going to, what?

[00:27:48] So I went to the city and I said, what can you build in something like this?

[00:27:52] Wallace, you can't put more than eight apartments.

[00:27:54] I said, fine.

[00:27:55] The meatplex it'll be.

[00:27:57] And so I put apartments above and down below, that's where the party room was.

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[00:28:42] Okay.

[00:28:43] So anyway, lo and behold on that one is that this guy that was doing the building of the building of the apartments, he called me up on the phone.

[00:28:54] He says, Lamar.

[00:28:55] I said, what?

[00:28:56] He said, listen, I can't continue with the eight-plex.

[00:29:00] I said, what?

[00:29:01] What do you mean you can't continue?

[00:29:03] He said, I'm getting divorced.

[00:29:05] It's really a tight end of the thing.

[00:29:07] And he says, there's no reason for me to continue because I won't get it anyway.

[00:29:12] She'll have it.

[00:29:13] And so he says, I'm sorry, I got to do this.

[00:29:17] He says, I can't.

[00:29:19] Today is my last day.

[00:29:21] I had to figure out what, where, who are you using?

[00:29:25] I thought, you know what?

[00:29:26] There's companies do these departments all the time.

[00:29:29] And I guess they hire them, companies that do sub work and somebody might do the electricity.

[00:29:38] Some might be doing the drywall.

[00:29:40] Some might be doing this, that, and the other thing.

[00:29:41] But I said, I got to finish this thing.

[00:29:43] It's halfway through.

[00:29:45] I ended up finishing it.

[00:29:48] And so basically, that's what happened there.

[00:29:50] And so what happened was Basic got so involved with apartments and with strip malls and everything else.

[00:29:58] And finally, one of my guys that was selling pots and pans for me, he's Lamar.

[00:30:04] He says, I want to put a fitness center in this one area.

[00:30:08] And I was wondering if you'd finance it for me.

[00:30:10] It's a fitness center.

[00:30:12] And we had an office right above the space where he wanted the fitness center.

[00:30:17] And I said, what?

[00:30:18] He said, oh, it's only $50,000 we need to get started.

[00:30:22] I said, okay.

[00:30:24] I said, tell you what?

[00:30:26] If you, I won't charge you any interest or anything else.

[00:30:30] But my accountant, which happened to have an office right next to me.

[00:30:34] I had him right in the same building.

[00:30:37] If he does overseeing and all your money is turning to him, I'll tell you what I'll do.

[00:30:43] I'll do it for you.

[00:30:44] And nine months after they were in business, they were supposed to turn in all the money.

[00:30:50] And the guy had sold them a so-called franchise.

[00:30:53] It really wasn't a franchise.

[00:30:55] Had them believing it for sure.

[00:30:57] Yeah.

[00:30:57] And so nine months later, what happened was the landlord come in.

[00:31:04] Those days, you could do that.

[00:31:05] You put a chain through the door.

[00:31:06] That's right.

[00:31:07] Yep.

[00:31:07] Through the door.

[00:31:08] And I said, what's, or what?

[00:31:09] And they said, listen, Lamar, it's chained up there.

[00:31:12] I said, is because we haven't been, there was up to them to make a payment to the, on the rental.

[00:31:17] Yeah.

[00:31:18] To the line line.

[00:31:18] And he says, we didn't.

[00:31:20] And so at the night, that's when I found out that only half the money that they were getting from their fitness center was going through my account.

[00:31:28] Going in.

[00:31:28] So he says, so will we, I guess we're out of business.

[00:31:33] So I went down to see my account and I said, hey, because I had invested in this thing, I had told a lot of my friends to join.

[00:31:42] You know what?

[00:31:43] I can't have it that they get them a place to go.

[00:31:45] Because a lot of times they pay a year or two in advance.

[00:31:47] Or I cannot have it that now they don't have a fitness center.

[00:31:51] So I told my accountant, I said, hey, I said, I got to take it over.

[00:31:57] He says, don't you dare.

[00:31:59] He says, Lamar has got two lawsuits against it.

[00:32:01] And he says, they're $50,000 in debt.

[00:32:05] And so listen, this one, you gotta, you can't do it.

[00:32:10] I said, no, you don't understand, Tom.

[00:32:12] I got to do it.

[00:32:14] It's not if, it's I'm going to do it.

[00:32:17] So he's, I can't believe you're doing this.

[00:32:20] So I did it.

[00:32:22] And we were in that location for another year.

[00:32:25] And then I went up on Franklin Avenue in Des Moines.

[00:32:30] And it was an old grocery store up there.

[00:32:33] And I got the idea.

[00:32:35] What?

[00:32:36] They didn't have a swimming pool.

[00:32:37] They didn't have anything in the other fitness centers.

[00:32:40] In fact, what they would do, they had a whirlpool.

[00:32:42] And every night they'd fill up to take the water out of the whirlpool and fill up a new water.

[00:32:47] Instead of having all the chemicals inside, that's what they would do.

[00:32:52] Guess what?

[00:32:53] A couple of times they forgot to shut out the water.

[00:32:56] And the Chinese place right below us got a couple inches of water, ain't it?

[00:33:02] Water.

[00:33:03] Yeah.

[00:33:03] Yeah.

[00:33:04] So they had one, that's where one of the lawsuits is coming from.

[00:33:08] And the Chinese guy said, you're not going to put us out of business.

[00:33:11] You're not going to send us back to China.

[00:33:14] I don't have any idea of doing that.

[00:33:16] Please.

[00:33:17] No, you are.

[00:33:18] So they had that lawsuit.

[00:33:20] Yeah.

[00:33:20] And so we had a lot of things to do.

[00:33:22] But I got rid of the lawsuit and then put a fitness center in where this old grocery store was.

[00:33:28] And downstairs, the ceiling was only about five foot high, but it was no, it was, they just stored stuff downstairs.

[00:33:35] So I had a little bobcat.

[00:33:38] Put a hole in the side of the building.

[00:33:40] Bobcat down there.

[00:33:41] It scooped all the dirt out.

[00:33:42] So that'd be a place where my swimming pool, my sauna, my whirlpool, would all that be down there.

[00:33:47] Yeah.

[00:33:48] So lo and behold, in those days, $640,000 was a lot of money.

[00:33:53] That's what it cost me to put it all together.

[00:33:55] Okay.

[00:33:55] And we sold memberships like crazy before we didn't even open the door.

[00:34:00] Wow.

[00:34:01] To get that paid for.

[00:34:03] Because I didn't have a loan on that either.

[00:34:05] What year was that?

[00:34:07] Oh my gosh.

[00:34:08] That was like about in the 80s.

[00:34:10] Is that what I'm saying?

[00:34:11] Okay.

[00:34:12] No, 80, no.

[00:34:13] 86.

[00:34:14] It was 86.

[00:34:15] Okay.

[00:34:15] 1986.

[00:34:17] And then what happened was, we had a really good fitness center.

[00:34:21] I had 7,000 members in that one place.

[00:34:24] Good heavens.

[00:34:24] Yeah.

[00:34:25] And I'll tell you what, it was just, his name was Dick Youngs.

[00:34:30] He was on a radio station the other day.

[00:34:32] And we'd have a promo right there at the place.

[00:34:37] And it just so happened that night.

[00:34:40] So I had to get things ready for him coming over.

[00:34:42] I didn't go to sleep.

[00:34:44] And so, in fact, I was cleaning the stool out of the, in one of the bathrooms when he showed up to do the promo.

[00:34:52] Yeah.

[00:34:52] Huh?

[00:34:53] The promo.

[00:34:53] Yeah.

[00:34:54] Yeah.

[00:34:54] Yeah.

[00:34:55] So that's the way it was.

[00:34:57] And then after that, what happened was, is that guy that I really respected a lot.

[00:35:03] He was, he sold like over half of the commercial stuff in Des Moines, Iowa.

[00:35:09] And he came to me, he says, Lamar.

[00:35:11] I said, what?

[00:35:12] He says, look, he says, I got this piece of ground out here and it's actually in Clive.

[00:35:18] And he says, you should buy that land.

[00:35:20] Do what?

[00:35:22] He says, you had sat here and told me about a fitness center up in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that you would, it was just amazing.

[00:35:31] He says, hey, you could put your fitness center right on there.

[00:35:35] I said, really?

[00:35:37] I said, oh my gosh.

[00:35:38] So when I looked at it, what just so happened that land was in a flood zone.

[00:35:43] I ended up buying the land because he was a good salesman and I believed in him.

[00:35:48] I bought most of my apartment complexes through him.

[00:35:51] Okay.

[00:35:52] And everything else, I got the good relationship with him.

[00:35:55] He says, Lamar, you need to own that land.

[00:35:56] So we brought in 700 loads of dirt to build up the area where the building was going to be.

[00:36:01] To get you out of that flood zone.

[00:36:03] Get it out of the flood zone.

[00:36:04] Yep.

[00:36:04] Yeah.

[00:36:05] And so basically I put a trailer out in front and I thought, listen, this thing is going to cost a lot of money to put together.

[00:36:13] Like this can be in the millions.

[00:36:15] A couple, the guy said probably about 3 million.

[00:36:18] And I said, I'm not going to finance anything.

[00:36:20] So what I had, I put a trailer out in front and had a sign up.

[00:36:25] And I went to every person in Des Moines that I, the successful guy that had a company.

[00:36:31] And I said, listen, I'm opening up this facility and it's going to be really nice.

[00:36:36] It's going to have racquetball, basketball, tennis, swimming pools.

[00:36:41] And I said, it's going to be a place you want to be.

[00:36:45] And I talked to him long enough and I said, listen, I thought to myself, if I can get this guy to be a member, he's got a lot of influence in town.

[00:36:55] He'll see that it's probably a good place to go.

[00:36:59] He'd be a good example.

[00:37:01] So what happened was, is that I went out and sold 250 lifetime memberships.

[00:37:07] And that, and back in those days, it was only like $40 a month to be a member at the fitness center.

[00:37:15] But I figured it out that if they paid 2000 or $2,500 up front, I'd give them a lifetime membership.

[00:37:25] And guess what?

[00:37:26] Those were the days, which I was when I, actually I was doing little selling pots and pans yet.

[00:37:32] Those are the days.

[00:37:33] I don't know if you remember, but there was a three day waiting period.

[00:37:37] You have what?

[00:37:38] Ah, canceled.

[00:37:39] Can't change three days.

[00:37:41] Now guess where was that?

[00:37:42] Where that was originated was in Des Moines, Iowa.

[00:37:46] Because everybody stole a set of pots and pans and they got enough money down.

[00:37:50] They didn't deliver it.

[00:37:51] They just keep all the money.

[00:37:53] I said, oh my gosh.

[00:37:55] So what it was, they had a three day waiting period.

[00:37:58] And that started actually in Des Moines, Iowa.

[00:38:00] Okay.

[00:38:01] I said, the bottom line is that, forgot where I was at there.

[00:38:05] You stole these lifetime memberships?

[00:38:07] Yes.

[00:38:07] So believe it or not, I got enough money together to pay for the facility when it opened up.

[00:38:15] Yeah.

[00:38:16] It was.

[00:38:16] Through the lifetime memberships.

[00:38:18] Through the lifetime memberships and their families.

[00:38:20] Yeah.

[00:38:21] Because if you had been all trickier.

[00:38:22] More than a person would be more money.

[00:38:24] It'd be $5,000 for a family.

[00:38:27] Sure.

[00:38:27] And, but I just, just, I sold all the main people around the Des Moines area.

[00:38:33] And they'd come to me and they'd say, Lamar, you've been working real hard.

[00:38:37] And there's a lot of apartment complexes and a lot of strip malls.

[00:38:40] And we know about you and we don't feel like you're going to sell us a bill of goodness.

[00:38:45] It's not going to come through.

[00:38:45] So we trust you.

[00:38:47] Yeah.

[00:38:47] I'll join.

[00:38:48] So it came about that I sold all those memberships up front.

[00:38:53] Yeah.

[00:38:53] And then guess what?

[00:38:55] I used Dick Young's a lot for promos at the location.

[00:39:00] Yeah.

[00:39:00] And I'd be on there talking to the microphone about having people come down.

[00:39:04] And I think I had them half sold on the microphone before they even showed up that they had to be there.

[00:39:11] They wanted to be.

[00:39:11] I said, listen, fitness is something you need to do.

[00:39:14] And that's when basically where people weren't really convinced that just working hard was good exercise.

[00:39:22] I said, no, you got to bring your heart up to your turn and read our zone and maintain it there for at least 20 minutes before your heart and your lungs with the motor of your body is going to get what it needs.

[00:39:33] So I said, that's what you need to do.

[00:39:36] Otherwise, you're just kidding yourself.

[00:39:38] And I said, listen, why not?

[00:39:41] Because listen, you know what?

[00:39:43] If you don't exercise and are in real good shape, that's going to affect your performance no matter what you're doing.

[00:39:52] You're not going to have the energy, the attitude.

[00:39:55] And I see you look at the mirror, you don't like what you consider looking at something.

[00:39:59] You say, wow, I'm really that out of shape.

[00:40:01] So I said, all these things are going to happen good for you if you join up.

[00:40:08] And I'll tell you what, personally, I'll be responsible.

[00:40:12] I'll be there all the time.

[00:40:13] And if you feel like you're not getting your money's worth, just come up to me and I'll give you your money's back.

[00:40:19] Because I said, listen, I won't ever have it said that I sold somebody and I cheated them out of some money or took some money I shouldn't have taken or whatever.

[00:40:27] No, it's got to be 100%.

[00:40:30] Because you know what?

[00:40:31] Des Moines is a small town.

[00:40:33] That's right.

[00:40:33] Everybody knows everybody.

[00:40:35] I'll tell you what.

[00:40:36] If you're a criminal or not doing the right thing, hey, it's going to hurt you.

[00:40:41] But you know what?

[00:40:42] Good thing about it.

[00:40:43] If you do the right thing, it's going to help you.

[00:40:46] Ah, there you go.

[00:40:48] So what happened was I got that place started and kept the other one and had two fitness centers.

[00:40:56] And then also, because of my friend, whose name was Loren Megason in the Megason days.

[00:41:02] He's the one that sold me all that stuff.

[00:41:04] He said to me, Lamar, he came to me.

[00:41:07] He says, listen, there's a piece of land in Waukee.

[00:41:10] You need to have your name on it.

[00:41:11] I said, what do you mean?

[00:41:13] He says, it's a farm.

[00:41:15] And I said, yeah.

[00:41:16] He said, listen, there's a lot of things.

[00:41:18] If you buy in the right place at the right time, you can do other things besides make money from the farming.

[00:41:26] And I said, yeah.

[00:41:27] I said, I only make 3%.

[00:41:30] For the amount of money you paid for it, the time you get it done, I make only 3%.

[00:41:35] And I thought, you buy farms.

[00:41:38] I said, I guess you got to buy something that's going to be developing in the future.

[00:41:43] Because close to cities, right next door, if it hasn't developed yet, I said, probably something's going to happen.

[00:41:50] Because that city will probably expand.

[00:41:52] That's right.

[00:41:52] So, I made up my mind right there and then, I'm going to buy that piece of land from Lauren Magazine.

[00:41:59] And basically, and just own that.

[00:42:03] What happened was, is that after I had it for about a year, I thought, you know what?

[00:42:09] I said, I'm going to try to build a next commercial building here.

[00:42:13] Sure.

[00:42:14] Or, but it started out being, the Myers was their name, and they build houses.

[00:42:19] Yep.

[00:42:20] And I said, okay.

[00:42:21] So, I thought, hey, listen, the sewer is real close by.

[00:42:26] You need to put a real nice complex in here.

[00:42:29] And I said, that would be something that, that would really be a nice area and close to town and then close to Des Moines too.

[00:42:38] And I said, hey, something you need to be thinking about.

[00:42:41] So, lo and behold, yep, they came to buy a piece of land from me.

[00:42:45] So, I took, I only sold half of it.

[00:42:47] I kept all the retail commercial stuff off in front.

[00:42:51] Sure.

[00:42:52] I did not for myself.

[00:42:53] Because I said, if I get something going here, I'm sure out here by the highway, which was Highway 6, which is an extension of Heckman Road.

[00:43:01] I'll be able to maybe, because I knew that people pay a lot of money for commercial spots, for commercial lots.

[00:43:08] So, real fast, I learned that, let's see, how does it work?

[00:43:11] Apartments or houses, people will pay maybe $25,000 an acre for.

[00:43:18] And in apartments, they can get a lot more going on there.

[00:43:22] They can afford more than that.

[00:43:24] I said, well, I guess the number should be $40,000 or $35,000 or $40,000 a year per acre.

[00:43:31] And so, I learned pretty fast that you get to commercial and that, wow, the roof would come off of things.

[00:43:38] It was just, hey, that's what I want to do.

[00:43:41] And so, I thought, wow, this really works, doesn't it?

[00:43:45] So, bottom line is that I didn't care about, what you said, the commercial, because I thought something was going to happen here because it's got too much going on around.

[00:43:53] Sure.

[00:43:54] People want a beauty salon here or people want something for convenience.

[00:43:58] And I thought, well, they're called convenience stores now, so I'm going to make a convenience area.

[00:44:03] So, I guess that there's a lot of different things.

[00:44:06] A lawyer might need an office and this might, I'm going to, you know.

[00:44:09] So, I thought, that's what I'm going to do.

[00:44:10] So, the money I got from the back part, which was all the houses, I went and actually bought another 200 acres right over on university, right across my high school.

[00:44:23] And because apartments were in the houses, that area were starting to pop up.

[00:44:30] Get that.

[00:44:31] That's what happened was from that.

[00:44:33] I thought, you know what?

[00:44:34] Apartments make good money.

[00:44:36] Strip malls make good money.

[00:44:38] It's a lot of work.

[00:44:39] Fair work.

[00:44:40] I'm telling you, somebody moves out.

[00:44:43] You got to clean it.

[00:44:44] You got to fix up.

[00:44:45] You got to do all this stuff.

[00:44:47] And I said, but would you buy land?

[00:44:50] You don't have any building on it.

[00:44:52] What do you have to work on?

[00:44:53] I thought, you know what?

[00:44:55] That's the thing that basically I think makes a lot of sense.

[00:44:58] I'm going to buy land that's close to things that are going to happen.

[00:45:03] Sure.

[00:45:04] And so I would find out.

[00:45:07] I'd go to the city and find out.

[00:45:08] I'd say, hey.

[00:45:09] I said, where are you?

[00:45:10] They call it a comprehensive plan.

[00:45:13] Where's your comprehensive plan going to be in the future where you want to go?

[00:45:16] This direction we want to go.

[00:45:18] We want to go south.

[00:45:19] We want to go north or wherever it was.

[00:45:21] Good.

[00:45:21] Thanks.

[00:45:23] Thanks.

[00:45:24] You like development?

[00:45:25] And they go, yeah.

[00:45:26] We'd like to have more development for our city because that's what the houses don't pay much because most of the money, the taxes from my house goes to the schools.

[00:45:36] But the commercial and apartments or commercial goes to what?

[00:45:41] The city.

[00:45:42] And this is how we can expand, how we can have things in our city we want to have.

[00:45:48] I said, so you know what?

[00:45:50] Yeah.

[00:45:51] Okay.

[00:45:52] So I found out for a moment where they want to go.

[00:45:55] So in those days, I didn't deal with realtors.

[00:45:58] And I'd say, hey.

[00:46:00] So just being in the fitness, being in the pots and pans day.

[00:46:04] Yeah.

[00:46:04] I said, hey.

[00:46:06] What's to stop me from going up and knocking on that guy's door and ask him, hey, I see you have a real nice farm here.

[00:46:13] And I was just wondering if you'd ever want to sell it.

[00:46:17] Well, we never thought about it.

[00:46:19] I said, listen.

[00:46:21] You know what?

[00:46:22] If you got a lot more money, have you ever thought about building a new house somewhere?

[00:46:26] Oh, we'd like that.

[00:46:27] And so what I do is I kind of build up a thing for him that, hey, listen, he's old enough.

[00:46:35] He needs to probably start to get it easy.

[00:46:37] And he's got enough going on because the kids will all be fighting over the money anyway, I said, in the future.

[00:46:43] And so I said, you word that off.

[00:46:45] So why don't you tell you what?

[00:46:48] Why don't you?

[00:46:49] In fact, the first farm I bought, I said, listen.

[00:46:52] I said, I'll tell you what.

[00:46:54] Because this door to door stuff.

[00:46:55] I said, I'll tell you what.

[00:46:57] I'll go out and sit in my car.

[00:46:59] You talk to your wife here a little bit.

[00:47:01] And after you have, if you have any more questions or you think you maybe want to do something, just come out the front door and wave your hand.

[00:47:09] So there they were coming out the front door, waving their hand.

[00:47:12] They go, hey, I ended up buying a farm.

[00:47:16] And I knew how to fill out a contract because of pots and pans days else.

[00:47:20] So I got his okay right there and then.

[00:47:24] And I told him, I said, here's how much money I'll put down so you can get out and get that new house that you want to start building.

[00:47:31] I said, here it is.

[00:47:32] So that's when, after I moved from having a lot of apartment complexes to strip malls, then I was in the fitness business.

[00:47:39] And I thought, you know what, there doesn't take very much time to buy some land and there's not a lot of work in it.

[00:47:47] Put your emphasis in the future on getting more land.

[00:47:51] And that's morphed into a rather large portfolio of land for you.

[00:47:55] Yeah.

[00:47:55] What happened?

[00:47:56] I thought, you know what, it's never going to go down in price because nobody can make more land.

[00:48:02] You make more gold or you can go dig for gold or whatever.

[00:48:05] But land, there's no more.

[00:48:08] Right.

[00:48:08] And I said, the more development comes, the less land there is.

[00:48:14] So I said, that's another reason why I should own land.

[00:48:18] So what happened was, little by little, was I could pay cash for something.

[00:48:23] I'd go out and start buying more farms.

[00:48:26] And then I went to see the city and I'd get them to say, hey, you know what?

[00:48:31] And I said, look, you want to put a nice parking over there?

[00:48:35] And if your city had the money, you could do that.

[00:48:37] I'll tell you what, if you'll help me with just basically rezoning this land so I can get something done, so I can go out and market it.

[00:48:46] Yeah.

[00:48:47] Why?

[00:48:48] It'll put a lot of money in your pocket, the city's pocket.

[00:48:51] And I got them all excited about, hey, man, my town, we could do these things and we could have our own library or we could do this or that.

[00:49:00] And you know the thing?

[00:49:00] I go, yeah, that's exactly right.

[00:49:02] You're getting the message.

[00:49:04] And I said, you're on the right road.

[00:49:05] I said, so what happened was that I got known in Des Moines for buying farms.

[00:49:11] So guess what?

[00:49:12] Whenever there was a farm available, why?

[00:49:15] And they knew that I could make it because I always, anytime a real estate guy called me on the phone about, hey, Lamar, I got this farm.

[00:49:22] I'd ask them about 15 questions.

[00:49:25] And after those answers all came back and I could know where the land was at because that's all I'd been doing is working around the one area.

[00:49:35] I said, you know what?

[00:49:36] That makes sense.

[00:49:38] And by a half hour's time, I'd call them back.

[00:49:41] I said, hey, look, here's what I'll offer you.

[00:49:44] And get a contract ready.

[00:49:47] And so whenever I land on the market before they got really on the mobile listing, usually I had it bought before anybody else knew about it.

[00:49:57] Sure.

[00:49:58] So I had a lot of advantages.

[00:50:01] You know, the realtors would know that if they want to get something sold, they could come to me and probably buy it right away if it made sense.

[00:50:08] Yeah.

[00:50:09] So I got their attention.

[00:50:10] I got a farmer's attention that, hey, there's this guy that buys these farms.

[00:50:16] And so they went there when they retired or before they, you know, they called me up and say, listen, now, you want to come out?

[00:50:24] We got a farm here.

[00:50:25] You might be interested in it.

[00:50:27] I said, who's this?

[00:50:29] It was mine.

[00:50:29] Oh, okay.

[00:50:30] I'll be right there.

[00:50:32] So this is, so I got pretty much doing it through the years that I got so well known as far as that I buy land and I'll give them a good price for it.

[00:50:44] And I can afford to pay for it and they won't have to wait for their money and all that stuff.

[00:50:50] So I got into an arena of my own, so to speak.

[00:50:55] So that, but I had the advantage because of, I said, before they called somebody else, I'd probably have a contract and sign a contract before somebody else came along.

[00:51:05] But I could usually tell the farmer or whatever, whoever it was, what really it's worth.

[00:51:13] And because I'll say, here's why.

[00:51:15] And they give about 10 examples of why it's not worth more than that.

[00:51:20] But I will pay this much money for it because it is a good thing for you to be doing.

[00:51:26] So I said, fine.

[00:51:28] So this is always, like you said earlier, you said, Lamar, did that give you any confidence?

[00:51:35] I had the confidence that, hey, them, that, hey, if I want to do something, there's nothing can stop you.

[00:51:44] It's not, I always used to tell people when you make up, when you think something through and you make up your mind and you thought it through, you buy it.

[00:51:55] You'd never look back.

[00:51:56] You don't ever say to yourself, did I make the right decision?

[00:52:00] No, you don't go into that because that's a negative thought.

[00:52:03] I used to say, you can't have negative and positive thoughts in your mind at the same time.

[00:52:07] So guess what?

[00:52:09] Don't ever second guess yourself.

[00:52:12] Listen, it's not if it's going to happen.

[00:52:15] It's just when.

[00:52:15] It might take a little bit longer than you wanted it to, but you know what?

[00:52:19] Other times it might be something happening real fast.

[00:52:22] I just, like you said, I got that confidence that basically that nothing can stop you.

[00:52:28] Yeah.

[00:52:29] And the president of our company, I used to say when I was selling pots and pans, he used to say, there's a saying, he said, step up, oh, discontented man, pay the price and take it.

[00:52:39] And hey, if you really want it, you can have it.

[00:52:43] It's yours.

[00:52:44] If you're willing to pay the price, pay the price and it's yours.

[00:52:48] You can have it.

[00:52:50] So I thought, yeah, that makes all the sense in the world.

[00:52:54] So common sense is what, tell you, is what I relied on a lot.

[00:53:01] But all the way through, which I haven't said a word about, is that my parents were both Sunday school teachers.

[00:53:09] I learned a long time ago, listen, there's one guy, he's far up in the sky that really can lead, guide and direct you in everything you do if you have a relationship with them.

[00:53:24] And I said, you know what?

[00:53:26] I got to do that.

[00:53:28] I got to continue.

[00:53:29] When I first drove into Des Moines, I remember the first thing I did is before I even looked for a place for an office, I checked out the churches around.

[00:53:40] And I'd say, do they have a good church here?

[00:53:43] And that's all.

[00:53:43] Because I said, listen, if I'm not going to church, I'm going to have a lull.

[00:53:49] That's when I don't mind as a devil's playground is going to happen.

[00:53:52] And I said, listen, I got to always give credit where credit is due.

[00:53:59] So all my life, I got to say that actually, yeah, I worked hard and made a lot of decisions.

[00:54:08] But I'll tell you, I was guided because it's called wisdom.

[00:54:11] And you can only find wisdom one place that comes from the Lord.

[00:54:15] Wisdom doesn't get from anything else.

[00:54:17] People want to be, what do you call it?

[00:54:19] They just get, they do something and they go, oh, because that's happened before.

[00:54:23] What do you call it then?

[00:54:24] The word escapes me as well.

[00:54:25] Yes, especially gambling or whatever.

[00:54:27] Sure, yeah.

[00:54:28] I mean, they point to Locke.

[00:54:29] They point to various circumstances.

[00:54:32] Yeah.

[00:54:33] This happened there.

[00:54:35] So anyway, but I said, listen, all that, and I'll think of it in just a second.

[00:54:40] But they would use that for their common sense.

[00:54:45] And I said, no, listen, the thing is this.

[00:54:49] When you're thinking like that and it's way out in the blue and nothing's brought it to you, bottom line, there's two strong spirits in this world.

[00:54:58] One is from Satan, one's from God.

[00:55:00] But I said, if you're a real, that's the word I want to use, superstitious, that's what you're going to lean on.

[00:55:09] Sure.

[00:55:10] Oh gosh.

[00:55:10] I said, you know what?

[00:55:12] I don't do things on this.

[00:55:13] I don't do that.

[00:55:14] I said, what are you talking about?

[00:55:16] Are you talking about walking in front of a black cat?

[00:55:19] Is it an omen?

[00:55:22] Now you're going to lose all your, you know?

[00:55:24] I said, no, no, no.

[00:55:27] That's, there's only two spirits and you're going on the one spirit, a hundred percent.

[00:55:33] And he's from this world.

[00:55:34] And there's one from heaven and it just happens to name be Jesus Christ.

[00:55:41] And I'll tell you what, that's where I can really point my finger to.

[00:55:45] That's where I, yes, where I got all my visions and wisdom from is him.

[00:55:51] And so therefore I know that's basically where you have to go because that Bible that I have is an instruction book.

[00:56:00] And I'll tell you what, it tells you everything you need to know, but you got to stay into it.

[00:56:06] You can't just go to church one hour a week and thinking, oh, I'm all holy now.

[00:56:13] And now basically Lord's going to work with me.

[00:56:16] I'm sorry.

[00:56:17] He doesn't have your heart.

[00:56:18] He has nothing.

[00:56:18] And that's the big thing that you got to look to him always when you're making your decisions.

[00:56:26] Has your spirituality and your commitment and, or maybe the time energy ever you put forth into your belief, has that changed as you've gotten older and stronger?

[00:56:37] Yeah.

[00:56:37] Always stronger because I knew where I was coming from.

[00:56:41] And I knew the more money and the more time, the more things I gave to the Lord or a spell with the Lord that, hey, this never comes back empty.

[00:56:54] Right.

[00:56:54] It's always void.

[00:56:56] They always say in the Bible, it doesn't come back void.

[00:56:58] I said, you know what?

[00:56:59] That's a hundred percent.

[00:57:01] And I know that's a hundred percent.

[00:57:04] And so therefore, if I'm not letting it be a hundred percent every day, basically of my life, that I, you know what?

[00:57:11] Then I'm doing things on my own.

[00:57:13] I'm going.

[00:57:14] I said to myself, I said, wait a minute now.

[00:57:16] You think you're smarter than God?

[00:57:18] What?

[00:57:19] What?

[00:57:20] You think you're smarter than God?

[00:57:21] No, then listen, follow him then because you're not smarter, but he'll lead and guide and direct you if you allow him to.

[00:57:28] So that was hugely, I know, like I said before, I didn't say it all the way through, but everything that I did, you know, was always directed and just always was right there.

[00:57:44] And I just knew when I walked on a piece of ground, a farm and I stepped foot on it, I go, yep, this is it.

[00:57:53] And I always knew that it was either the right or the wrong thing to do at that time.

[00:57:58] I relied on my spirituality, like you call it, very much because it just was the thing that guided me and directed me in everything I did.

[00:58:07] Not just some things, it was everything.

[00:58:11] Can I ask about your house?

[00:58:13] About my house?

[00:58:14] Yeah.

[00:58:14] That's house.

[00:58:15] I'm curious because you have the only house in town that has no square feet.

[00:58:19] There you go.

[00:58:20] All around feet.

[00:58:21] I always thought that bottom line is that after years of doing things, if you wanted something bad enough, you can do it.

[00:58:29] And so what happened was I remember, and I don't know, having any idea where I got the idea from, but one time when I was going skiing in Aspen, Colorado, there's a house that comes out over the bank.

[00:58:43] I'm going to go to the bank on the mountain or the yellow zone or whatever.

[00:58:46] And I said, I like that.

[00:58:49] So I right there on the middle of my mind, I said, if I'm ever going to build a house, I'm going to build a house, a roundhouse up in the air.

[00:58:56] Yeah.

[00:58:56] Yeah.

[00:58:57] Because I want to be able to see.

[00:58:58] And just, I really enjoy that.

[00:59:01] Yeah.

[00:59:02] What happened was I went to an engineer architect and I went and talked to him and I said, here's what I want to do.

[00:59:10] And I want to build a house up in the air.

[00:59:12] He says, you want what?

[00:59:14] I said, that's what I want to do.

[00:59:15] I says, design it.

[00:59:17] But I'm sure you probably don't have a structural engineer that you deal with, but I'm sure structurally is the most important thing to start off with.

[00:59:27] And I said, so his name was Katzman.

[00:59:30] I'll never forget the name.

[00:59:31] Yeah.

[00:59:31] So we went to Mr. Katzman and we said, hey, we want to build this house up in the air.

[00:59:36] After about three months at a time, he came back with his regular house that was on stilt.

[00:59:42] I post holding it up.

[00:59:44] And I said, he showed me, I said, what's that?

[00:59:48] He says, that's your house.

[00:59:49] I said, oh my gosh.

[00:59:51] I said, listen, obviously it's my fault.

[00:59:53] I got to tell you, sit down and really tell you what I want.

[00:59:57] Yeah.

[00:59:58] Because you don't give the picture.

[01:00:00] Within a month's time, not only did he have the picture, the thing in mind, the plans, but he had a model of a made up.

[01:00:09] Okay.

[01:00:09] And I said, walked in, I said, now you're talking.

[01:00:12] Yeah.

[01:00:12] That's exactly what I envisioned.

[01:00:14] You did it.

[01:00:15] I got the vision through to you.

[01:00:17] And so therefore, that's what I want to do.

[01:00:20] Man, I'll tell you what, is that I'll just go out and get someone to build it.

[01:00:26] And lo and behold, everybody I went to, they said, Lamar, look, we can't build that out.

[01:00:34] I said, what do you mean?

[01:00:35] They said, Lamar, it's just too much going on.

[01:00:39] And listen, we'd have to time a material.

[01:00:42] I said, no, I'm not going to open myself up.

[01:00:45] Nope.

[01:00:45] No, I'm not going to put myself out there.

[01:00:48] Whatever time materials you want to say it was.

[01:00:51] And then whatever, I said, no.

[01:00:53] So bottom line is that what happened was, is that I had a company put up the structural part, the steel.

[01:01:03] There's 16 different arches that go up and then goes out.

[01:01:07] In fact, each one of these arches were so long that it took only, took a semi.

[01:01:12] I only could bring one at a time.

[01:01:15] And then there was two guys welding in my front lawn before it was on.

[01:01:20] Yeah.

[01:01:20] My front of my house for three months, welding all these.

[01:01:23] Because they said we have to have, I can't remember, nine beads going around or whatever.

[01:01:27] It was just unbelievable.

[01:01:28] Yeah.

[01:01:29] And each one of these arches went out, weighed 20,000 pounds.

[01:01:34] Wow.

[01:01:34] Wow.

[01:01:34] And it was 16 of them.

[01:01:36] And I always said, again, if I'm going to build something, I don't want maintenance.

[01:01:43] I don't like the work left when I get something done, but I want it to last.

[01:01:48] So my whole house was nothing but steel and concrete.

[01:01:53] And it's the way it was.

[01:01:54] And what happened was, is that I went to this arches that I had gone to while he had done the structural.

[01:02:03] And I had another gentleman by the name of Bill Smith.

[01:02:06] And again, I got to say this.

[01:02:09] Again, a lot of stuff in my life I didn't do.

[01:02:15] I was just following instructions from a guy that had all the wisdom.

[01:02:21] And so basically, I said, this is what I want.

[01:02:26] But I couldn't find anybody to, after the structural was down, because what happened, it all started when one day I come back from the fitness center, Seven Flags.

[01:02:37] And I walk in my door, just a plywood door we had then.

[01:02:42] And he had his hands both up in the air.

[01:02:44] I said, what's the matter?

[01:02:46] He said, Lamar.

[01:02:47] I said, what?

[01:02:48] He said, listen, I'll give you all the material I put in so far and my labor free of charge if you let me out of the contract.

[01:02:59] I said, what?

[01:03:01] So I said, why?

[01:03:03] He says, Mar, this is way over my head.

[01:03:07] What you want in building it.

[01:03:10] He says, I can't come through that contract.

[01:03:16] It's going to cost a lot more.

[01:03:18] Well, what I did, I said, okay.

[01:03:19] But I said, listen, I'm still not going to have it that you want.

[01:03:23] No, I'm still going to pay you for what you did.

[01:03:26] And I said, I'll have to take it from here.

[01:03:28] What I did, I'd go to a lot of different companies, different guys, and I'd find what they call moonliners.

[01:03:34] Yep.

[01:03:34] Guys that would work after hours, that knew were good, knew what they were doing, and everything else.

[01:03:43] So I said, you know what?

[01:03:45] That's the way I got to build this thing.

[01:03:47] Which is like going back to the apartment day.

[01:03:49] We got to go finish it off.

[01:03:50] There you go.

[01:03:50] Yeah.

[01:03:50] It was the same thing.

[01:03:51] Yeah.

[01:03:52] I said, oh, my God.

[01:03:54] I had this one guy, though, hired by the hour.

[01:03:58] He was a full-time carpenter.

[01:04:01] And just after we got all the sheetrock walls up and all the steel and all the concrete floors and everything all done, I had him do all the finished work.

[01:04:12] And every morning before I left my house and go to work at 7.5 and whatever else I was doing, he would be there.

[01:04:20] And I'd say, how do you want your fireplace to look?

[01:04:24] I always like a tier thing.

[01:04:26] So if you had a bigger tier at the top and a little bit smaller and a smaller, that's what I want to do.

[01:04:31] And he said, what about the base?

[01:04:33] I said, I just want to go on a regular base, one piece of board, put it around.

[01:04:38] I don't know if you put three different, pack them up.

[01:04:40] So I said, it really adds to it.

[01:04:43] So always what I would do is basically meet with him.

[01:04:49] And because I had no plans because I didn't tell you this part.

[01:04:53] What happened was, is that I went in, engineer, one architect, one day.

[01:05:00] And he says, why?

[01:05:02] I said, what?

[01:05:03] You're not going to like this.

[01:05:04] I said, what's that?

[01:05:05] So I'm leaving this company.

[01:05:08] And he says, money that I got, they won't give me back, but they don't want to be involved because they don't know what to do.

[01:05:15] And he says, I'll just make it real short.

[01:05:17] He says, I can continue with the building of it.

[01:05:20] I can continue to make plans and I'll reach for the rest of it.

[01:05:23] Not the building, but the plans.

[01:05:25] Yeah.

[01:05:25] I said, really?

[01:05:27] He says, oh my gosh.

[01:05:29] I said, okay.

[01:05:30] So this is how I got into every morning with the wood, with the finish, all the stuff that my house has today.

[01:05:39] Is that I had to tell him first thing in the morning, what to do.

[01:05:43] To do.

[01:05:44] And how I wound it.

[01:05:46] And I was so, again, fortunate, blessed, I call it, having a guy that was very, hey, if you want it that way, somehow I'll build it that way.

[01:05:57] Yeah.

[01:05:58] I'll get it done.

[01:05:59] And so, in fact, what he did after he got through with my house, when I went to the engineer and the architect that first, and after they got some things done, structural and so on, he says, let me tell you something a little more.

[01:06:14] He said, how long do you think it's going to take to build this?

[01:06:16] I said, not long if I have anything to do with it.

[01:06:19] They go, no, let's tell you.

[01:06:21] It's going to take you three years.

[01:06:23] I said, three years to build my house?

[01:06:26] He said, yeah, you can't do it.

[01:06:28] He says, believe me.

[01:06:29] He says, there's way, way too much there.

[01:06:33] And yeah, make a long story short, it took me three years.

[01:06:37] It took me three years to get it all done the way I wanted to.

[01:06:41] And I tried to build it so with really the cabinets or whatever is in the place that would never show their age.

[01:06:48] In other words, it wouldn't.

[01:06:50] Colors and all that stuff.

[01:06:52] Trying to make them just colors that would go anywhere with anything.

[01:06:55] No brightness, no black walls or red walls or green walls.

[01:07:00] It'd all be tan.

[01:07:02] I made sure I did that throughout the house.

[01:07:06] That's what it was.

[01:07:07] And after three years, I got it done.

[01:07:11] I was dating a girl at the time.

[01:07:14] And I had some dogs and she would have to feed my dogs because I said, after this three years, I'm going to think of a vacation.

[01:07:21] I'm going to Hawaii.

[01:07:22] Sure.

[01:07:22] So I made a reservation.

[01:07:24] I went to Hawaii.

[01:07:25] And I just was landing.

[01:07:28] And she called me on the phone because I made a couple of stops before that, a couple of the places I wanted to be at.

[01:07:34] And anyway, so she says, Mar.

[01:07:35] I said, what?

[01:07:37] She said, you got to come home.

[01:07:39] I said, I just got here.

[01:07:41] I just checked into my motel.

[01:07:44] Hotel.

[01:07:45] And she said, you got to come home.

[01:07:47] I said, what's that?

[01:07:48] And she says, there's icicles six foot in diameter from your balcony hanging down because it was winter when I got there.

[01:07:58] She's hanging down.

[01:07:59] And she says, obviously, there's a water problem.

[01:08:04] I came back home.

[01:08:05] Just like she had said, just about some of the icicles were long enough that she just about hit the ground.

[01:08:12] Great habits.

[01:08:12] And, but good, I had very good insurance.

[01:08:17] And so I said, well, it was about three inches of water.

[01:08:22] What happened was when they were doing the bathroom, putting the sheetrock in, they put a screw in the water pipe.

[01:08:30] Yeah.

[01:08:30] And basically that blew after so much time.

[01:08:35] Yeah.

[01:08:36] And that filled up the whole house with water.

[01:08:38] Oh, wow.

[01:08:38] It took me three months to get it back to where I didn't have very good vacation.

[01:08:44] No.

[01:08:45] Beta lease.

[01:08:45] I had asked because it's one of the most iconic homes that has ever been.

[01:08:49] That exists probably in this stage.

[01:08:51] It's incredible.

[01:08:52] I was very fortunate too on that.

[01:08:54] The different ones like Oprah Winfrey.

[01:08:57] Yes.

[01:08:57] They called me up from New York.

[01:08:59] Really?

[01:08:59] And I went out.

[01:09:00] Yeah.

[01:09:01] Was explaining my house to them.

[01:09:04] And so I got, you know, another company did a magazine in Des Moines.

[01:09:09] Yes.

[01:09:09] On my house.

[01:09:10] Yeah.

[01:09:11] And so I just said, you know what, this is, and when I looked at it, looked up through the magazine, I go, yeah, really?

[01:09:20] It really happened.

[01:09:22] In other words, sometimes after you get something done, you go, wow, that was, I couldn't have done that by myself.

[01:09:27] Yeah.

[01:09:28] Yeah.

[01:09:28] So that's the way that, that house is built.

[01:09:32] And so from that, I just decided that, hey, listen, it's time to, to start cutting back.

[01:09:39] So I sold apartments off.

[01:09:42] I sold the strip malls off.

[01:09:43] Not all at the same time.

[01:09:45] Sure.

[01:09:45] I started with apartments first.

[01:09:47] Yeah.

[01:09:47] Kept the strip malls because they're less work.

[01:09:48] Yeah.

[01:09:49] But then they were too much work.

[01:09:51] And so I kept, in fact, one of the strip malls, buildings, it's just like, it hadn't been 13 different businesses in it.

[01:09:58] Yeah.

[01:09:58] My nephew would have bought out the one and a strip mall and says, you know, take this over.

[01:10:05] You work, you work for me at Seven Flies as a manager.

[01:10:07] Okay.

[01:10:07] And I said, you know what?

[01:10:09] I'm just going to let you have this for what I paid for it.

[01:10:12] It's a heck of a deal.

[01:10:13] So that's when I got out of the strip mall.

[01:10:15] Yeah.

[01:10:15] And so he got, today he's doing very well on them.

[01:10:18] Good.

[01:10:19] And that's the, like the fitness center.

[01:10:22] Why?

[01:10:23] Didn't sell that.

[01:10:23] I built my house in 93, got done with it.

[01:10:27] Okay.

[01:10:28] 2005.

[01:10:29] I finally said, you know what?

[01:10:31] It's time.

[01:10:32] Because I put an event center on with it.

[01:10:35] Sure.

[01:10:35] Had a lot of shows there.

[01:10:37] Yeah.

[01:10:37] Residents there.

[01:10:38] And I had, you know, different guys.

[01:10:40] Some real well-known people that are actors or singers today that were in that Seven Flies event center.

[01:10:47] Yes.

[01:10:48] Years ago.

[01:10:49] And so it's a lot of memories.

[01:10:52] But that got to be too much work.

[01:10:55] That basically, they have the event center, the fitness, and I have a hundred people working for me.

[01:11:00] Wow.

[01:11:00] The fitness center between part-time and full-time.

[01:11:03] It got to be way too much.

[01:11:05] And I finally just said, you know what?

[01:11:06] Yeah.

[01:11:07] I got to get, I got to sell this.

[01:11:09] What happened was, is that guy that bought it, I just said, listen, two things I want you to do.

[01:11:17] I want you to, number one, take real good care of the members and take real good care of the employees.

[01:11:24] They all deserve it.

[01:11:26] And I want you to follow through with that and not, and not be cutting anybody out of anything.

[01:11:33] He did the opposite.

[01:11:34] Anybody that had a lifetime membership, he said, you don't have a lifetime anymore.

[01:11:38] I bought this.

[01:11:40] And he had lawsuits against him.

[01:11:43] And then the guys working in fitness for me were very good.

[01:11:48] And I was paying really good.

[01:11:50] I didn't want to pay him that much.

[01:11:52] And I said, listen, the only way you keep good people and you build in your life is by keeping those same people and taking care of them.

[01:12:00] That's right.

[01:12:01] You don't cheat your employees.

[01:12:03] That's right.

[01:12:04] That's the worst thing you could do because all of you will start over all the time, get somebody else.

[01:12:10] Now you're not going to have what you, what you designed and what you want.

[01:12:13] So you got to take care of him.

[01:12:15] He did the opposite.

[01:12:16] In fact, yeah, even the people selling there that had assigned contracts that they couldn't even work for another fitness center.

[01:12:24] Otherwise they would have to pay him so much money that camera had a buyout.

[01:12:28] You had to buy them up.

[01:12:29] And I said, oh my gosh.

[01:12:31] So eight years after I sold it, the place closed up.

[01:12:36] And to this day, there's nothing happening at Seven Flags because it was made for one reason for a fitness center and how it was.

[01:12:45] Yeah, it was purpose built.

[01:12:46] And that was purpose built.

[01:12:47] And so that was the bad thing that happened there.

[01:12:52] But to this day, I run into people that say to me, Omar, why don't you go to remodel that and open that back up?

[01:12:59] I'd let me back.

[01:13:00] There's a number.

[01:13:01] Yeah.

[01:13:01] I said, listen, I'm really happy that I really helped you in life.

[01:13:06] Sort of take care of yourself and whatever else.

[01:13:09] I was, you went further on than you normally would have because you took care of yourself.

[01:13:14] So that's all the gratitude that I need.

[01:13:18] I'm going to ask you two questions, but I'm going to set it up forced.

[01:13:21] As you look back upon the totality of your career, what's one thing that's either a regret or a miss?

[01:13:31] Something you wish you did differently, if any.

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[01:14:08] I had that question asked me a couple of years ago.

[01:14:11] And they said, Lamar, did you ever buy a farm that you wish you hadn't bought?

[01:14:16] Or took over a complex you wish you hadn't bought?

[01:14:20] Or ever did anything?

[01:14:22] And I said, honestly, I can't say it.

[01:14:27] I can think of one thing.

[01:14:29] Basically, that I made a mistake on because I'll tell you what.

[01:14:32] But I always said to myself, hey, if it isn't going good, it's not.

[01:14:37] If it's going to happen, it's when it's going to happen.

[01:14:39] And you're not going to stop until it happens.

[01:14:42] You're not going to give up.

[01:14:44] A lot of people, they get a spot, they're one in life.

[01:14:46] They get close to the top of that mountain, climbing up the mountain, and they quit.

[01:14:50] They go, you're not reaping any rewards, though.

[01:14:54] Why would you do that?

[01:14:55] Why not follow through?

[01:14:56] Why not do it?

[01:14:58] A lot of people today think that things, people are lucky.

[01:15:03] People always come to me and said, Mar, you're just lucky you bought your apartment complexes,

[01:15:07] which you did.

[01:15:08] Because, boy, they really increased in price.

[01:15:11] I said, yeah, I know.

[01:15:12] Everything does.

[01:15:13] I said, oh, you're just really lucky.

[01:15:15] Oh, Lamar, you're so lucky you bought that farm where it's at.

[01:15:19] I said, because, oh my gosh, look what you're doing with it.

[01:15:22] You bought it by the acre and you're selling it by the foot.

[01:15:25] Come on.

[01:15:26] I said, listen, planning has an awful lot to do with it.

[01:15:31] You're not going to be knowing everything you're doing when you're doing something.

[01:15:36] Knowing everything about it and really back and forth, you're going to make mistakes.

[01:15:40] I said, but no, you've got to research it, know it, never look back, and always make

[01:15:47] up your mind you did the right thing.

[01:15:49] I was always told them, you can't have two thoughts in your mind this time, negative

[01:15:52] and positive.

[01:15:55] If you make up your mind, not only will you get what you want, but you know what?

[01:16:02] You'll be happy with yourself.

[01:16:04] You'll have the feeling of accomplishment.

[01:16:08] I said, that's what I always want people to do, just to enjoy life.

[01:16:13] Because you know what?

[01:16:14] You only go through this life here on earth once.

[01:16:17] You're going to have to enjoy it.

[01:16:19] Pull out all those stops when you're doing something and make sure you follow through.

[01:16:24] And you know what?

[01:16:25] Good things will always happen to you.

[01:16:29] Believe me, that's how you should do things.

[01:16:33] And basically, you just always got to take care of whoever's working for you.

[01:16:37] You don't cheat.

[01:16:38] You make sure that you do the right thing all the time.

[01:16:41] Because those negative thoughts will catch up with you.

[01:16:45] And all of a sudden, now you're going to have to start lying to people about something.

[01:16:50] Because it just keeps mushrooming.

[01:16:52] It keeps getting bigger and bigger, snowballing.

[01:16:54] And I go, listen, you don't do it that way.

[01:16:58] You make sure you always follow through.

[01:17:01] If anybody's working for you, you always follow through with them.

[01:17:05] You never cut them short in the middle.

[01:17:08] I know how that feels because I've had that happen to me a few times in my life.

[01:17:12] But you know what?

[01:17:14] You can do it.

[01:17:15] You can do it.

[01:17:17] So the salesman today, I always, because basically, when I was selling pots and pans,

[01:17:24] I always used to tell them, I said, look, look, you know,

[01:17:28] there's four different things you really need in your life.

[01:17:30] But first of all, you've got to make up your mind what you want to do.

[01:17:34] And then you don't ever look back.

[01:17:37] You keep following through.

[01:17:39] And I said, plus, I said, if the Lord isn't part of your life,

[01:17:44] then you're not going to be able to accomplish what you want to accomplish,

[01:17:48] everything you want to accomplish, and do it the right way.

[01:17:51] And you always have to have a schedule.

[01:17:54] You've got to get up in the morning, certain time.

[01:17:57] And I said, bottom line, you always got to take care of yourself because you know what?

[01:18:02] If you're not going to a gym and taking care of yourself, you're going to run out of energy.

[01:18:08] You're going to run out of attitude.

[01:18:09] You're going to run out of everything.

[01:18:11] You're not going to look the way you look or anything else.

[01:18:14] And I said, so listen, you've got to always have a schedule.

[01:18:19] You've got to always take care of yourself.

[01:18:22] You've got to always make sure that your relationship is on a regular basis with the Lord,

[01:18:27] not just once a week, but every morning and every night.

[01:18:30] When you first wake up, you read a little bit of what the Bible says.

[01:18:34] And every night before you go to sleep, you do the same thing and say your prayers.

[01:18:38] And I say, you know what?

[01:18:40] When you're doing that, not only will you be a lot more relaxed because you'll have your mind off everything else,

[01:18:46] because now it's on the Lord.

[01:18:47] And also, you'll sleep a lot better.

[01:18:50] And you know what?

[01:18:52] You'll be able to accomplish what you want to do it because what?

[01:18:55] He is going to guide you.

[01:18:56] He is going to direct you.

[01:18:57] And I'll tell you what, it's not if.

[01:18:59] He never comes back.

[01:19:01] It's going to be 100%.

[01:19:02] 100%.

[01:19:02] Take care of him.

[01:19:03] He'll take care of you.

[01:19:04] Last two questions.

[01:19:06] Yeah.

[01:19:06] What are you most proud of in your life?

[01:19:08] The most proud of in my life, I got to say, excuse me, I get choked up here.

[01:19:14] This is that all my life, I was a workaholic.

[01:19:18] And I just, no matter what, I'm going to get it done.

[01:19:21] And I always want to, if you can do it today, why wait for tomorrow?

[01:19:25] It'll never come.

[01:19:25] If you're always looking for tomorrow, you got to do it today.

[01:19:28] Like a long story short, I just, I wasn't going to answer this question.

[01:19:32] I never got married until I was 63 years old.

[01:19:36] And then I just, because why did I get married?

[01:19:39] One of the main reasons that it drove me to do that is that I love children so much.

[01:19:45] When I had Seven Flags, I had a nursery.

[01:19:49] And then also at Seven Flags was the first in the country to have it.

[01:19:53] And we had a kid's gym.

[01:19:55] And the kid's gym had the equipment in it that no weights, no nothing.

[01:20:01] Just the harder you pressed it in the machine, the more resistance it would give back to you.

[01:20:06] It was called isokinetic equipment.

[01:20:09] And I said, look, when I first built Seven Flags, I said, look, I got to figure this thing out.

[01:20:15] Because guess what?

[01:20:17] People will join.

[01:20:19] And then if they have their children, I can put them in a nursery.

[01:20:22] What happens when the nursery is six years old?

[01:20:26] They're six years old.

[01:20:27] They don't want to be in a nursery anymore or before that.

[01:20:30] So guess what?

[01:20:32] I got to do something to keep the six to the 18 years of age busy.

[01:20:40] And so I said, you know what?

[01:20:42] That's, I got to do it.

[01:20:44] I got to build a kid's gym.

[01:20:45] So basically, I put a kid's gym in from the six to 18 years of age.

[01:20:51] That's what they went to.

[01:20:53] And boy, I saw so much happen.

[01:20:57] Just the kids getting so much out of that kid's gym, which back in those days, I'm trying to think of a guy's name.

[01:21:05] There was a TV program.

[01:21:07] And they always said, look, kids should be lifting weights.

[01:21:11] That's bad for them.

[01:21:12] It'll hurt their bodies.

[01:21:13] And I go, what?

[01:21:15] Hurts their bodies?

[01:21:16] Oh, so working or doing things is going to hurt your body?

[01:21:20] Oh, yeah, you just don't lift heavy weights because you can mess up your body, your frame, your pull muscle.

[01:21:26] You can do all kinds of things to your joints.

[01:21:28] It's bad for you.

[01:21:30] And so guess what?

[01:21:31] I can't think of the name of the guy right now, but he had a show on TV.

[01:21:36] He invited me to come out to him.

[01:21:37] And so I went out and was on the show.

[01:21:40] And I said, hey, I said, look, there's no weights in here.

[01:21:44] The harder you press, the more resistance it gives.

[01:21:47] And I said, hey, this is a thing because I really believe in fitness.

[01:21:53] And I don't think there should be lulls after a person starts working out.

[01:21:58] They should make up their mind the rest of their life.

[01:22:00] This is what they're going to do.

[01:22:01] It's a lifetime commitment.

[01:22:03] It's not just for a few years.

[01:22:05] It's going to be a lifetime commitment.

[01:22:07] So I said, look, I had to have some place for these kids to go to, the 6 to the 18 years old, so that the parents wouldn't have to get a babysitter or wouldn't have any place to put them.

[01:22:23] So maybe they'd stop coming themselves.

[01:22:25] I said, I want it to be a family affair.

[01:22:29] Now the whole family can come at one time, do their thing, and the kids, 6 to 18, will have a place to go.

[01:22:37] And in fact, it's going to make it 10 times better.

[01:22:40] Why?

[01:22:41] Because the kids want to get back to the kids' gym.

[01:22:44] And you guess what?

[01:22:45] They'll be the ones that the parents, come on, let's go.

[01:22:48] We want to keep on.

[01:22:48] Let's do this.

[01:22:50] So I said, this is what I got to do.

[01:22:52] I got to put against Jim.

[01:22:53] And I put that in, and like I said, I had a lot of people come against me at the first.

[01:22:58] They said, you can't have kids in the kids' gym.

[01:23:00] I said, yes, I can't.

[01:23:01] Watch me.

[01:23:02] Look out.

[01:23:02] Watch.

[01:23:03] There it is.

[01:23:04] See it?

[01:23:04] It's happening, isn't it?

[01:23:06] Something wrong with it?

[01:23:07] No.

[01:23:08] See it's believing, isn't it?

[01:23:09] Yeah.

[01:23:10] Now listen, it makes sense.

[01:23:12] And they said, the wisdom only comes from one place, because otherwise I wouldn't have thought of these things of my own.

[01:23:20] So now the whole family can go and work out, and they'll keep the whole family coming, because the kids in kindergarten and whatever, are first.

[01:23:29] Hey, I want to go to the nursery.

[01:23:31] I want to go.

[01:23:32] I want to go.

[01:23:32] I want to go to the kids' gym.

[01:23:34] So bring those parents that keep them there going on a regular basis.

[01:23:39] What I hear you saying is you've been an advocate, of course, for kids and fondness of kids, and that eventually was a large motivator for getting married.

[01:23:48] That was it.

[01:23:49] In other words, I used to go in the kids' gym and just loved being around those kids.

[01:23:55] And I said, you know what?

[01:23:57] They always talk about, hey, all these people would say about dying and then coming back a different person or an animal or whatever.

[01:24:06] I said, look, if I ever had to do it over again, the only thing that I would probably maybe do, because I can't get enough of them, is be a teacher in grade school or something.

[01:24:17] And one through first, second, third, fourth.

[01:24:21] I just love the kids.

[01:24:22] They have a pure mind.

[01:24:24] Nothing has ruined their mind yet.

[01:24:26] And they're just as special as you can be.

[01:24:30] And the things that come out of their mouth that they say is enjoyable, it's unbelievable.

[01:24:37] So I said, I've got to have one of my own.

[01:24:40] And so I said, listen, I'm 63.

[01:24:44] If I'm ever going to have a child, I can't let this go on.

[01:24:48] And out of the blue, this, yes, I was at a bar coming back from Pleasantville, Iowa.

[01:24:57] And there was a new place calling up, Tonic it was called.

[01:25:01] And it happened to be a guy that I knew real well that opened the bar.

[01:25:04] So I was feeling sorry for myself because it was Friday night and I was just going to, I was tired and just going to go home.

[01:25:10] So I said, you know what?

[01:25:12] I'm going to start, I'm going to stop in there and have a drink.

[01:25:14] I'm going to see how this place is going.

[01:25:17] I stopped in there and I was sitting up there, like they always say, making love through tonic of gin or something.

[01:25:25] I was enjoying having a drink, which I never believed in a lot of drinking because you know what?

[01:25:32] More than two drinks, it puts you in a different frame of mind.

[01:25:36] You do things you shouldn't be doing.

[01:25:38] Next day, you can't be up, can you get up and be yourself?

[01:25:41] So I always, you don't want to have the energy because you'll have a hangover or whatever you want to call it.

[01:25:46] And I said, so you know what?

[01:25:47] I always tell myself, no way that I'll ever go out and get drunk in a bar.

[01:25:53] But I'm sitting there at the bar.

[01:25:56] And basically, the guy that was going to, is a doctor.

[01:26:00] He had a wife and his wife got to know this lady.

[01:26:06] And so he was the one that was maybe, was one that wanted to buy the fitness center from me.

[01:26:13] So there I was sitting on a Friday night and a guy, he's actually from Columbia, the country of Columbia.

[01:26:19] And he goes, Lamar!

[01:26:21] He walks in the bar.

[01:26:22] Hey, where have you been?

[01:26:23] Oh!

[01:26:24] And he made a big thing.

[01:26:25] He said, yell at my name.

[01:26:26] I said, don't be yelling at my name.

[01:26:28] Stop.

[01:26:29] He said, oh, hey!

[01:26:30] I go, no, stop.

[01:26:31] Stop.

[01:26:33] So then this girl heard my name.

[01:26:36] And she walked over to me and she says, you mind if I sit down?

[01:26:40] I said, no, have a seat.

[01:26:42] And she goes, I always wanted to meet you.

[01:26:45] I said, wait a minute.

[01:26:46] Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[01:26:47] Is this bar talk?

[01:26:48] This is the biggest bar talk I've ever heard.

[01:26:51] And she goes, no.

[01:26:52] She says, my doctor's friend.

[01:26:54] We're real good friends.

[01:26:56] And she is the one that was telling me about your fitness center.

[01:27:01] And that my husband, doctor, wanted to buy it.

[01:27:05] And so I got to know a lot and know about it.

[01:27:08] In fact, I found out a lot about you through the conversations that they were having.

[01:27:14] And I said, because he'd come over to the fitness center.

[01:27:17] He was a member.

[01:27:18] And he just, you know, wanted to know what I was doing and all that stuff.

[01:27:23] So she says, I got to know a lot about you.

[01:27:25] And she says, I always wanted to meet you.

[01:27:28] I said, okay.

[01:27:29] Is it fine?

[01:27:31] So she was working for New York Life.

[01:27:34] Sales.

[01:27:35] Sure.

[01:27:36] And I always can't keep my mouth shut.

[01:27:39] If somebody's in sales, I always want to see if I can help them somehow on what they're doing, how they're doing it, what they should be doing more, and what they could do to make it really explode for them.

[01:27:54] And to be a lot more successful.

[01:27:56] I started talking to her about New York Life and this way.

[01:28:00] And so finally, she says, and here's the thing.

[01:28:05] This is going to be on tape.

[01:28:07] But here, she told me while sitting there, her guy that she was with on a date that night was standing at the end of the bar staring at me.

[01:28:16] I always wonder why this guy was staring at me.

[01:28:19] That was the guy she was out with that night.

[01:28:21] And she goes to tell me.

[01:28:23] She says, listen, Amar.

[01:28:25] She says, there's this guy on Iowa Falls, Iowa.

[01:28:28] That's where I'm from.

[01:28:29] I said, yeah.

[01:28:30] She says, I'm real serious about getting married to him.

[01:28:34] I said, okay.

[01:28:35] She thought maybe that we're talking that I had some ideas.

[01:28:39] And so she wanted to ward it off and say, I have a guy up there.

[01:28:44] And I said, look.

[01:28:45] I said, listen.

[01:28:46] I said, if you ever want to talk more, I said, tell you what.

[01:28:50] You got a card?

[01:28:51] Give me a card.

[01:28:52] I said, listen.

[01:28:54] Sometime I'll call you and see if you just want to go out and have dinner or something and tell me how you're doing and stuff.

[01:29:01] She says, okay.

[01:29:03] Here you are.

[01:29:04] And so guess what?

[01:29:06] I called her about maybe a month later on the phone.

[01:29:10] She goes, Lauren.

[01:29:11] I go, yeah.

[01:29:12] She says, yeah.

[01:29:13] I'd love to go out to dinner.

[01:29:14] I said, why not to dinner?

[01:29:16] And so this went on that I was seeing her for about three months.

[01:29:21] And finally she says, Lamar, I'm going to tell my guy that I'm engaged to.

[01:29:26] It's off.

[01:29:27] She says, I feel like the Lord has brought us together.

[01:29:32] And so I think this is what I need to do.

[01:29:35] I said, wow.

[01:29:37] Wow.

[01:29:37] So anyway, so that was a connection that was very important to me because someone that I meet has got to be into the Lord also.

[01:29:49] Because if it's called in the Bible, evenly yoked, it's called evenly yoked.

[01:29:54] If you're not evenly yoked, don't get married by saying, oh, I'm going to change that person.

[01:30:00] Oh, I'm going to get them to do this.

[01:30:02] I'm going to get them to do that.

[01:30:02] Listen, they're not equally yoked to begin with.

[01:30:06] And she just told me that time, she says, hey, I go to Saylorville Baptist Church.

[01:30:12] And she's this guy.

[01:30:14] He's a singer.

[01:30:15] It's real well known around the point years ago.

[01:30:17] But she says, he led me to the Lord.

[01:30:20] I said, fantastic.

[01:30:21] So she says, I really think that we're supposed to be together.

[01:30:25] I go, okay.

[01:30:26] So anyway, so we went together about a year and it just kept building and building.

[01:30:31] So finally, we got married.

[01:30:34] And so, but that was not everything because being honest with you, people that even though they're into the Lord, they think they can do anything they want to do.

[01:30:46] No, you're not following the Lord.

[01:30:49] You can't do anything you want to do.

[01:30:53] It's got to be right.

[01:30:54] During those eight years time that we were married, it seemed like we always had disagreements.

[01:31:00] And about this, that, and the other thing.

[01:31:03] And yes, because I was successful, that entered into the thing too of what the way she wanted to live and so forth.

[01:31:12] No doubt there's challenges there.

[01:31:13] It was very much challenges.

[01:31:15] And she just even come out and said, hey, Lamar, I deserve to have what I want.

[01:31:21] I said, no, you don't.

[01:31:22] I said, you married me because of love, not because of money.

[01:31:26] And I said, that's where the problem is.

[01:31:29] But finally, after those eight years went by, I said to myself, you know what?

[01:31:35] I don't have a child now.

[01:31:37] I feel like 63, eight years, 71.

[01:31:40] Yes.

[01:31:41] If I don't have a child now, I never will.

[01:31:44] I want that child.

[01:31:45] That kept hitting me.

[01:31:47] So finally, at age 72, I had my first child, the only child.

[01:31:52] And she's nine years old now.

[01:31:54] And so that's the reason what, because I always said, until 63 years old, I was always happiest guy in the world because I always made myself happy, so to speak, because I worked real hard.

[01:32:07] Got a lot of enjoyment out of it.

[01:32:09] Got a lot of things done.

[01:32:11] Everything was going good.

[01:32:12] And I said, why fix something that's not broken?

[01:32:16] I said, why fix it?

[01:32:17] I said, but you know what?

[01:32:18] I want a child.

[01:32:19] I want a child.

[01:32:22] So that's when she's nine years old now.

[01:32:24] And I'm so blessed.

[01:32:26] I just talked to her this morning.

[01:32:28] Nine years old.

[01:32:29] And she is just amazing.

[01:32:32] So I won't go into any more of that.

[01:32:34] Incredible.

[01:32:35] Lamar, I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to connect and coming to the office and spend some time together.

[01:32:42] You and I chatted before we got together here.

[01:32:44] You said, hey, what?

[01:32:46] I know you talked to a lot of people.

[01:32:47] Why me?

[01:32:48] And I said, in this state, if you think about the country, who comes to mind who's got one name?

[01:32:54] Right?

[01:32:54] Elvis Prince.

[01:32:56] And in this state, it's Lamar.

[01:32:58] And I sincerely appreciate you sharing your story.

[01:33:01] Inspiring.

[01:33:02] And I've taken a lot away from this.

[01:33:04] And I know you spent a lot of time today working on land, dealing in land.

[01:33:10] It still is a significant passion.

[01:33:13] And I suspect there's some folks out there, a user, people in the brokerage community.

[01:33:17] But if somebody has a land interest, they perhaps have a need, want to buy land.

[01:33:23] Where can they go?

[01:33:23] How can they interact with you and or your company?

[01:33:27] It's just the best way of my email.

[01:33:30] And it's just my name spelled out all in lower caps.

[01:33:33] L-E-M-A-R-K-O-E-T-H-E at gmail.com.

[01:33:40] And I didn't mention this before, but I did more.

[01:33:44] I had to do more.

[01:33:46] Otherwise, I would keep myself on the straight and narrow, so to speak.

[01:33:50] So for 32 years, I had a Bible study.

[01:33:54] It met every Tuesday night.

[01:33:56] Wow.

[01:33:57] And basically, up until the time I got leukemia here, a year and a half ago, it was never

[01:34:03] missed.

[01:34:04] It was always every Tuesday night for 32 years.

[01:34:07] And what I want to do in the future is I thought, am I just going to have this Bible study or

[01:34:13] what am I going to continue with after this?

[01:34:15] Because I know the Lord's going to take care of me.

[01:34:17] So I know I'm going to become well again.

[01:34:19] So the bottom line is that what am I going to do?

[01:34:22] And I thought, you know, what's the thing I get more satisfaction from than anything else?

[01:34:28] And I always came back to one thing.

[01:34:31] If I helped somebody get something from their sales and I mentored them, so to speak, which

[01:34:38] I've mentored a lot of people in my life and sales.

[01:34:42] If I mentor them, I wanted to tell them what they're doing wrong, what they should be doing

[01:34:46] and a lot of stuff.

[01:34:47] And it came real easy for me.

[01:34:49] And so I thought, you know what I want to do?

[01:34:51] And this is something that if you are interested in the future and doing this, I'm going to

[01:34:57] have, instead of a Bible, it's going to be a Bible study, but I'll guarantee you, God's

[01:35:03] going to be right in the center of everything because that's your ticket to being successful.

[01:35:10] And yes, I will mentor you at this meeting, but I want you to know we're at the top.

[01:35:16] That God's going to be in the center of everything.

[01:35:18] You're going to be why you need to follow him and why you need to trust him and why you

[01:35:22] need to do things that he says to do.

[01:35:24] And if you're not going to be doing it, then basically the thing I'm going to get the most

[01:35:29] enjoyment out of in the future.

[01:35:30] If I can have a class, like maybe once a week and mentoring people.

[01:35:36] And that's, I think, what I want to do after I get through this leukemia thing.

[01:35:41] So I'm going to start it back up and then I have a mentoring class, but just going to have to know

[01:35:45] right off the top.

[01:35:47] God's going to be in the center of everything because that's why I know why I'm successful today.

[01:35:51] It's not because of me.

[01:35:52] I don't have that, but not that smart.

[01:35:54] Bottom line is because of he was always the wisdom and always the word behind what I need to do.

[01:36:03] And so that's the whole thing in a nutshell.

[01:36:05] And it's just, you know what?

[01:36:06] It'll work for everybody.

[01:36:07] It's not if it's going to be work.

[01:36:09] It's just when it's going to work.

[01:36:11] It's when you are all in.

[01:36:13] If the Lord has your heart, bottom line, you know what?

[01:36:17] That's the only time he's going to have you.

[01:36:19] That, oh, I do this.

[01:36:20] I give a lot of money away.

[01:36:21] I do this.

[01:36:22] People say, all right, I go to this Bible.

[01:36:24] I go that.

[01:36:24] No, listen, good stuff.

[01:36:26] Not by works that you're going to have a relationship with them.

[01:36:30] It's by what?

[01:36:31] By following them.

[01:36:32] If you're not follow, I'm sorry, partner.

[01:36:35] You're not going to get what you want, be what you want, and do what you want.

[01:36:39] Just all comes together.

[01:36:41] And that's the way it works.

[01:36:43] Amar, I appreciate your opinions.

[01:36:44] Fantastic.

[01:36:45] All right.

[01:36:46] Thanks for listening.

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[01:37:32] Thank you.