Leaky toilets: The threshold to success?

Heart

20 years ago I set off to be a real estate mogul.

In landlord lexicon, I had 11 toilets and 7 furnaces. I was poor, but young and ambitious. Also Friend, I had one undisclosed fear » facing conflict 😱 

My aim was to stack passive cash, live the easy life, have conflict about which beach to spend all summer, that kind of thing 🌴 💵 🌴 

My newbie friend called me one day, wanting real estate advice, how did I ‘make it’? How was I doing? How could he get rich one day with passive income?

I chuckled, poor fool, and told him it was a lot of leaky toilets, furnace pilot lights, and squatter tenants.

Conflict and trouble pal.

I tired of all the tenant issues and drama, and definitely the leaky toilets. This was hard and I equated a ‘good life’ by few problems, by ease, by avoiding conflict.

Eventually I sold them, sold off the problems, mostly just made good stories to tell, not much profit.

My friend kept going 🏋️ 

He now has 300 toilets! His superpower: insatiable hunger for conflict.

His attitude: No problem, I can fix it! 🛠️ 

The more conflict, the more leaky toilets, the more value he adds to the market as an expert fixer.

The last 10 years he dutifully fixed leaky toilets and now backstrokes in passive income.

Still has one recurring conflict though, deciding which international beach town to spend his summers . . . who’s the poor fool 🙃 

Maybe a meaningful life isn’t about dodging challenge and conflict. But pursuing it—on purpose.

Because anything worthy: a relationship, a calling, summiting Mount Vinson—requires the climb.

Mind

Ancient Rome (500 BCE)

• 🚽 Romans built public latrines with long stone benches and flowing water underneath.

• Toilets were communal and social—no privacy 👀, but plenty of conversation!

• They used a sponge on a stick (xylospongium) instead of toilet paper 😶 

Soul ⚡️ 

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he (or she 💁‍♀️) stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

— MLK JR

Body

Friend, what will you fix today?

The broken patio screen door? The leaky toilet? The mountain of debt? The cracked basement wall where you were going to install that speaker? That fractured relationship?

We can fix it 🛠️ 💯 

Just 4 Fun Trivia 😆