Her Idea

1959
If it was big it was bad. If it was new it was bad. And if it was my idea it was absolutely awful. Because I had worked in and out of 8 "careers" in 13 years, my first ex wife the Princess had little or no respect for my business judgment or me in general. She also suffered from NIH (The Not Invented Here illness). However, new ideas for spending money on her were never rejected.

A real estate friend of mine phoned me about 13 acres for sale in a place called Portola Valley, 10 miles outside of Palo Alto. I went out to see it without a word to the Princess. There were 10 home sites on a stunning piece of property with redwood, giant yew and copper beech trees. The sale price was $70,000. So after some negotiations I bought it for $65,000 (roughly $473,000 in today's money). The quickest way to give a Jew an ulcer is to take him up on his first offer (I started at $55,000). I then had to come up with a way to borrow the money and "sell" the Princess on buying this property.

Success with her meant that the purchase had to be her idea. Being an accomplished promoter, I organized a family picnic on the property which didn't have a real road to drive to and through. The Princess immediately fell in love with the property and asked me if it was for sale. I told that I thought so and would check on it. She then suggested that it would be a wonderful place to build a house and that I should urgently pursue its purchase not knowing that I had already bought it. I will explain in the next blog why it was one of the great buys and living experiences of all time. And, incidentally, it was 100% levered with a 90 day time fuse.