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I know I haven't blogged in awhile. Inspiration was zero. It happens to the best of us. I was reading over some of my old posts today and I realized that since I've been gone, from the Blog that is, I've done a complete life makeover. And that makeover was urgent. "I sleep with my Blackberry" I wrote. That's how my life was. Well, here's the update. For a long time my soul was longing for something more. Just because I had accomplished what I did with Adina Equities doesn't mean that my life has to be only that. I knew as a matter of fact that it wasn't. And after much thought, um, like years, of feeling obligated to my clients or my staff or the blackberry, or to false fears that something catastrophic would happen if I let go-somewhere in that stress, I lost myself. I was in fact Adina Equities. Today, I am not. I own a thriving business with my name on the door, called Adina Equities. But I know who I am. Since my last blog, I've moved out of New York City, something I was longing to do for so long and never thought I would be able to do. Five or Six years ago, I almost bought a small house in Bronxville, NY and I would have commuted to Manhattan. I was about 30 and single. It was an adorable little red house, set back on a beautiful hill, only 1,200 square feet, like a doll house almost. It had a fireplace, arched doorways, moldings, a little vintage dressing area, and a deck. I wanted it so bad. But then the voices of reason chimed in-my fears, family, friends.... "Adina are you nuts?" What single woman buys a house alone? Who are you going to meet in Bronxville? You'll be exhausted commuting" and so on. What I know now, is that even if you live 10 blocks away from your office, if you are unhappy, that is an exhausting commute too. I never bought the house. I plugged away and as usual threw myself into my work. More and more people started to notice "Adina Equities". I got press and I ran ads and I branded my company within that time period. I have no regrets. But that something that was missing started to eat away at me again. I put the blinders on, which is the way I describe things when I forge ahead and worry about consequences later, and in March 2009 I rented my house in East Hampton. I signed a two year lease because the only thing I was really sure of at the time was that I wanted to stay put. Sort of like "Eat, Pray, Love" minus the trip to Bali. I started out with keeping my NYC apt and coming Friday through Sunday night, every weekend. Slowly but surely that turned into Thursday night to Monday am, where I would drive straight to the office. Ultimately that turned into coming to the City every other week. You get the idea...I tried getting into Real Estate out here, for a whopping week. I thought of it as a means to be able to stay here full time. But I quickly realized starting all over again wasn't the answer. I opened myself up to other possibilities and I got serious about an offer that had been on the table for me. A client- a Landlord, that I have worked for since 2004, gave me the opportunity to open a Bar/Restaurant concept in one of my exclusive buildings. At first I thought, how on earth can I do this. It's so far out in left field as they say from what I do now. Now I know that it's not. It's a people business. And people is my thing. So fast forward until today, I have accepted that opportunity and myself and a partner will be opening this Bar/Restaurant concept. *Coming soon* is all I can say right now. But it's exciting beyond what I ever thought possible for myself. In the mean time, my life began to expand as I met more and more people living full-time in the Hampton's too. I call us "the transplants". The transplants are people like me that just needed a break from City life but that are interesting, cultured, sophisticated, successful people who also run their businesses from home as do I, and travel back to the City for work on an as needed basis. We are the one's having lunch in Bridge Hampton or in Sag Harbor on beautiful sunny days or walking around barefoot in our lawn while on our cell phones-closing deals, talking to our office assistant's and managing our businesses. Today, Adina Equities is going through a make over too. I've learned to delegate and not get overly worried about every little thing. I've learned to trust that I'm not the only one that can do things the "Adina way". My staff and I have come together as a team and they have flourished right along with me. This all led me to let go of my NYC apt and become a full time resident of East Hampton. This was a hard decision for me, I was worried that something would go wrong. The irony is that the business is now on the healthiest track I think it's ever been on. Our identity is solid. We specialize in exclusive listings in Brownstones and Townhouses all over Manhattan. That's our niche and we dominate it. Adina Equities has a rental manager now, Laika Dacalos who is doing an outstanding job. My assistant Danielle is my right arm, my eyes and my hands, literally at the office. I couldn't live my life today as happily as I do without her intelligence and innate ability to "get it" and "get me". And my girls as I call them, Erin, Iruka and Jenn, who are motivated, strong willed, passionate, sincere, genuine, honest, loyal and best of all totally supportive and think it's pretty cool that "yeah, our boss lives in the Hamptons." Really. What more could I ask for? If you asked me a 5 years ago, 4, 3, 2 or even 1 year ago if I thought I could ever have a life without being a slave to my work, and NYC, I would have said no. I felt miserable and stuck. But I freed myself. And now, I work harder, I work smarter, I am more motivated, I am a better boss and I know it isn't all about me. Soon the website will have some new home pages, not just pictures of "Adina". That was good, when it was good, but we have evolved. We are a team now. We have gotten 6 new exclusive Rental Buildings in 2011, all of which were done with team work. Yes, the initial referral of the Landlord's were to me, but instead of trying to get the business all by myself, I let them help me. And guess what? We got every single one we tried to get. We are confident, because we earn the business through honesty and hard work. For all you small business owner's out there who think you are stuck. You are thinking way too small. I'm a business owner now. Who said anything about small?
Best always,
Adina |
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