Learnings and Missteps
The Learnings and Missteps Podcast is about unconventional roads to success and the life lessons learned along the way.
You will find a library of interviews packed with actionable take aways that you can apply as you progress on your career path.
Through these interviews you will learn about the buttons you can push to be a better leader, launch a business, and build your influence.
Find yourself in their stories and know that your path is still ahead of you.
Learnings and Missteps
Learning from Mistakes: The Philosophy and Business of Jose Berlanga
In this episode of the Learnings and Missteps podcast, host Jesse engages in a deep conversation with Mr. Jose Miguel Berlanga, an international entrepreneur with over 35 years of experience. Jose shares his journey from being a struggling student to becoming a successful real estate magnate and author. They discuss the importance of following one's interests, the harsh realities of entrepreneurship, the significance of continuous learning, and the unexpected link between economics and philosophy. Jose also emphasizes the value of focusing on strengths rather than weaknesses, managing emotional responses in business, and the process of writing books to pass on his knowledge. The episode provides insights and practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and emphasizes the importance of perseverance, resilience, and self-awareness.
00:00 Introduction and Guest Background
00:57 Meet Mr. Jose Miguel Berlanga
02:02 The Connection Between Economics and Philosophy
06:16 Learning from Business and Personal Growth
08:53 Advice for Struggling Students
12:58 The Reality of Entrepreneurship
28:03 Managing Emotions in Business
31:21 A Unique Vacation: Seattle Children's Hospital
31:54 The Importance of Self-Care and Celebrating Wins
32:43 Balancing Work and Personal Life
35:42 The Reality of Entrepreneurship
39:07 Writing and Sharing Knowledge
44:21 The Concept of Quantum Entrepreneurship
50:41 Mentorship and Identifying Potential
55:18 Final Thoughts and Reflections
Connect with Jose:
https://joseberlanga.com/books/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jose-berlanga-900a9518/
https://www.instagram.com/authorjoseberlanga/
https://www.facebook.com/authorjoseberlanga
Make yourself a priority and get more done: https://www.depthbuilder.com/do-the-damn-thing
Download a PDF copy of Becoming the Promise You are Intended to Be
https://www.depthbuilder.com/books
I always say that you don't need to be a straight-A student to achieve things in life, to become somewhat successful, because at some point, what interests you is what makes you move forward.
Speaker 2:What is going on? L&m family family back again, this time with a very seasoned entrepreneur, international entrepreneur with over 35 years of experience. Background come from Mexico City. He's the co-founder of Tricon Homes and he's making a big, gigantic impact in the Houston real estate space. So something tells me we might have some investment nuggets. I'm not sure, we'll see how it goes. And he's an author not just of one book. There's one book out and available for you now and there's another book that's getting cooked up.
Speaker 2:Mr Jose Miguel Medlanga we're going to get to know him. He's in Houston, right down the road here from San Antonio Banga we're going to get to know him. He's in Houston, right down the road here from San Antonio. But before you get to know him, if this is your first time here, this is the Learnings and Missteps podcast, where you get to see how real, amazing people just like you are sharing their gifts and talents to leave this world better than they found it. I'm Jesse, your selfish servant, and we're about to get to know Mr Jose. Mr Jose, how are you? Sir?
Speaker 1:I'm wonderful. How are you, Jesse? Great to be here.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm excited Again. It's kind of unfair and I've said this a bunch of times, but it's really unfair that I get to meet some pretty darn accomplished people as a result of this podcast and you, sir, are extremely accomplished, way out of my league, and I get a chance to have a conversation with you, and so I know you have multiple degrees and it was interesting to me, and so this question kind of bounced around in my head what is the connection between economics and philosophy?
Speaker 1:There is none, none there is none in the surface until you actually dig a little deeper. And thank you, by the way, for the introduction. I bet it's great to be here. The honor is all mine. I love the name of your podcast Learning and Missteps. I'm it's great to be here. The honor is all mine. I love the name of your podcast Learning and Missteps.
Speaker 1:I'm full of missteps. Endless number of missteps. That's my specialty. Not much in my life, I haven't messed up yet, but it's all a learning process. So philosophy happened to me as an accident.
Speaker 1:I went to St Thomas University here in Houston. I was a horrible student. I always say that you don't need to be a straight-A student to achieve things in life, to become somewhat successful, because at some point what interests you, is what makes you move forward, is what makes you move forward. And becoming a scholar book smart was just not for me. It wasn't my specialty, it wasn't my area of expertise. But I knew that I wanted a degree, I wanted to graduate, I wanted an education. I thought it was necessary. I had the opportunity and I didn't want to waste it. And I liked the subject of business. My major was business administration, but I also like economics. I just felt that it was a good combination.
Speaker 1:And then, to wrap things up nicely, the University of St Thomas is big on philosophy and theology. Obviously it's a Catholic university and the core curriculum operates a lot of philosophy classes. So if I added a few more I could also get a major. So I go, wow, why not get an extra major? And that was wonderful. But just to wrap up the response to that question A lot of philosophers, scientists, were businessmen, were mathematicians. As a matter of fact, it's funny that you mentioned one of the first philosophers of the. Somebody that I studied at some point was one of the most brilliant businessmen. So the more you learn just not to get in the subject, but the more you learn about some of these philosophers, they were also businessmen and they were good at it somehow. So there is something to be learned about their way of thinking and the way that they approach problem solving, which ultimately, business is all about solving problems.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:Thales, thales.
Speaker 2:Miletus just came to's one of my, my favorite philosophers, so anyway, okay, we'll look them up and make sure L&M family you already heard look them up, cause I know some of y'all want to be in the business game. So here's an interesting thing that you said something I'm like oh man, the they, their background was in business or mathematics or they had an expertise that maybe that was their livelihood, and then the philosophy thing was maybe not primary to begin with and in business.
Speaker 2:I just started my business just over three years ago, jose and I had no idea what the hell I was doing. Now, I've always I still really don't know what I'm doing, but I've always been. Neither do I, by the way. Okay, we're on the same page. So I've always been had a ravenous appetite to learn and grow, and I'm going to. Since I started my business three years ago, the amount that I've grown in terms of self-awareness and understanding, the capability or the depth of potential that not only I have, but the people around me have, is tremendously greater than all the years preceding that. And so I wonder, like these folks that were experts the philosophers that were experts in their particular field then got into philosophy if it was because of the growth they experienced in business. And so maybe the question then is has being in business helped you discover or learn anything about yourself?
Speaker 1:Every single day, I continue to learn something about myself in the business world the good, the bad and the ugly.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What I like. Believe me when I tell you that this is an ongoing process. At my age, after almost 40 years of owning businesses, of being an entrepreneur, I continue to find things that I don't, not only that I don't know and that I don't understand very well, but that I like and that I enjoy about the business world. I continue to discover myself and rediscover myself and perfect my process, learn about my own identity. Finally, I can begin.
Speaker 1:After so many years, I can begin to understand why it is that I pursued this career, what I like and dislike about myself and about the business world and how to properly approach it. Because in the early stages of your career, it is more about the obligation, the responsibility, achievements, getting somewhere, getting something done, no matter what, no matter how. And as you become more seasoned over the years in the business world, it starts coming together. You start structuring a system in which you are still productive and successful, but you begin to enjoy it a little more. So you start molding the business world a little bit better and I continue to learn that process. After so many years, I'm learning about myself every single day and you start learning your limits, you start pushing yourself, you start understanding what you're able and not able to do and how to deal with the endless number of setbacks that that you're faced with yes, yes, okay.
Speaker 2:Now, you mentioned at the beginning here that you weren't the greatest student, but, based on what you've said so far, you are a rapid learn like. You can learn rapidly and adjust, and learning in your own business is a high stakes game. It's not like you can study and you're playing with somebody else's money. You're playing with your livelihood. So what do you think? What would you say to to the youngster out there that is struggling with their grades and that would help them understand that the grades getting A's in class is not a definitive marker of what their potential is?
Speaker 1:Correct your grades in school do not define who you are, and they certainly don't define your level of success or your IQ, your ability to learn or your ability to move forward in life and do well in life. The reality of the business world and in any type of career is very different. It's more geared towards your level of interest in whatever it is that you're doing. It took me many years to realize that I wasn't dumb. At some point I thought I was kind of dumb. I was not very qualified, I was not very good at anything. I was distracted, I was ADD, I struggled to read, I struggled to learn. But many years later and little by little, I began to realize that it wasn't necessarily me, but it was the things that I was trying to learn that weren't interesting to me.
Speaker 2:Little by little.
Speaker 1:I began to understand what were the things that drew my attention, what were the things that captivated me and that made me a better person and that made me good at whatever topic it was.
Speaker 1:And when it got to certain things for example, closing deals and going after earning money doing transactions in a specific type of activities that became very interesting to me, all of a sudden, I began to realize that I excelled and that I was actually doing better than most of the top students that I encounter over my lifetime. So there is life after school. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't try your best, but a huge mistake that all of us make is to try to become better at the things that we're not good at, and we ignore the things that we are actually good at. You tend to try to pay more attention to the classes where you're doing poorly and ignore the ones where you're already doing well, and it should be the other way around. You should understand what you're good at and try to become excellent at it. So that, over the years, it took me a while to understand.
Speaker 2:I want to give the L&M family member shout out, and this one goes out to Miss Donella. Miss Donella made a post. She re-shared a post that I put on LinkedIn and said some beautiful words and of course I want to share them so that I have evidence now that I'm not that bad. A guy, ms Donella, says you absolutely do not need to be in the construction industry for the truth bombs of Jesse to completely change your perspective. But if you are in the construction industry, you've got to be keeping up with his stuff. If you've ever struggled to get things done, make decisions or make progress, and especially if you've heard all the advice and you intellectually know, if you've heard all the advice and you intellectually know, but you're struggling with it, he has a way of saying it that helps you get out of your own way.
Speaker 2:Ms Donella, thank you so much. Those are super awesome comments. I'm going to show it to my mom because now she can be proud of me. And for the rest of you you already know leave a message, send me a DM, do some stars, share it with your people, because that gives me an opportunity to shout you out on an upcoming episode. Yeah, no, I got another question for real. You've said you've run multiple businesses. How many times has a client or a prospect ever asked you for your report card? Never.
Speaker 1:Not, yet they do ask for it in a different way. There are different versions of a report card.
Speaker 2:They want service.
Speaker 1:They want commitment, they want loyalty. See, in life's report card there are other line items and other ingredients that are not part of the education system. Yes, sir, they are going to want to see my financial statements. They're going to want to understand if I have been a responsible citizen and a financially responsible businessman. So those are other forms of report cards that you start building over the years as your career moves on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally. I heard somebody say it. I was like, oh, that's brilliant. We need to shift our focus from building the resume right the resume list to building our obituary list. What is it that people, the human beings, are going to remember about us when we move on? Not, I've worked on a 280,000 square foot project. Nobody cares about that. They care about the other things that are indicators of our character, of our integrity, of our willingness and ability to serve and deliver. That's life. That's what it's about. Now, you touched on an important thing around kind of discovering, exploring, experimenting with your interests. Was that something that was just intuitive for you? How did you build the confidence to go down that path? Because I know a lot of people. That's a danger zone, right, the conventional thinking is go do this path and build the weaknesses or whatever, but what you seem to have mapped out is a different way that really helps you find something that fills you, that fills your cup.
Speaker 1:Yes, you're right. As a matter of fact, it took me many years to become more aware of what I'm good at and what I like doing. There were years when I believed that I wasn't good at anything, without really understanding that entrepreneurship itself is a science, is an activity Putting deals together. You don't have to be an expert in any specific science. I felt incompetent because I wasn't an attorney or a doctor or an architect or an engineer anything specific that the world needed and I felt like I was missing something. Also, I grew up I'm a little older than new generation, which has it a lot more clear in the respect of understanding what their weaknesses and what their strengths.
Speaker 1:In my generation, that did not exist. The mission was how can you support yourself? That was the objective, that was your responsibility. Hey, how are you going to support yourself? What you like, what you need and what you want is irrelevant. Nobody cares. That was the way that we lived. That was the way that I grew up. My wishes were unimportant, were very secondary, so most of us grew up just being responsible and doing what we had to do. Many years later, once I did my homework, paid my dues and achieved a few things and felt like I had earned the right to start thinking a little bit about myself. Only then did I begin to think about what were the things that I enjoy doing and began to tweak my career, but it took me many years decades, as a matter of fact where it was work, work, responsibilities, obligations and things that I had to do not that I wanted to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now, important point, because I'm sure, or actually I know, that you invest in in the community by mentoring and so forth, and I get to go speak to high school students my favorite thing to do to speak to young adults about careers in the construction industry, because that's kind of one of my things. But I got to be extra clear and you just said it. Like, you can start a business and do all kinds of crazy things and pursue your passion if you're funding it, correct. But if someone else is funding it, you need to be independent and carry your own weight. I mean, I don't know, that might be a little harsh nowadays, but that's just the way it is. Like it's unreasonable for me to expect anybody to fund my whims, right, like entrepreneurship is not, it's not, it's a high risk game and it's a heavy gamble. And so if you're going to do it with your, don't be playing with somebody else's money. Play with your own money. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Many young people do not understand that becoming an entrepreneur and following your dreams has a price tag, comes with a price tag, has a lot of responsibilities attached to them. They want their, what they call their. They want their cake and eat it too. They want somebody. They want to follow their dreams and do what they enjoy and find their passion, and they want somebody else to fund it and subsidize it while I still live in my parents home or while they support me and give me money to go out and have fun while I pursue my dreams and eventually find the right opportunities. But that that's not the reality. The reality is at first you need to figure out how to sustain yourself, how to save some money, how to build some wealth, a nest egg, so that then you can start understanding what it is that you like and take your own risks and, like you said, gamble your own money, because are much more fun and easier when somebody's paying for them than when you're putting your own money at risk.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir, 100% you can be much more creative and much more assertive. Of course, we're all smarter and we all have much, much better projections and outcomes on business decisions when we're using somebody else's cash.
Speaker 2:It sounds like you've been on the receiving end of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I've always treated. Rarely have I done businesses with investors. I dislike it. I work very hard to save money, to be frugal, to reinvest in my company so that I could use the capital to grow and to do other things, pursue other interests, because I felt that I could handle other people's money. I see it as a much bigger responsibility than most people understand. It is not an option for me to lose somebody else's money. The only few times that I did raise capital and something didn't go well, I ended up spending years of my life paying them back.
Speaker 1:So, I learned that, hey, if I have partners and investors and it goes wrong, I'm going to pay them anyway, so why have them in the first place? Maybe I just figure out how to come up with the money. And if you do go the route of perhaps raising money, I highly recommend that you learn the science and become good at whatever it is that you're doing before you risk somebody else's money. So learn the business before you raise capital.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, 100% Sound advice, actually expert advice there. Now, knowing that building a business because you've built multiple, knowing that starting a business is a whole hell of a lot of work like way more work than you can even expect At least that's been my experience why, what is it about building businesses that keeps you engaged and continuing to do that?
Speaker 1:I have a little bit of an obsessive, compulsive personality. First of all, I need to be doing something. Although I tell myself that I want to slow down when I was younger, that I want to slow down when I was younger, even from the beginning of my career, of my entrepreneurship journey, I never wasted spare time. This is something I recommend to the younger generations. I used the reason why I was able to build things. I used every waking moment to work on something. Even when I was at the bar or in a restaurant. I was with people that I could relate with, that were all so interested in business, in entrepreneurship, in building a career. I wasn't just chit-chatting and wasting time. I didn't believe in that.
Speaker 2:Is it right or wrong?
Speaker 1:I don't know, but that was my personality. I was always interested. I didn't do anything that wasn't business related. Even what appeared to be time off, I was doing something business related and that helped me. That gave me time to fail so many times. Yes, because I was always moving forward and I started so young that I had time to fail and start all over. So that was part of the trick, that it was very interesting to me and I wanted to succeed.
Speaker 1:It was important to me, but part of what we don't understand we all want to succeed. It's very fun to be successful. It's fun to have money and to make money and to enjoy the benefits of having a successful career, but it's not fun getting there. It's far from fun getting there, and that's something that we all need to understand.
Speaker 1:How bad do you want it? How much pain are you willing to endure to win a gold medal? This is the secret. It's not whether I want to succeed or whether I want to do well with my life or not. It's what am I willing to do in exchange? What am I willing to put up with in order to get there? That's the big question and many people don't answer. They just want the results, but they don't sit around and ponder how painful is this and am I willing to put up with it? If you answer those questions, if you come up with a little bit of that information upfront and the answer is yes, you have much better chances of succeeding because you set yourself up to a realistic journey as a fantasy island where you expect things to happen quickly and easily.
Speaker 2:Deplane, deplane. I remember that.
Speaker 1:Exactly. That's how most people envision this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they think I want to do this. And then I've got a product or a service and I told people about it, Like where's everybody at? Oh baby, you got some work to do Now in terms of like reality, the reality of starting a business, and you've done it multiple times. And so I wonder does it only happen on your first business and what I'm talking about is dealing with failure and rejection, Like after your first business? Did you figure out the magic secret to never have to deal with failure and rejection again, or is that it continues?
Speaker 1:That's an illusion. Failure never stops Failure, or at least short term failure.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I've given this definition. I don't call it failure, I just call it delayed results. And as long as you continue, as long as you don't quit, whatever it is that you're doing, it's not failure, it's just a process. If you quit and never try it again and just throw the towel permanently, then it is a failure. But if things don't go your way, they're just setbacks, they're just obstacles, because you're going to learn from them and move forward and continue and utilize that information to get it done right eventually. So, to answer your question, after decades of being in business and a very tedious and complex journey in the world of entrepreneurship, as of today I still fail. I still face headaches and adversity and setbacks. I still face headaches and adversity and setbacks.
Speaker 1:Today I am dealing with headaches, with rising interest rates, with political issues, problems with sales markets that correct themselves, cyclical patterns in our economy, employees, rising costs, projections that have always variations, and multiple problems that I run into every day, no matter how seasoned you are in business. The only difference and here's the trick, the only difference is that you become more aware of how to address these problems. You get more experience, more confidence to deal with all of these setbacks and to deal with your everyday tasks, and you also become much more familiar with the emotional and the mental process. You prepare yourself financially also, so they don't catch you by surprise. That's the only difference. It is the exact same thing. Nothing changes other than you become better at dealing with all those small, medium and large problems, or whatever you want to call them setbacks. You're ready for them, that's it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love the idea of delayed results, because that's it Like. The thing that happened was I didn't meet the goal, reach the goal the day I wanted to, but, man, I learned a bunch of stuff that I'm going to tweak and adjust to hit the damn goal. It's going to be delayed, but I'm going to hit it unless I quit. But to your point also, that's where learning happens. And if you're afraid to fail, if you're afraid to get told no, you're not going to learn or grow anything. That's what I tell myself right when I'm stuck in those loops. Now you use the word emotional. What strategies do you have for like managing or reconciling an emotional response to a negative outcome in business? Because, like, making decisions in an emotional state can be very expensive? You got any cheat codes or tricks for that?
Speaker 1:can be very expensive. You got any cheat codes or tricks for that? Well, don't make important decisions when you don't feel like you're mentally stable at any particular moment in time, and when you're in business, you get hit from so many directions all the time that it is very easy to emotionally unstabilize yourself. So what I try to do is take a moment pause and breathe, perhaps walk away from a problem and chew on it, and then come back and address it. I try to just deal with all the small ones. Everybody has a different system. I don't suggest that there is one way to skin the cat. There are many ways for us entrepreneurs to deal with your daily routines. So some just start with the big issues and then move on to the smaller ones. Some people go the other way around. I try first of all. I try first of all.
Speaker 1:When I do better in my activities is when I tell myself that things are not going to be, but that I'm a pessimist, that I'm always thinking and talking about the things that are going wrong. I don't see it that way. I feel that things that are not at their optimum level require more attention. So I tend to invest much more time and much more focus and more attention on the things that are not going the way that I anticipate them. And the people around me who perhaps don't have the same mentality of fixing and moving and solving, they perceive it as, hey, this guy's focusing too much on all the problems and not applauding himself enough on all the things that are going right. And there are moments for that. There are moments to celebrate your victories and your success and the positive experiences, but I always somewhat get more consumed and obsessed about the areas that are not doing. They're not to my liking.
Speaker 2:And that helps me move forward. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and so I want to put this in there because I'm an advocate for like self-care right, I know the value of it because I totally abused myself for a lot of years. That being said, I got to get stuff done and so, like myself you said it earlier about your vacations you were going on vacations that some people wouldn't consider a vacation, or doing things that were all business centric, that people would challenge. I've had that issue before. I went to visit Seattle Children's Hospital. I took a trip to Seattle on my vacation times when I had a real job and I went to visit the Seattle Children's Hospital because I wanted. I connected with somebody who was running their continuous improvement department and she offered me like a backdoor view of their whole organ, their whole thing, and I said, hell, yeah, I'm coming down and I want to see that. So I got to two days she escorted, I got to see their processes, the way they do things was amazing. It was like the ultimate vacation for me. But my friends were like, bro, that's not a vacation, that's work Well for you, maybe.
Speaker 2:Anyways, my point in all of that I agree that taking care of ourselves and celebrating wins is healthy and important. But if you struggle with it, kind of like the point you made right out of the gate, focus on the things you're great at, Because I'm really great at identifying gaps in performance and tinkering and experimenting to close the gap, to optimize the situation, the process and what does that mean? That means there's an endless number of things for me to obsess and focus on and I'm okay with that. I'm okay and that is okay. So if you're out there L&M family member that's obsessively focused on working and growing, developing and serving others, you get a pass. Mr Jose said no, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And vacation is good. Walking away, taking time off, is necessary, it's healthy. It took me a very long time to understand Again. I come from a different era, different culture era, different culture, different mental approach as to how you follow your career, where lunch was for wimps and vacation was for the weak. That's where I come from. For many years, I skipped lunch and I never took a vacation because it was just not acceptable, particularly if you were a business owner. When you're employed or in the corporate world, it is almost mandatory because you need to clear your thoughts, you need to regain your health mental, spiritual, emotional health. As an entrepreneur, I think that you need to fortify that area and figure out, just like athletes, just like bodybuilders or any form of athletic activity where your body gets faster at recovering.
Speaker 1:Yes, you work out and then a day or two you're back perfectly fine, back In entrepreneurship. You can't really afford to take too many days. There's just too much going on, and I think business owners develop the ability to recover and refresh their mind in a matter of hours. You become very strong at your recovery period, so that is something that you're either made for or that you develop over time. But I don't think that I've ever taken a full vacation or where I've not talked about business in decades for more than a few hours at a time. That was a form of a break. Even. If I'm in a vacation or taking time off, I have a computer, I have a phone and I'm overwhelmed with issues in my brain that I carry with me, and it's just not optional. It is the life that I chose. I just call it a life choice. It's not for everyone, yeah.
Speaker 2:Agreed, agreed, and I think, folks, if you're not catching it like you got to be damn committed and it is hard to turn it off and maybe extremely expensive or costly to turn it off. You work so hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you work so hard to get to a certain level that the thought of delegating certain activities or walking away because I need some time off and I'll come back to it no, I'm not going to waste or lose years and millions of dollars or whatever the amounts are, but thousands of hours that you put into something because you decided to take a needed break. That's just not an option in some cases.
Speaker 2:Agreed and there's a huge well for me, and I think what you just said I think you would agree. When I was working in the corporate world, you know who was getting all of the equity of my efforts, who was keeping all the intellectual property of whatever I came, contributed, learned, developed. The company was Not you, not me, the company was. And so in that environment, why would I kill myself? And I did. I'm a chronic workaholic. Whatever my work is, I give too much to it. Now, when I was working for somebody else, the return or the exchange was out of balance. They were getting far more than I was getting. Long-term. Sure, I had a career and I equity Me. It's the just the whole air about it building my business, learning the things I need to do, making the sacrifices that I need to make to achieve what it is I'm trying to achieve and contribute. What it is I'm trying to contribute is far more valuable and reinvigorating than it is when I was applying the same sacrifice and effort in my corporate job. What do you think about that?
Speaker 1:Well, you just confirmed the way it works, and let's clarify how things work to your audience. Things work to your audience. Entrepreneurship is perceived as the key to wealth, freedom, flexibility, time off, owning your life, owning your destiny. And it's not quite like that in the short term. There are things that you give up in exchange for getting the ones that you want. So it's quite the contrary. You lose your freedom, you have no more time, you have no more flexibility.
Speaker 1:You think you don't have a boss, but yes, now it's your partners, your bankers, your financiers, your clients, your employees, your vendors, your contractors. Everybody depends on you. You think you don't have a boss. You have many new bosses all of the sudden, so now you have a completely new set of responsibilities. Is there freedom in this? Not in the short term. Eventually you get that freedom, but the fun part about it is that you also get the benefits. Like you said, now what you're doing is for your own benefit, for your own future. You are now creating and building something that you're going to eventually own and benefit from, but it's in the short term.
Speaker 1:it's not how they paint it, it's exactly right yeah, and the purpose needs to be reconstructed and the definition needs to be redefined. I don't go business for freedom and for fun and for relaxation and for owning my time. That's incorrect. You simply choose how to go about building your own destiny, but it doesn't make it any easier.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's all you, all you, all the time. Yeah, now, yeah, so you've been in business. What was it that inspired you to write the business of home building?
Speaker 1:I have been in the construction business for 25 years or so.
Speaker 1:Out of my almost 40 years as an entrepreneur, the bulk of my career the biggest number of years I devoted to running a construction company a residential construction company, and I've been wanting to write books for a very long time.
Speaker 1:I've been wanting to tell stories about how I have ran my life and managed my career and managed my personal life. So I thought the first step was to perhaps talk about the industry that I understood the most and to really validate all of those years of sacrifice and hard work and starting from scratch, starting with no experience, with no money, and building it into a pretty decent sized company. So I wanted to talk about it and perhaps allow others to use some of this very fundamental and necessary information to have handy if they are about to embark in this journey of starting a business, which, incidentally, can be utilized for just about any type of business. It doesn't have to be used only for the construction. The fundamentals are all very similar. By step sequence of events, I use the residential trend and habit of writing and unloading ideas and thoughts in an organized manner. I kept going to the second book and the third.
Speaker 1:I'm finishing my third book right now, wow, and I think they're getting better. The second one is broader in the real estate world. And then the third one is. I think it's so exciting because I'm narrating now much more the entire spectrum of the world of entrepreneurship, what it means, how it works, the mentality, the sacrifices, the lifestyle, the choices, the type of personality. Everything that I've ever learned about the world of entrepreneurship I'm putting it down on this third book.
Speaker 2:So a few things. Like writing a book. It's kind of contagious. I don't know about you, but I do not like the editing After getting the content out. I'm done with it, publish it, edit it. I don't want to talk about it anymore. All the other stuff I really cannot stand. Anyways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you wrote one.
Speaker 2:Is it not like way more work than you could ever have anticipated?
Speaker 1:Yes, and I'm not a writer. In the literary aspect, as we've been talking about, I wasn't the best student, I'm horrible with grammar, so I have someone definitely helping me structuring it, putting it together, because I'm unqualified. I can write the concept and, uh, and I can tell you a story that I think somewhat is coherent and I can organize my thoughts very well, together with a context very clearly. But then obviously, if you are not a professional writer, you need someone to clean it up and make it sound right.
Speaker 2:So yeah, too, because what I'm getting is you're wanting to impart the lessons you've learned and transfer knowledge to help other people. Yeah, correct.
Speaker 1:Yes, I want that message out there amazing.
Speaker 2:The third book is that the dirt rich or is there a different?
Speaker 1:no, dirt rich is actually is already uploaded on amazon, but it's not released uh, to'm going to release it just because right now it's summertime and I'm traveling a lot, but we're going to release it at the end of the summer. Dirt Rich is about land investing, land development and land speculating. Understanding the world of real estate from the perspective of the meaning of land and how land is the commodity, is the particle that makes the entire industry work. Everything that happens in the world of real estate begins by the proper selection of a piece of dirt. This is how it all starts. Proper selection of a piece of dirt. This is how it all starts and the logic why do I buy this piece and how do I appraise that one this way and another one a different way? So I get much deeper in the understanding of land as the important aspect of building the building blocks of everything that has to do with real estate and that's coming out, and then, hopefully very soon, the third book, which is called Quantum Entrepreneurship.
Speaker 2:I like that title.
Speaker 1:It talks a lot about the fact that the mind, the power of the mind, is truly what dictates the outcome and the results of any enterprise, not the product, not the service, or at least not just those particular ingredients. You can have a great product but poor execution and a poor mental frame of mind and it goes nowhere. You can have the most brilliant idea, but if you don't have a way to execute it and put it out there and deliver it properly to the world, it remains a good idea.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think it's interesting because I talk to friends about coaches and there's hell. You go to YouTube and there's a whole bunch of 18 year olds that are expert entrepreneurs, right, like they're talking, and there's a lot of content about mindset. But the way they talk about it as if it's this separate thing, independent thing, and what I heard you say, which I agree with a hundred percent, is it is one of the ingredients, right, having the service, having the we'll just say, the operational experience or Good product, yeah, even a good product to sell.
Speaker 2:Yes, all of those things have to come to they. Thank you, that's it. They have to align they, it's not. I cannot manifest eighty thousand dollars of weekly revenue just by hoping for it. Right, I need a product or a service, I need marketing, I need operations to delivery. There's, it's everything.
Speaker 1:Oh, I even talk about the word manifesting and how it's really overused and underestimated. We don't just close our eyes. Manifesting is not a bending machine where you just put a coin and dreams come true just by thinking about them. Manifesting works in a very complex way. You have to put your part and I describe in a lot of detail how that works. In this book I talk a lot about envisioning your dreams and put them in action and how action in doing things makes the difference. I've seen it over and over A mediocre idea become an extremely successful enterprise and vice versa, a brilliant idea become a horrible failure just because all of the stars were not aligned properly. There has to be a lot of ingredients that come together in harmony, that work well in synergy, to this positive outcome in any business.
Speaker 2:It's interesting. You started your career as a student like me, not the most elitist of students. Then you got your education. You got a degree in business administration, economics, philosophy. You got a degree in business administration, economics, philosophy, went out, built businesses, built a wealth of experience, and now your book is. Seems to me this quantum entrepreneurship is meshing all of those things, what you study. Where you said economics and philosophy there's not a connection, but it sounds like there's some threads that you're weaving together to help other people understand the value of all of those facets. Correct, I got to get this book, mr Jose. I got to get this book.
Speaker 1:I do believe, although I'm not writing books to sell them and to make a bunch of money out of them that's not my purpose but at some point I do want them to become an important tool for young entrepreneurs, because I do believe that the content is incredible, Not because I wrote it, because these are my experiences, but because I do believe that talks the reality. It explains the reality of how this works and by understanding how it truly functions, it improves somebody's probabilities of doing well in the business world.
Speaker 2:Nice Well, folks out there, if you're not excited like me, I don't know what's wrong with you. But go to the show notes. I'm going to have the links to Mr Berlanga's website and access his books and all of this stuff. Because if you haven't been convinced by now that Mr Berlanga has a tremendous amount of experience, like real life experience, that you can value or that you can get value from, there's something wrong with you. But anyways, go to the thing. We'll have the links to his socials LinkedIn, instagram, all the stuff so you can get connected and tap into his knowledge and expertise. Now, tricon Homes. I'm assuming that's your latest biggest venture, the one thing that you're obsessing about the most in Houston.
Speaker 1:Well, tricon Homes was something that I'm well known for because I operated it for years, but we phased out of that company. Now I run a group of other companies Onyx Land Partners, onyx Residential, houstonian Capital and a few others. Some are okay, more commercial real estate multifamily. Now we own a company. I started another company a new trend which is built to rent. It's called QCTR. Yeah, yeah, we also build residential communities strictly for rental purposes. So, yes, there are several companies that I'm still participating in and operating.
Speaker 2:You can't help yourself. Before we hit record, you and I were talking about this and gauging the amount of commitment things are going to take, and I know that you offer mentorship and probably have been the recipient of mentorship and continue to be Now. This may be a weird question, but when you find somebody that you can see like ooh, she's got all the ingredients, she's got the resources. I just need to help her learn how to be resourceful. How much time does that take? Have you ever taken one of those on and then? Did it happen as quickly as you thought it was going to happen, or did it take way longer?
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a great question and you're hitting a very, very touchy subject that I've lived for many years. Now for me and you're going to love my answer because it's coming from the heart Now I am much faster and much more efficient helping someone become successful because I am better at selecting people who want to help themselves. Over the years and this is coming from my heart over the years, I've helped hundreds of people, hundreds of employees that I tried so hard to help them improve who they were, that I tried so hard to help them improve who they were. But I cannot help people who don't want to help themselves.
Speaker 1:There were many people who I tried to save and help them become better executives, better employees, better team members, but I wore myself out over the years trying to help people who were not giving their best. So now so here's your I've become better at identifying who truly wants to give everything and do their part to become better. Those I'm there to help. But if it's just supporting the ones that are wasting your energy and your time, that first they have to find themselves before they can be helped.
Speaker 2:So oh, beautifully beautiful. And I got chills because, hell, yeah, I think you nailed it. First they have to find themselves. I'm still not. I still make bad choices. But I have kind of figured out oh, some are happy, some people don't want to solve a problem, they just want attention for the problem. And when I figured that out I said, okay, why don't I go get attention from somebody else? But being more selective, or maybe having some indicators or criterion that indicate, yeah, they're ready to do the work, let's go to work Now. I don't have all the experience you have, but I got a little bit of experience and I've helped some people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, and it's horrible Even from the perspective of having employees over my lifetime in my different companies where I invested so much time trying to train someone and helping them help me when I had hired them to do a job and to become successful. A mistake that a lot of entrepreneurs make is to give too much time for someone to take on a certain task or take over responsibility, and we want to help them do the job and they want to. We want to help them do the job and we want to help them succeed instead of helping ourselves succeed, and I wasted over the years. I've lost businesses over trying so hard to save my employees instead of saving my company.
Speaker 1:And eventually you get quicker. You get faster at identifying who's contributing and who's not and making quicker decisions. That is another one. Unfortunately, the business world is a little bit cold in that respect, yeah, where you have to make those decisions. If you don't want to participate in the mission and you don't want to be there and you don't want to learn and grow, then you have to move on and make some quick choices.
Speaker 2:And that's okay. Like they need to find another place that will sustain and welcome their level of growth or level of commitment, because there are other places out there. I'm with you, like I agree 100% that we should value the people, invest in people, develop people. I also agree 100% that when people ain't performing, they just need to go somewhere else. That's it. It's not complicated. But back to the emotion part. Right, it's difficult. I want to help them get to a point that they're not invested in or care to get to, and that's the reality that we have to come to terms with. All right, yeah, oh, okay, are you ready for the grand slam question? My gut tells me, with the wealth of experience that you have and your humility I love and appreciate your humility that I have Talk more about everything that I do wrong than what I do.
Speaker 2:it's just my nature yes, I love it, super appreciate it. My sense is that you're gonna have a super amazing response to this question. You ready, sure? All right, what is the promise you are intended to be?
Speaker 1:The promise? Yes, of what am I intended to be? Yep, I'll answer it in a couple of different ways just to see if it meets. Sometimes, we just work for the sake of working and achieve for the purpose of achieving. I'm getting to a point where I want to live a life that outlives me.
Speaker 1:I want to create a level of commitment to what I do and influence others around me where they can utilize some of my expertise, some of my good and bad experiences, and help them become better, and I want to begin to enjoy that process. I do not want to engage in activities for the sake of work, for the sake of making money, without lacking a purpose. So that's where I'm becoming a little bit different nowadays, increasing the purpose and the mission factor in whatever it is that I'm doing, so that I can leave something behind that is more meaningful to others. Wow.
Speaker 2:Wow, live a life that outlives me. That's powerful, thank you. Thank you for that.
Speaker 1:It's a difficult statement, but I guess that's why I'm beginning to do things that are necessarily not giving me immediate gratification. I'm not doing something right now because I'm getting paid for or because I am going to improve my personal life and my lifestyle style. I'm already happy with what I've achieved, and right now I want to shift gears a little bit into doing something that can perhaps influence others to become better.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, amazing Mr Berlanga. You've been so generous with your wisdom and your insights. I feel like I'm shortchanging the listeners. What did I fail to ask you that would have been really meaningful to you and to the listener right now?
Speaker 1:Nothing at all. Nothing at all, because the purpose of this conversation is to have fun, to discuss some of these entertaining experiences in the business world. So having been here talking to you has been fun and I really appreciate the invitation.
Speaker 2:Oh, this was amazing. I feel like when I'm in Houston I'm going to have to shoot an email to your people and say, hey, can we have tacos or something?
Speaker 1:just to shake your hand this was amazing. We have great tacos here. Houston is truly underappreciated in the culinary respect. We have some of the best food. It's very versatile, it's very diverse, it's incredible. It's under most people's radars. Houston is incredible. So, yes, I'd love to see you and have you come by and visit Houston.
Speaker 2:Oh man, that would be great. Thank you for sticking it out all the way to the end. I know you got a whole lot of stuff going on and, in appreciation for the gift of time that you have given this episode, I want to offer you a free PDF of my book Becoming the Promise You're Intended to Be. The link for that bad boy is down in the show notes. Hit it. You don't even have to give me your email address. There's a link in there. You just click that and you can download the PDF. And if you share it with somebody that you know who might feel stuck or be caught up in self-destructive behaviors, that would be the ultimate you sharing. That increases the likelihood that it's going to help one more person. And if it does help one more person, then you're contributing to me becoming the promise I am intended to be Be kind to yourself, be cool, and we'll talk at you next time.