Late Night Internet Marketing with Mark Mason -- Affiliate Marketing Tips, Online Business Advice, Email Marketing and SEO
Note: If you are new here and not familiar with podcasting, you can listen to this episode right now by clicking the triangle above. You can also find
this episode in iTunes if that is your thing. This week we do something completely different. We take a look at a recent tragedy that impacted my extended family – the murder of my second cousin, Donald Leonetti. Donald was an amazing business man, and there are things we can learn from his life. That seems like something Donald might have wanted. Donald was one of those extended family cousins that you don't see very often, but when you would finally see him, it's like no time had passed. As they say, “Donald could work a room.” Here is a picture of me (in the center) and Donald (on the right, with the cool tie) from around 1977. As you can see, I had awesome hair (a sign of the times). As discussed in the episode, Donald was recently murdered during the robbery of a legal poker game near Houston.
You can read all about the tragedy in
this Houston Chronicle article. Here is an excerpt from that article:
“Shortly after 8 p.m., two masked men with rifles burst into the room from a back door, according to Stafford police. Witnesses told investigators the men demanded that the players empty their pockets and scooped up cash from the tables, a haul that police estimate was about $20,000. It remains unclear why the robbers fired at least two shots before fleeing in a tan or gold Buick LeSabre.
One shot grazed the neck of Charles Olson, 56, who lived. The other shot killed Leonetti…”
A Senseless Tragedy
I've been trying to make some sense out of this tragedy for some time. By all accounts, Donald was an amazing man that was truly loved in the community. As mentioned in the episode, he was a family man, a successful business leader at
Leonetti Graphics and generous with charities. People loved him.
It makes you wonder why we live in a world where things like this can happen. This topic was addressed at Donald's memorial service better than I've ever seen it handled before. If you wonder why God lets this stuff happen, maybe this video will help. (
View on YouTube)
There were about 2000 people at the memorial service. Everyone agrees that Donald was awesome, but this eulogy from his friend Paul says it all. This video contains all the speaker, but Paul starts about 1:30 seconds into the video. (
View on YouTube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK1L7nPVkF8 The bottom line was that people loved Donald. That's for sure.
What Can We Learn From All Of This
So the question that I ask in this episode is what can we learn from all of this? It seems to me that this best thing that we can do for Donald at this point is make his death mean something. In the context of this show, my very small tribute to Donald is to pull a few lessons out of his life and offer them to you.
* Have a fantastic mentor to guide you like Donald's Uncle Damon
* Surround yourself with a partner and wonderful people that you can trust and have your back like Donald's wife Jennifer, sister Jo Ann and best friend Paul
* Be prepared for the unexpected (instructions, insurance, business structure, etc.)
* Be of service. Add real value in your business. Be more than your job description.
* The more money that you make the more people that you can help. Regarding this, I mention the book