“Now all I have to deal with is the cotton mouth.  I can’t produce enough saliva to swallow.  It really is laughable.
The reason is simple; I’m just not used to this kind of pressure.”

If you’re successful in your professional life it’s due in large part to repetition.  You work on your skill sets day in and day out.  After years it gets to the point that you just do things without thinking.   It almost becomes second nature, and you learn to trust your internal GPS.  Ah, but when you do something that doesn’t come close to being second nature the results can be fascinating.

 I had such an experience this week.  As a point of background, every year around this time I join 23 of my industry colleagues to participate in the Mortario Cup.  What is the Mortario Cup?  It’s two and a half days of make believe; it’s 24 golfers who gather together to play a Ryder Cup style golf tournament.  The make believe part is we get to pretend we’re just like the pro’s.  We all have matching tour golf bags, each team wears the same coloured golf shirts during the  competition, we all wear the same coloured jacket to the champions dinner, each team wears matching ties, we even have matching cufflinks!  Unfortunately, just because you dress up like the pros doesn’t mean you play like one.  Every golfer at this tournament has probably played over a 1,000 rounds of golf over their life time. Some of the golfers have put their time to good use based on how good they are.  It doesn’t matter what the skill level is something happens to each of us at this tournament.

I know this may sound crazy but nerves can get the best of me at this tournament.  I’m not playing for money, the results will not impact my real life one bit, and yet I struggle to keep my emotions in check.  Maybe it’s the responsibility I have to my team members.  If you lose your matches you feel like you have let your eleven team members down.  The tournament is made of two teams of 12, Team Blue which was captioned by Terry Dolson this year,  and the bastards, I mean Team Red, captained by Bryan Devries this year, going head to head.  As you may have surmised I’m on Team Blue, and have been for the last eight years.  The bastard reference to Team Red is all in jest, kind of.  Bryan is a good buddy of mine and damn good player.  I want Bryan and Team Red to play well but I want Team Blue to beat their brains in.  That’s the truth.

So there I am on the first tee, and it’s amazing what goes through your head, “Please god, don’t hit into the woods.  Just put a good swing on it.  Christ, stop thinking about this. Oh man, if I poop the bed on my first shot my team members will think I stink!”  This conversation between my ears all takes place during my warm up swings, which is about three seconds.  I’ve taken thousands of golf swings over the years yet this is different.  I finally pull the trigger and think, “well, now it’s in god’s hands”.  No it’s not you idiot, god’s way too busy to be worrying about my swing.  Then the club finally makes contact with the ball and I see it flying majestically, landing in the middle of the fairway.  Then I nonchalantly bend over, pick up my tee and pretend like there was no doubt.   I can’t wait to get to my ball in the fairway so I can start breathing normally again.  I finally get to my ball and I take a bit of extra time to get my pulse rate back to normal.  Now all I have to deal with is the cotton mouth.  I can’t produce enough saliva to swallow.  It really is laughable.  I’ve done public speaking in front of hundreds of people and yet I don’t experience the same nervous reaction that I do when I play in this tournament.  The reason is simple; I’m just not used to this kind of pressure.  Over the years I’ve played really well at this tournament only to choke on the last few holes.  I can feel myself squeezing the club tighter, and I can just feel that something bad is going to happen.  And you know what? It does.  When it happens I ask myself, “WHY NOW?”  The answer is simple – I’m out of my element.

I must be handling the pressure little better because the last two years I’ve been fortunate enough to close out my opponents.  There’s a difference in being beaten by an opponent rather than beating yourself.  I played fairly well, for my skill level, by earning the maximum three points for our team.  But that matters little because we lost to Bryan Devries and Team Red.  They out played us and were deserving of victory. I hate to lose but if lose I must, it might as well be to a great bunch of guys.  I’m already looking forward to next year’s tournament; for redemption? Maybe a little, but what I look forward to is that 24 men get together to be little boys again.

 Until next time

 Cheers,

“If I’m a home owner in the Greater Vancouver Area, and just read the National Post article, I think I would be coughing up my latte through my nose about now.  But fear not Vancouver, you’re not alone.  Toronto joined in with its own negative results.”

It’s always easy to use the word “timing” to categorize success or failure.  We’ve all heard it before, “he was in the right place at the right time”.  Those who chalk up people’s success, purely based on timing, are usually the ones who missed the same opportunity because of a lack of skill and vision.  In politics timing is used to justify ineptitude and a lack of positive results.  If using timing as an excuse for failure, and if it was an Olympic sport,  then the Obama administration would own the podium.  After 3 ½ years of being in power all you here out of Washington is that it’s all George Bush’s fault, and that the Obama administration needs more time to set the country on the right path.  Blaming the last guy, after all this time, is laughable.  The President wanted the gig and he knew the mess he was inheriting.  It was his job to fix it or at the very least put the country back on track.  Time might be running out for Obama, and we’ll all find out in November.  Should he end up being a one term President, I’m sure the Dem’s will rationalize his failure with “he was the right guy at the wrong time”.

Here in Canada many have supported and questioned the timing of the most recent changes to mortgage rules.  As of July 6th it’s our new reality.  I’m looking out the window right now and it’s sunny, stinking hot here in Toronto, and the ground hasn’t opened up and swallowed up all of us in the industry.  Then again it’s been less than a week.  I was thinking of the timing of the new mortgage rules while reading an article in the National Post recently, “On Wednesday (July 5^th) the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver released June figures showing sales down 27.6% from a year earlier and down 17.2% from just May.  The benchmark price index was 1.7% from a year ago but the city has seen prices drop in the shorter term and economists expect more declines to come”.  If I’m a home owner in the GVA, and just read the National Post article, I think I would be coughing up my latte through my nose about now.  But fear not Vancouver, you’re not alone.  “Toronto joined in with its own negative results as sales in the city declined 13% from a year ago while the entire GTA was off 5.4%”.  Prices have remained steady in the GTA but that appears to have a short shelf life.  For so long now pundits eagerly predicated a housing bust and I guess if they say it often and long enough they will be able to say, “I told you so”.

The most recent changes to mortgage rules had zero impact on the stat’s noted above.  There were many in the mortgage and housing sector, including CAAMP, who publicly stated that previous changes to mortgage rules went far enough.  Of course it’s easy for critics to dismiss the industry as being self-serving but based on the data available today, maybe, just maybe, the industry was not that far off.  The IMF (International Monetary Fund) is tweaking economic forecast for the remainder of the year.  There’s a general malaise as it relates to investments, jobs and manufacturing for the U.S., Europe, Brazil, India and China.   As we have all learned, what happens in the rest of the world impacts us here in Canada.  There’s merit to the argument that economic data justified the changes to the most recent mortgage rules.  But what if the most recent changes to the mortgage rules just adds to an already stagnant economy and slowing housing sector?  Not good if you’re an home owner and certainly less than optimal for those who could have a finger pointed at them, accompanied with a simple message,”you made it worse”.  Indeed, it’s all about the timing.

 Until next time

Cheers.

Not buying it? Neither did my grade four teacher, Mrs. Cops.  I still remember her after all these years.  What I remember the most about her is the accuracy she had when throwing chalk at us.  She would be writing on the board and in one fluid motion turn, fire and nail you right in the forehead.  It was uncanny.  That’s why I always tried to sit behind the kid with biggest head in the class.  I was just trying to work the odds.  Speaking of odds, after posting over 104 blogs, without fail, there’s was bound to be a day when I just couldn’t come up with anything.  Maybe it’s the heat wave we’re going through in Toronto, maybe it’s trying to catch up after all the travel or simply a cranial cramp.  I got nothing. 

I wonder what would have happened if I was totally honest with Mrs. Cops?  “My homework?…To be honest Mrs. Cops I didn’t feel like doing it”.  Just got a shiver.

Until next time,

 Cheers.

“Italy and Spain will be left with little choice but to plug its nose, open wide and except the bitter medicine. Both Italy and Spain are too big to fail.”

Canada wasn’t the only nation that celebrated this weekend. The Austerity Bowl, better known as Euro 2012 soccer final was played this weekend. The finals were a nice distraction for those of Spanish and Italian decent – that was before the game started. The final wasn’t much of a game because Spain destroyed the Italians on the field. Soccer purists could marvel at Spain’s dominance and breath taking skills. But if it was an exciting game you were looking for, you would have been better off channel surfing. If you missed it the final score it was Spain 4 Italy 0. Ouch!

Prior to Sunday’s final game you couldn’t help but notice the flags of European countries being proudly displayed by motorists. If it’s like this in Toronto and other Canadian cities can you imagine what it must have been like in Spain and Italy leading up to the game?! These two countries could sure use a distraction. Both countries are in dire straits when it comes to their respective economies. Both Spain and Italy’s have had to look for handouts from their European ruler, Germany and the IMF. The only thing missing for the Italian and Spanish President is a piece of cardboard that reads, can you spare a trillion? Spain’s unemployment rate has now reached a shocking 25%, and they can only envy Italy’s 10.2% unemployment rate. Investors view Italy as being much safer than Spain, but that’s like picking your poison. Home sales in Italy have dropped by 20% in 2012, and they cannot service their $2 trillion debt. That being said home prices have remained steady in Italy, and their banks are not nearly exposed as Spanish banks. But Italy’s irresponsible government spending in the last twenty years has given them very little leverage to negotiate favorable loan terms. Italy and Spain will be left with little choice but to plug its nose, open wide and except the bitter medicine. Both Italy and Spain are too big to fail. They are the 8th and 12th largest economies in the world, their neighbor, Germany, cannot afford to let that happen. Greece? A throw away. The two aforementioned countries? Not a chance. Germany will figure out a solution and Italy and Spain will have to accept the terms; Like maybe having Angela Merkel’s picture on all their currency, including coins.

If the fine people of Italy and Spain derived any kind of pleasure prior to the final, good for them. A distraction doesn’t make the problems go away but being able to put aside everyday problems for a brief moment must have been such a relief for them. I suspect that good number of people in Italy and Spain must be envious of us here in Canada. Sure, we have our issues but when compared to other countries around the world they would gladly trade their problems for ours. How fortunate that those of Italian and Spanish nationality get to live in such great countries like Canada. That applies to individuals of every nationality that lives in Canada. Maybe one day everyone will remember to celebrate Canada during international sporting events; something simple, like displaying the Canadian Flag along with your country of origins flag when driving around the city. No one can use the excuse “I didn’t think of that”. The final was played on Canada Day.

Until next time

Cheers