I challenged myself this month to be positive when writing my blog.  I must confess it took some effort to always look for the silver lining but with some creativity and effort it can be done.  We deal with the realities of the real world every day, and we all have our own black clouds to deal with.  So I decided to ignore the black clouds this month.  An attempt to suspend reality?  Yip!   But that’s what this time of year is all about, i.e. immaculate conception, Santa Clause etc.  What I also do this time of year is to reflect on the year which is quickly coming to an end.  I have to say that 2011 was a challenging year, but a lot of great things happened to good people.

To Kathy Gregory, my partner, what a fantastic year she had.  From a business standpoint she made the acquisition of the Macquarie Financial broker mortgage portfolio possible.  Many people worked on this transaction, but let there be no mistake she was responsible for closing the deal.  Deals of this magnitude always come close to unraveling at some point, and this deal was no different.  It was Kathy’s ability to finesse and to truly understand what it took to appease the other side.  Thanks to Ms. Gregory, everyone got what they wanted.

To my brother Tom Bozic, 2011 was the year he entered the mortgage business.  Here’s the thing, he’s damn good at it.  I’m not surprised at all but I only wish I had known this years ago.  But like the old saying goes “better late than latter”.

To my friends Grant and Debbie Thomas, 2011 was a great year for TMG, The Mortgage Group.  They made tremendous strides growing their business this year, and with Mark Kerzner’s assistance their footprint is a lot bigger in Central and Eastern Canada.  Their success is so well deserved.

It’s great to see Gord Dahlen back.  Gord joined DLC this year, and I have no doubt that he’ll assist in taking DLC to even greater heights.

This year brought changes for Ron Swift.  After 19 years with his previous employer he decided to take on new challenges.  One thing I’ve learned about Ron over the years is this, don’t bet against him.  There’s no doubt in my mind that Radius Financial will become a formidable foe.

To my golfing partner Bryan Devries, 2011 was a good year.  He’s out there shaking things up and ensuring that ICICI Bank becomes a player in the broker space.  Oh, how that competitive fire burns.

It was a good year for Michael Ellenzweig at CAAMP.  He took a leap of faith this year, and some risk, putting together the CAAMP 2011 Mortgage Forum.  The Forum survey results confirmed that with risk comes reward.  Take a bow Michael.

To a  relatively new colleague, Gino Tieri of MCAP.  It’s hard to believe he’s only been at it for 18 months.   It was a hell of coming out party this year.

Jim Murphy of CAAMP had very good year in 2011.  Managing all the “special” interests is not a an easy task, and he accomplished that with grace and professional decorum throughout the year.

I would remiss not to mention Andy Kuyper, a Merix Financial original.  Andy and I have worked together for a decade, and 2011 was the year he left Merix Financial to join Paradigm Quest.  I’m still getting used to working without my right arm.

So many good things happened to great people in 2011.  I know I’ve missed some accomplishments by people I know well and have a great deal of respect for in the industry.  My apologies, the omission was not intentional.  But maybe there’s a lesson there.  It always seems easier to come up with challenges and all the negatives we face.  It really should be the other way around.

Until next time

Cheers