"If you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life."  This is the quote that I give my classes the first day of school every year, because it has helped me live a very fun, and extraordinarily fulfilling life.   Ever since I can remember, I have always been extremely busy, but I have always thrived on being on the go all of the time.  I am lucky enough to have an extremely supportive wife who sticks by me through all of the craziness, and a four-year old bundle of energy named Hailey, who is our sidekick.  We also have a baby boy coming May 10^th!  I work a lot, but I have made sure that every job I do is so much fun that I don’t consider it to be work. 

I am a Media Communications teacher at Bensalem High School where I have the role of executive producer of The Owls Television Network.  I was also the boys’ and girls’ varsity swim coach, but retired from coaching this year in order to spend more time with my family.  Ten years ago, when I took the teaching position, I was teaching English and had one AV class with 12 students.  I told that class I was going to turn OTN into a program that students had to apply to get in.  It would be in huge demand and that everyone would want to be a part of.  They obviously laughed and told me I was dreaming.  Ten years later, I run a successful high school production company with three levels of Media Communications classes.  What those kids ten years ago did not realize, that all of my students now know, is that if you believe it will happen….it will.  Students now apply to be in OTN during their freshman year, and take it the next three years of their high school career.  In the introductory course, the workload is split, half of the curriculum is focused on the ins and outs of video and television production, and the other half is spent learning success principles.  These concepts were initially taught through motivational quotes and by reading Dale Carnegie’s book, How to Win Friends and Influence People.  The concepts taught in this almost century-old classic are skills that every human being needs to effectively work with people in this world. 

As students enter their junior and senior years in OTN, they are producing a daily morning show, a bi-weekly news show that is aired on the community cable station, a film fest that draws over 400 guests each year, and a senior video highlighting the school year.  In addition to all of this, we do not let the all important success principles disappear.  Students in OTN learn about the Law of Attraction, the Law of Persistence, the Law of Abundance, and how to apply these laws in their lives. We have had countless celebrity guests come and speak to the students including Kerry Lee Halkett, Sue Serio, John Clark, Tamala Edwards, and of course, Dave Magrogan.  They all gave the same message; if you believe you can accomplish something, you can.  No matter what occupation my students decide to enter, they need to know that if they can take all doubt out of their minds, and know that they truly can be or do whatever they put their mind to, that they will be successful. I know this is true, because many of my alumni keep in touch with me and they are all doing extremely well. 

In the summers, I live in Sea Isle City where I have spent my days lifeguarding for the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol for the past fourteen years.  Not only do I get to sit on the beach and call it a job, I get to help run the Mascot School and Junior Lifeguard schools, that the beach patrol hosts where we train all of our future lifeguards.  I spend my evenings playing music in various bands. I am the fiddle player for a Celtic Rock band called Jamison (Jamisoncelticrock.com), an Irish duo – Slainte, a rock band - Love Seed Mama Jump (loveseed.com), a country band – Jim Mitchell and The Repeat Offenders, and an acoustic classic rock duo – Kevin Killen and C J Mills.   When I was in elementary school, I dreamed about being a rock star.  I remember being bummed that my instrument was the violin instead of the guitar or the drums, because we all know that the violin is not exactly the instrument that would help one attain that dream.  Never in a million years did I think that playing the violin would allow me to have a job where I would be getting paid money to play in a bar while partying with fun people and having a good time!  It was all a matter of changing my way of thinking.  If you believe it can happen, it will.

I am also a real estate agent for McCann Real Estate in Sea Isle City, a real estate investor, an author and an entrepreneur.   I bought my first house, a duplex on 38^th street in Sea Isle City, when I was 20.   My rookie year on the beach patrol made me realize that this was something I was going to want to do for a very long time.  I came up with the idea to buy a house, and in my excitement, called the realtor who rented us the house my first year and pitched him my idea.  He told me that he saw no reason why I couldn’t do it.  When I told all of my friends my plan, they told me I was insane, and I must have forgotten that when you buy a house, you also have to pay a lot of bills.  They pointed out that I had no credit, no job and no money, so I should call back and let the realtor know that I was pipe dreaming.  When I called back he had already found a duplex with owner financing available.  He told me not to listen to the nay-sayers, and go for it.  I convinced my parents to help me get a loan for the down payment and I bought a duplex in the heart of Sea Isle for $120,000, lived in it, and rented it out to all of my friends.  There were definitely times when I didn’t know how I would make ends meet, but somehow I knew that it would all work out in the end…and it did. 

As we all know, it was very easy to borrow money until about a year ago.  I took full advantage of this, and borrowed, bought, fixed, and repeated for the past decade.  I bought in Sea Isle, Wildwood, and in North Philadelphia, near Temple University.  In all instances, people would tell me that I was nuts to buy there, and in each instance, I proved them wrong.  I now own 10 different rental units, and I earn positive cash flows on all my rentals. I still find it amusing when a fifty something year old tells me that they tried dealing with rental properties, and oh boy was I going to be in for some heartache.  I can pretty much guarantee I have seen the worst of the worst in some of my properties, but I can also tell you that because of those properties I have a beautiful house where I live in the winter, and that little duplex, after a few renovations now boasts four floors, and seven decks.  My wife is able to stay home with Hailey, and yes, there are still times when I have no idea how we are going to make ends meet, but I also have no doubt in my head that it will all work out in the end!  On top of that, I have written two children’s books, The Forgotten Christmas Presents, a short children’s story about a toy race car that had no wheels and learned to rely on the help of his friends, and The Homework Monster, a collection of fifty children’s poems. 

Another lesson I always teach my students is that every successful person has dealt with a great amount of failure in their life, and that if you learn from that failure, than it really was nothing more than a lesson.  Five years ago, when my wife Maria was pregnant with Hailey, I maxed out the equity in our Sea Isle house to do the renovations, and purchase a shell of a restaurant in Milford, Delaware.  We were partners with my in laws, and we rebuilt and outfitted the entire building and opened up Aspirations, a fine dining restaurant and bar.   Although we did really well in the beginning, winning the Best of Delaware award our first year, it ultimately ended in a learning experience.  Aspirations is now for sale, and I realized that I could very easily give up hope, or I could learn from our mistakes and move on.

This summer, I am moving on.  Drifters Feel Good Food will be opening in the Diamond’s Complex on 40^th and Landis Ave. in Sea Isle City, NJ.  Drifters is a take out store that will offer sushi, sliders, fresh cut fries, funnel cake, fresh squeezed lemonade, soda, beer and wine.  Playing in bands has given me the chance to see beach towns all over the Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland coasts.  I came to the realization that our town did not have any place that offered beach staples like the products mentioned above.   After taking this idea to the next level and proposing the concept to the developers, the idea became a reality.  We decided that instead of just offering food, we would also promote the concept of positive living and feeling good!  Our French fry cups will all have “feel good” quotes on them, much like a fortune cookie, but instead it will be a quote about positive living.  We hope to radiate “feeling good” out of our windows, while at the same time, providing commodities that are not found in SIC.  Check out www.driftersfeelgoodfood.com, request us as a friend on facebook, or better yet, stop by this summer.  We will be open from 11 am until 3:30 AM!

Feel good and Charge hard, Rhinos!

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