Farewell 2009, Hello 2010!

What a year. I've been so fortunate to have been guided-to or led-to or attracted-to, or whatever-to some incredible people, concepts, ideas, books and businesses this year. I know it's only December 22nd, and the year isn't quite over yet, but I can't help but reflect on all the good things that have happened to me this year. Some highlights: I took a real estate investing course the first week of the year. Learned more in that 4 day course about this business than I think I could have on my own in a year. In early February, I competed in a business plan idea competition to join a 'Master Mind' group and was one of four selected from a pool of several hundred people to be a part of a group led by a successful local real estate investor committed to sharing our ideas with one another and sharpening each others business acumen through challenging the way we each look at our businesses. We have met on average every two weeks for this entire year, and it's probably been one of the best experiences I will take away from 2009. I also hired a 'life-coach' or mentor, if you will, in February to help me lay out my business plan and life purpose, goals and a plan to achieve them. It was a 12 week process and drastically changed the way I look at life and achieving my goals. In March, I began working with a company called United First Financial in the evenings and on the weekends, and have found success through working with them part time this year. April, May and June found me traveling to areas across Asia for work on multiple trips for Uncle Sam. Good trips, but not real profitable for me from a personal improvement standpoint. June 30th, I closed on my first home. Quite an exciting day for me. I was very fortunate to have my mother and father on-Island for that event, and they were kind enough to help me move from Waikiki to the wonderful suburb of Kapolei, out in West Oahu. August and September and October I had some more trips to Asia in addition to painting my house... that was, by the way, the first and last time I'll ever paint my own house. I don't recommend it to anyone that has any semblance of sanity and also wishes to keep it. I barely did myself. Women, for some reason, enjoy it. I, however, do not. I was fortunate to have several great friends that helped me with some of the work. September brought with it a visit from my Aunt and Uncle, October brought a visit from a great friend from high school as well as college and also I began communicating with a certain special someone whom I met on eHarmony. Yes, I've been on eHarmony this year, and well, I think it actually works. After some weeks of communicating, we actually met in person in November, and have been spending quite a bit of time together since then. Her name is Tamra, she is an incredible person, and I'm very thankful to have her in my life. Her birthday was Saturday, and we had an awesome birthday weekend celebration for her. Hano Hano Room for Dinner, Stage Restaurant to meet up with her best friend, Emi, who is a singer/songwriter and surprised her and Emi with some birthday cupcakes and lots more friends showing up, then off to Rum Fire Waikiki for some Champagne and dancing. Good times, no, make that great times. It was a great night. Saturday night was her 'Yakudoshi' (she is of Japanese descent so this is a way that her family celebrates their culture with her birthday- Google it) and I had a chance to meet her family. All-in-all it was a great weekend. This week is incredibly slow at work. So slow that I wonder why I'm actually going in, but oh well. Tomorrow is a light day, and Thursday and Friday are days off for Christmas. Next week, I work one day, and then the first week in January, Tamra and I are heading to Kauai for a week. She is in Medical Sales here in Hawaii and has to go to Kauai for that week, so she invited me. How lucky am I? I'm going to use the days while she is working to be productive in preparing for my upcoming transition from active duty Naval service to being a plain-old civilian. Speaking of which, I have started a Property Management Company and will be doing that here in Hawaii on a full-time basis once I get out of the Navy in June. I am very excited about it. My company is called 'Hal Property' pretty simple, pretty straight-forward, but effective and to the point. My website will be http://www.HalProperty.com It's not up yet, but will be launched on February 1st. Check back then and see how I'm doing. If you live in Hawaii and have a need for a property manager, please let me know. I will be the best property manager in Hawaii. I'm going to be focusing on multi-unit dwellings but will work with single-family homes and condo's.

All in all, it's been a great year. Some amazing things have happened to me, I've met some incredible people, and I think I can put 2009 in the books as one of my best years to date. Of course, I say that at the end of every year, and I must say, my expectations for 2010 are even bigger than 2009. This year was a year of trials and tests for me. And by trials, I mean trials to experiment with my businesses, and tests for me to test some of my ideas. There were some other big ones in there this year, that have come and gone, but I don't need to mention those, as they are water under the bridge. I know I haven't shared a lot of this with my online social network, but that was on purpose. Those that are close to me have known, but 2010 is the beginning of something new. Half-way through this year I will no longer have the easy W-2 income coming in from Uncle Sam. So I've been preparing for that fact since January of 2009. It's a pretty big step that I'm going to be taking in 2010. In fact, I'm going to be adding all of you who are my friends here on FaceBook to my email distribution list to which I will be sending out periodic updates for my company. If you choose to keep the subscription, I thank you in advance, if you choose to opt-out after I start them up, I certainly understand.

Well, I guess that's all for now. 2009, thank you for an awesome 52 weeks. 2010, let's get it started!

"Observe people who are good at their work— skilled workers are always in demand and admired; they don't take a backseat to anyone." -King Solomon of Israel (Proverbs 22:29)