Chance Happens

It was October 2003 and I searched the trunk of my car to see if there was anything I could read while I waited for a school event to start. I found an old real estate magazine from North Carolina that I had looked through cover-to-cover multiple times before but it was the only thing I found. While thumbing through the magazine, I noticed an ad that read, “575 acre, great for development or private retreat, borders the Park, $1.75M” Although I lived in Miami, was an attorney and did not have any of the $1.75M asking price, I called the listing agent and asked, “What park does the property border?” The Realtor said, “The Great Smoky Mountain National Park.” The Realtor and I spoke for a few more minutes and agreed to keep in touch because my family and I had planned a vacation in the same area of North Carolina for the following February and, at that time, I could see the property. February came and I called the Realtor once I was in North Carolina. I called to tell him that I couldn’t meet for various reasons. Instead of accepting my cancellation, the Realtor said, “what if I can meet you early in the morning?” which appealed to me because I’m an early riser and my family isn’t. We finally met at a gas station and drove to a secluded area of the county where the property was located. We got on his 4-wheeled motorcycle and started to make our accent up the mountain along old logging roads. When we finally came to a clearing, I looked out and thought I was in Heaven. The view was spectacular! After about an hour of cruising around this incredible property, I told the Realtor, “I have to go.” He said, “are you alright?” I responded, “yes, but my brain is going a mile-per-minute and I need to get home.” From that point forward, a string of events occurred that eventually lead to the purchase and development of that property and all of the available, surrounding property, which equaled nearly 900 acres. The project lasted nearly 4 years for me and, in the process, I lost best friends, made new ones, changed peoples’ lives and had mine changed too. However, things happened during those years that, at the time they happened, had no apparent explanation until time revealed the reason for their occurrence. The story of my project is really multiple stories of how random acts changed lives. Like the time a waitress recommended her boyfriend for a job I needed done that lead to him and his brother leaving their employer to start their own business, which is still active today. The story doesn’t necessarily end well for me but I take solace in knowing that it did for so many others and maybe that was the intended destiny of the project and I was merely a vessel for those things to happen.