Footprints: A 50-Year Career in Real Estate

Footprints: A 50-Year Career in Real Estate

John Poblocki has completed a remarkable 50-year career in real estate. Follow his steps along a path that you will find hard to believe; from his early college and grad school experiences to his first city planning job in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, where he was threatened to be killed by the Rhode Island mafia. He describes his relationship with Buddy Cianci, the corrupt mayor of Providence. He led a team with Hank Kates, Mutual Benefit Life CEO and President, that tried to save MBL from bankruptcy. He discloses for the first time, the reason for the failure of this 145-year-old institution and the largest life insurance failure in history, and which was a major financial news story for several years. He describes his challenges of redeveloping the historic Bonniecrest mansion in Newport, his role in the historic building Renaissance in Providence, and his investigation of Fisher Island in Miami. The last twenty years of his incredible career was spent working for thousands of investors and few billionaires in Manhattan, while employed by the best known national and local real estate firms. His stories will entertain and amuse you, as will his sense of humor. But the best parts of the book are the twenty or so life lessons gleaned from his experiences over a lifetime. Some of the lessons are humorous, and some offer very useful advice on how to live your life successfully in a dog-eat-dog world of real estate, These life lessons can be applied to any career, not just real estate.