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Junkyard Management

Family, Goble Properties, Junkyard Management,

Taking Good Solutions Too Far

My father built a mobile home park in the early 1970’s. Seemed like a good idea at the time — the land was cheap, the location was near a lot of blue collar jobs, and construction costs were minimal.

But he had a hard time getting anybody to move into the park.

He found a solution by buying mobile homes from the factory and moving them into the park himself. Then he’d sell the mobile home all ready to go. The buyer didn’t have to deal with permits, utilities, setup, transportation, etc. The park began to fill up this way …

Family, Goble Properties, Junkyard Management,

Goble Lane

I love this picture. Take a close look and you’ll see three wrecking yards, with metal buildings mixed among them. You’ll also see a small mobile home park in the midst of construction (about half the trailers are in place).

This is Goble Lane, in San Jose, circa 1960 or so. My Dad built the metal buildings and eventually owned all three wrecking yards plus the mobile home park. It’s all gone now, of course, torn down for retail spaces and condominiums. But it was the anchor of Goble Properties for a couple of decades.

I spent a lot of …

Goble Properties, Junkyard Management,

Jobs Plan

There’s a lot of talk about how to create jobs. Much of it is nonsense, and that’s true for both sides of the political spectrum. The discussion (if one could call it that) has degenerated into different visions of blurry reality. As with most divisions, there is some truth on both sides…but mostly a lot of catering to special interest groups.

So I thought I’d add a personal insight into how to create more jobs in America. This is part ranting, part common sense, and part personal agenda. Most likely it will contain things neither political party likes.

Here are …

Family, Goble Properties, Junkyard Management, PathLight, The SOLD Project, Wine Reviews,

Goble Properties Staff Retreat

During the 30-years that I have been at Goble Properties we have never had a staff retreat. Ridiculous, right?

Well that has been corrected. Last week D’Aun and I spent three days in Napa at the Silverado Resort with some of the nicest people on the planet. Our staff are scattered from Cathedral City to San Jose to Pleasanton, so it was good to pull everybody together.

We built our meetings around the book ReWork by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. What I love about this book is that it understands the mindset of a small business owner. …

Emerging Ministries, Goble Properties, Junkyard Management,

Lead, Follow, or Go Your Own Way

A previous post promised that I’d explain my leadership style. But first a reality check: this is an ongoing progress. I’m still working through my thoughts on how, exactly, I lead. I’m still learning.

You’ve probably heard the phrase “lead, follow, or get out of the way.” It’s a clever saying, but it is incomplete. The part I especially dislike is that “get out of the way” is not the only other option.

My leadership style is better expressed as “lead, follow, or go your own way.”

Many say that leadership is defined as having followers. There are well …

Family, Goble Properties, Junkyard Management,

Walt Rodoni, 1913-2011

I have written before about my friend, mentor and employee Walt. Sadly, Walt passed away on Easter Sunday. He was 98 years old and lived an active life right up till the last week. He will be missed.

Below is the obituary for Walt, and below is that is unedited footage from a shoot my son Jedd did about Walt’s life. The video is well worth watching; a candid moment of reflection, with an endorsement for “a good doctor and tabasco sauce”.

—-

Walter A Rodoni, 98, was born on January 23, 1913 and passed away April 24, 2011 at …

Junkyard Management,

Clutter Sells

Here’s a junkyard lesson that I never consciously knew was true, but once I read an article in the New York Times it struck me as obvious: Americans equate clutter with bargains.

The more inventory that is piled onto shelves, stacked in the middle of aisles, and generally creating a sloppy look around the store, the more shoppers equate your prices with bargains. This is apparently the new trend in retails stores, especially after Wal-Mart’s recent “make it sleeker and slimmer” makeover failed miserably.

If you have a neat, clean, well organized, minimalist layout in your store, your customers think …

Goble Properties, Junkyard Management,

The Wisdom of Walt

Walt turned 98 last month. He’s the oldest employee at Goble Properties. Yes, he really is on our payroll, and he really does show up for work. Not a full forty hours a week, but he’s still on call whenever we need an old school solution to a problem.

My father hired Walt nearly 40-years ago to do some maintenance work. Nobody has worked harder for the family company since then. And nobody knows how to fix things — anything — like Walt.

The hardest I ever worked was the summer I poured concrete with Walt at our family ranch. …