Transcript
Speaker: The voice of growth, mastering the mind and market.
Speaker: Even though I didn't have any money, I had ambitions.
Speaker: And I borrowed $1,000 from my uncle. And that was the beginning. That was back in 1971.
Speaker: By 1977, I had turned into my first million dollars.
Speaker: Once you find your passion, you'll never work a day in your life.
Speaker: You're the maker of your life.
Speaker: And I've been involved in all kinds things. I'm a deal junkie.
Speaker: I'm a firm believer, you make your money when you buy.
Speaker: You have to be ambitious, you have to be hungry. You're not born with any wit wisdom. You earn it throughout the years.
Speaker: I enjoy giving more than making it.
Speaker: They're all human. We're all the same. When these people tell the stories, I break down. I think my legacy, of if anything, is going to be the center of opportunity, what I'm doing for the homeless.
Speaker: Well, it turned out pretty good.
Speaker: Humberto, you and I have, believe it or not, a lot in common. Oh God, tell me about it. We both grew up on a border town. All right, we're not religious, are we? I don't think so, but you never know.
Speaker: We both went to Cochise College. I'm from Douglas, you're from Nogales, obviously. probably were not born when I was there. you I was not born. was born in 73. I was there at Cochise College. It opened in 1964, I believe.
Speaker: So yeah I got there in 1965. Graduated in 67. That's insane. Yeah. And there's one other thing that and we went to both went to U of A, right? Yes, I did. I transferred from Cochise College directly to the of A.
Speaker: And there's another thing that we share that is maybe not as celebrated and that's our father's past when we were pretty young. Years passed when you were what? 11, 12? 11, 12, yes. 1957.
Speaker: Yeah. And mine passed when I was one. So I never got to know my my father. No, but you know, when I think about my Growing up, I mean, you were the the oldest of what, six, right? Of six, exactly.
Speaker: And um I mean, being thrust from boyhood to adulthood, kind of, right? You had to be the man of the house. Overnight. Overnight. How did that affect your your life?
Speaker: Well, it turned out pretty good. It affected it in a positive way and that I started working at a very young age. And I made a promise to my mother someday I would take care of her.
Speaker: And I fulfilled that promise a long time ago. Wow. So it paid off. Now, do you think it's necessary for people to have adversity to be able to to rise above it? No, not necessarily. No, no.
Speaker: ah You got to be hungry. If you're entitled, it's pretty darn hard to move forward. Some of them do, but most entitled ah children and are not hungry, consequently. They believe that everything, they're entitled to everything, so they don't have to work very hard. So no.
Speaker: I came to the States when I was 12. My native of the language is Spanish. ah So I come i jump to the States and of course they held me back one year. I couldn't speak the language. The only thing I ah i could understand very well was math.
Speaker: ah Numbers, so I was pretty good at numbers. But it took me about a year before I learned the language and ah I haven't had any problems since. But you know, i never i never felt that I been discriminated on.
Speaker: you know, it's somebody discriminates me. It's their problem, not my problem. So I don't make it my problem. I've ah always felt very comfortable in whatever I did.
Speaker: m Again, same way. i yeah I hear that there's all these stories of discrimination and victim mentality. It just never really occurred to me. Even though people were expecting it from me, what am I gonna do? Yeah, it's a problem. It's not my problem. it's so cons colo I don't pay any attention to it.
Speaker: So you went, you grew up in Nogales, you came to Tucson, U of and you, is I remember you majored in economics or accounting? Renewal County. and Why was that?
Speaker: um epiances I didn't know went when I yeah went to Cochise College, I didn't know what the heck I was going to do, what my major was going to be. And somehow I took an accounting class and I aced it. So it came very easy for me.
Speaker: And of course, I continued taking accounting. I could have graduated from the University of Arizona in three years. i went to all the four years and took every accounting class that that was available at the time.
Speaker: I was taking 18 credits every semester wow ah through Cochise College and the the University of Arizona. So when I graduated, I had all the accounting credits that I needed. I think I graduated with 144 credits.
Speaker: I needed 120. So so you were above and beyond. Yes. And that helped me in that when I applied for accounting jobs,
Speaker: Every single accounting firm that I applied for offered me a position with the firm. Wow. And is that what took you to, i think, Los Angeles, right? Well, I it it was i did it on purpose. i wanted to go to Los Angeles. I did not want to stay in Tucson, even though the first I've ever been from Macalus was Tucson. And I'd never flown airplanes. Really? Yep. So ah when i yeah I went to Los Angeles because I wanted to go in the audit field.
Speaker: and learn a business I was going to someday start. Even though I didn't have any money, I had ambition. So ah I went to work for two days. The firm is called Deloitte. It was probably one of the biggest in the country. At the time, it was Heskine Sells, one of the top eight accounting firms at the time. So I joined the audit staff.
Speaker: And that's how started my career. I spent five and a half years with Deloitte before I decided, well, it's time to move on because I was already doing I started investing back in 1971.
Speaker: Yeah, so there's ah there's a story I hear about that first investment. that You borrowed a thousand bucks from somebody, right? i wrote a book, How to Turn a Thousand Dollars into a Million Dollars by William Nickerson, and I borrowed a thousand dollars from my uncle.
Speaker: And that was the beginning. That was back in 1971. Wow. What was that first investment? First investment, i since i I was last in Los Angeles, I'd been there only about a year.
Speaker: I would come down to the Dallas every time I had an opportunity to visit my mother and my yeah wife's family. ah And with that $1,000, I had a friend who was a real estate broker And I was looking for where I was going to invest the money. So I bought a a lot in Nogales. It was saw in a subdivision for $3,000. gave $1,000 down. And the seller, developed lot. Carried $2,000.
Speaker: I was making $100 payments.
Speaker: i was making a hundred hour payments ah Six months later, I sold it for a $4,000 profit, plus $1,000 that I had already paid my uncle for my income tax return.
Speaker: I had $5,000 available. I then parlayed that and immediately, while I was in the gallery, bought another lot for $5,000 or $6,000. Then I sold it six months from later. Long-term capital gains used to be six months. So six months a day later,
Speaker: I sold it for either $6,000 or $5,000 profit. So all of a sudden, i had $10,000. ah Then I immediately again looked where I was going to invest that money. I found house with a duplex. ok ah And I needed $5,000, so borrowed that from my wife's grandfather. ok ah And ah I bought the apartment, the house, in and the duplex.
Speaker: And a year later, I sold it for $15,000 profit. So in a year and a half, I turned $1,000 into $25,000. And that was the beginning. and that was the beginning And that was in a day where where the dollar was obviously much different than it is today, right? Yes, absolutely.
Speaker: Yep. By 1977, I had turned into my first million dollars. That's amazing. By 1980, I tried to retire.
Speaker: How'd that work out for you? Well, I flunked. okay I tried it in the 90s again. It didn't work out today. I'm 80 and I'm going to continue on until the day that I and can no longer breathe. So yeah, I love what I do.
Speaker: ah I don't call it work. People ask me, how come we still work? Who says I'm working? doing exactly what I like to do. You know, the young men and women that I mentor, I said, once you find your passion, you'll never work a day in your life.
Speaker: And that's the way I look at us to what I do. I love it. Yeah, I totally agree. i I don't see this, what I do as work. I don't see the the the business I run as work. I mean, obviously there's gonna be ups and downs, there's gonna be challenges, but what is life besides that? I mean, there's there's rewards and there's gonna be things that you you suffer through, you know? I agree 100%. One of the things that I do in whatever I do is I assess what is the worst that can happen in anything.
Speaker: So every investment that I make, i I determine what is the worst that can happen. Once I accept the worst it can happen, I move on. If it happens, and it has happened, ah I continue moving on because I already accepted the worst.
Speaker: I get in an airplane, said, is that airplane going to come down? So, okay, it's my day. So I'm a believer that we all have an expiration date. So I don't want to know when it's going to come. But it's there. Yeah, it is. It's there for all of us.
Speaker: yeah one of the So the thing about this podcast, Bert, is that a lot of it, half of it is about the the market, you know all the stuff we're talking about with business and all that. And then the other half is about mindset, which is the other stuff we're talking about.
Speaker: And as part of that mindset, you know, I believe that all that we can control is between our our ears, right? Can't control the world. We do our best to to manage through it. We can't control it.
Speaker: ah Do you agree with that? Or what are your sense? Oh, whatever it is. You're the maker of your own life. Yeah, I totally agree. If you look at your transition back to Tucson, so you had these properties in Nogales, you were still living in l LA, right? Or did you make the move to Tucson? No, no. What happened, I moved to Tucson in 1980. I sold out, I had properties that by then i expended, had properties said And once I started selling out of California, I had properties in Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, all the way up to Georgia.
Speaker: I sold out and that's when I moved to Tucson. I had made lot of money and I figured out I was 34 years old. My wife was 29 and I was going to learn how to play golf.
Speaker: I was a used to being ah busy all the time. And I played golf and nine holes later, I'd tell my buddies, you know, i I got something to do, so I'd run out. to I enjoy golf, but I never became a good golfer and I didn't have the patience to play golf today. you know i I'll play couple of times a month. yeah So I got a little more patience than I had when I was 34 years old. Patience comes with time, right? That's the crazy thing.
Speaker: if we if we look at the If we change the the perspective, where is HSL Properties now? Give us ah an idea of what the empire looks like. Well, you know, it's ah we're we're by far the largest apartment order owner southern Arizona and probably he one of the biggest in in in the state of Arizona.
Speaker: ah We're also probably one of the largest in hotel ownerships. And I've been involved in all kinds. so I'm a deal junkie. I've been involved in women's fashions magazine, auto dealerships, contact lenses, banks, de novo banks.
Speaker: We had a savings loan that we bought in 1987, just a day before the market crashed. Really? We sold it for three times the the book value. ah So I mean, I'm a deal junkie, so i I've been involved in office buildings too. so our shopping centers. We have interest in number of shopping centers here in Tucson, including La Encantada.
Speaker: So I'm all over the place. If it's a deal, I'm a firm believer you make your money when you buy, not when you sell. You buy at the wrong price, you're struggling to get your money back.
Speaker: That's very true. Do you believe in luck? ah You make your own luck.
Speaker: You can win the lottery if you don't if you don't buy the ticket. Yeah. I love that. When you look at people out there in in business that are up and comers and they're trading their time for money.
Speaker: Right. They're either they're punching a clock or maybe they they're an accountant or a lawyer and they're trading time for money. What advice would you give them to be able to scale so that they're not trading their time for money?
Speaker: Well, you know, it it all depends on the individual. What are your goals? What are your ambitions? What are you looking for? ah And when I was working as CPA at the firm.
Speaker: i would you know I didn't get fired ah because everybody knew that I was doing it while I was still working at Deloitte. I was doing my deals and I was willing and dealing. And in the evenings, of course, I would continue.
Speaker: But then before I started in real estate, I would come up with business plans and present to my wife different ideas I would have as to how would get started. So I had an ambition. I mean, you have the you have to be ambitious. You have to be hungry. I was hungry. yeah And what happened, the reason I probably was hungry...
Speaker: When we lived in Mexico, we my father was a farmer, agriculture ranching. ah So we lived very well. We had a very nice home, nice cars.
Speaker: We went to our private schools. And when dies, he dies without a will. My mother didn't know. out of context to the will she was uh uh not the world the the the assets that he had at the time moved to the gallus never challenged never did anything so we ended up in welfare uh so you know having had a good taste and then all of a sudden you don't have anything now moving into a house of with my grandmother and uncle, my my mother's brother, three adults, six children, one bathroom.
Speaker: ah you know But we never missed it. i would do that That was the best time of my yeah of my life. yeah Having grown up, not knowing that there were wealthy people out there, not ever having had a vacation.
Speaker: ah And we we were happy. We were very happy. i would never trade a day of my life for the yeah my childhood. did Yeah, I remember my childhood very vividly. I had one set of grandparents that lived in in Douglas and I had one set of grandparents that lived in Agua Preta.
Speaker: And we would spend time in my grandfather's, uh, meet by his, uh, you know, his farm. And I was just out there all day long in the sun, in the summer, no sunscreen, but it's just how it was right. Playing on the tractor or, you know, making forts out of random pieces of metal.
Speaker: Or I heard one time you got attacked by a goat or something. Oh, that was at the ranch, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I got up on the roof. ah I don't know how that happened. It must have been um i must have been responsible. I must have done something as a kid. i got chased and ended up up on the roof. for You know, when you mentioned Agua Prieta, I had some great times in Agua Prieta when I was in Cochise College ah every weekend. And back in those days, I didn't have a car when I first got out there, and we would hitchhike.
Speaker: everybody would hitchhike and ah knowing that we were, the you know where Cochise College is. Yeah, of course. I don't know where where it is today compared to where it was. Same place. 50 years ago, but it was in the upskirts. So, i wouldn't yeah, we never had a problem hitchhiking back and forth.
Speaker: Yeah, different time, right? very Different time. Today, you don't see a single hitchhiker out there. No, very rarely. Yeah. That's actually a really good segue, Umberto. If you look at advice or insights that are timeless, right? There's a lot of things new, there's AI, there's a lot of cell phones, there's things are moving so fast.
Speaker: Tell me about it. gotta ask my grandkids to help me. Yeah, it's insane. but But there's timeless ah wisdom,
Speaker: Also, I've got about over 30 probably young men and adults and and women ah that I mentor and they do have an interest. yeah They asked me all kinds of questions today. one of them asked me, ah how do I structure my deals? Because you get into real estate.
Speaker: So I sent him one of my offering memorandums and told him, me give me a call after you study it and I'll walk you through it and help you how to raise money. So ah he to I get all kinds of questions. I have have a About a year ago, I started putting together my keys to success, 25 keys to success. Someday I'm going to publish it just for a head book to give it to the men and women that are interested in getting some advice as to what what it takes to be successful.
Speaker: Did you have mentors? You know, I had never had any mentors by emulating the people that I admired and try to behave and follow them.
Speaker: Never asked for any mentoring, but by just imitating and emulating the the people that I admired, I gained a lot of knowledge.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's the the challenge and the opportunity of living in this day and age, as you know, is that there are there's so much information out there, almost too much, right? If you look on your phone, and it's just everywhere.
Speaker: So I think a lot of younger people have a hard time understanding what's true and what's not. And of course, were 19, you were 23. Sometimes we are a little bit stubborn in our ways and we gotta go figure it out ourselves, which is hard to do sometimes because with wisdom comes a lot of sort of patience, right? You're looking back and you just got to let people kind of do their thing.
Speaker: Well, you're not born with any wit wisdom. You earn it throughout the years. There's some hard lessons you learned ah and good lessons. Yeah.
Speaker: They also learn and you move forward with those. You forget about the bad lessons and try to grow the good lessons. Yeah. Do you think that we're moving in the right direction in in our community here of Tucson?
Speaker: I don't want to comment on that. Okay. Yeah, we can talk about that offline. Yes. Yes. No, I have a lot of ah strong opinions as well. But this podcast is about really the ideas of moving people forward, right? They're looking at themselves and thinking about how can they change to adapt.
Speaker: In your time doing what you do, was there any time when you wanted to quit? No, I don't recall any time that I wanted to quit. No. As a matter of fact, ah if I ever had those feelings, I'd move forward with more a determination. No.
Speaker: I'm not a quitter. Yeah, that's like like like me as well. but my My grandmother, I get a lot of wisdom from her. um Thank God she's still alive and she's very, very active. She's one of my mentors. like I didn't have the same mentors in the same way, but I admire people and she's always been a person that says, if if you are depressed, if you're in your own head, muévete. Go out there and move. Do something. Absolutely.
Speaker: because if you saw on it Don't dwell on it. it's It's not good. It's not healthy. No. ah You said you're 80? Turn 80. Yep. Happy birthday. I don't know where the years went because I don't feel 80. Yeah. I'm stuck in my 30s.
Speaker: how do you I have a lot of energy. You don't look 80. No, I don't feel 80 yet. And I don't want to think like a matey. so Just a number. It's just a number. Yeah, my my trainer tells me, no, you're in your 50s. So I still work pretty hard.
Speaker: I'm good health. Never had a headache. I don't have any ailments whatsoever. Nothing hurts. I don't have any pain. so That's amazing. I'm very blessed.
Speaker: Yeah, that's a lot. that's a lot of I think the mindset as well. you know I think you can... kind of settle into the victim mentality or the world's falling apart. but i I think it affects your health. Yes.
Speaker: Never felt that way. Yeah. So if you had to have um dinner with somebody, two, three hour dinner with a nice meal, wine, whatever, it could be anybody in this world at any time, who would that be?
Speaker: Jesus Christ. Yeah. That'd be a nice meal, wouldn't it? Yep. Yeah. You know, um I think about that question every time I ask that question. And what's your answer to that question? Today would be my father. Okay. Yeah, because never had never having known him, there's a lot of questions I have, right?
Speaker: And we don't have a lot of time here, but... You've got to make the best it. And you appreciate it when you get older. Yeah. You know, as matter of fact, when I turned 80, that's when it really hit me as to where did the time go?
Speaker: ah When I was a younger, 80-year-old people that were really old. And here I am. And i the only my only thing is I go back and see where 80 years ago and It was a flash.
Speaker: ah They probably had heard the song,. And and when you're young, you know you don't understand what the heck does that song mean? Because 20 years when you're young, ahead, in front of you, that's a long time.
Speaker: I had a conversation with somebody yesterday, and she just turned 22.
Speaker: And I said this, I said to her, do you realize, God willing, that one day you'll be an old lady? And she just said, I don't i don't even think about it. Because we don't, right? mean, we just live day to day and time just keeps coming. out air You never think.
Speaker: You think we're going to be old school, don't be way out there. It's never going to happen. And it happens. Yeah, it happens. It's like, how do you eat an elephant?
Speaker: One bite at a time. You know, it just happens. Despacito. Despacito, exactly. um If you look at your, you know, with HSL, you've been obviously successful financially and been able to do a lot.
Speaker: Tell me about your philanthropy, your your mission. You know, I've always been a giver. ah Since I started, a matter of fact, when I was 12, I started selling newspapers. I'd make a dollar, I'd give it to my mother.
Speaker: ah Later on, I was knocking on doors around the neighborhood, ah and offering my services. And every penny that I made, I'd keep on a few cents and give everything to my mother. So I've always been a giver up to this point. When I started making money, I helped all my brothers and sisters, my mother, and everybody that I could help.
Speaker: So I've always been a giver. i I enjoy giving more than making it. I've been very blessed and I get a lot of lot of pleasure and pleasure and joy. matter of fact, i yeah with my Mexican f friends here the other day, that i I took one of them to a Center Opportunity and homeless shelter that I started. They're from Mexico. And so, you know, the Mexicans in Mexico, or the rest of the world, they don't have the philanthropy that we have in this country. We grow.
Speaker: up in here helping others and giving back. ah You don't have to give monetarily. Offering your time as a volunteer is giving. Yeah. So I don't know. It just I get a lot of pleasure. and And every time I give it a dollar,
Speaker: my net worth has never come down. it keeps on going up. So I can't get rid of it. so yeah And at the end, my wife and I made made a pledge. We're giving it all back to the foundation so where money can continue to work out there with the community.
Speaker: Yeah, that that's how how these things happen. i mean, I'm i'm ah a believer in sort of a smaller government that's more efficient, right? And i think that people like you and your wife and your family and your your foundation can do so much more in a different way than the government.
Speaker: I grew up and one thing that really burns in my mind is my mother being a single mom, working hard. I mean, I'd come home from school, I had my own key to get in I'd walk home and there'd be food ready sitting there, you know?
Speaker: And she'd make food before she went to go work at a restaurant and she'd be there till nine or 10 and she'd come back and it was like this constant thing. And I remember my ah my one of my uncles like, was like laughing and proud that he was on disability, that he was cheating the government and he was able-bodied, he was fine.
Speaker: And that burned in me so much, Humberto, that to this day, I'm very, very careful about that, right? I mean, if you need the help, yes, but how many people could be milking the system? I don't understand. I have an ex-son-in-law. I had a knee operation and he was in disability for, i don't know how many years.
Speaker: milk in the garment. At one point I um told him, why don't you get a part-time job? He hung up on me. Yeah. No, it doesn't make any sense. I don't understand it at all. I don't get it.
Speaker: and And so you, let me get this straight. You bought ah a hotel and you converted into a homeless shelter, right? I not don't know how that happened, ah but when that hotel came up for sale, I yeah made an offer in close in 10 days, all cash.
Speaker: Immediately, my When I bought it, it must have been God's intervention that said I'm going to turn it into a homeless shelter. Well, what do I know about running a homeless shelter? The first thing I did, I called a number of nonprofits ah to ah tell them the idea that I had. First of all, was I wanted to to treat these people with dignity, respect and love. And the other thing that I want to do is to bring all these nonprofits that were operating throughout the community into one campus.
Speaker: And that was the main objective, where these people could get all their services in one place. Because one of the problems that they face is that they're either walking public transportation, if if they have a bicycle, they're lucky. So that when they were out, made appointments from one agency to another, most of the time they couldn't make it they couldn't make make their appointments out there. So by having everything on one campus, there's no excuse.
Speaker: All they have to do is walk from one place of the building to another place and they get all the services provided. you I even, when I bought the hotel immediately, I engaged the architects with the i deep my idea as to how the campus should look.
Speaker: So we built five buildings ah at the same time. ah And during my interviews, I got turned on by every one of them, except Gospel Rescue Mission. When they came in, they couldn't believe that this property is being offered to them ah for a dollar a year, and as long as they operated as a homeless shelter. If they ever stopped operating as a homeless shelter, I would get the property back.
Speaker: ah And so the lease that they have, it's a redo lease every year, and as long as it continues to provide services. Right now, we got 52 nonprofits operating the center. We're fully occupied. We have 370 beds. One of the tower we got converted to by La Frontera.
Speaker: They operate the up ah the apartment complex using Section 8 vouchers, low-income residents.
Speaker: It's working out very well. it's We're right now. we're My goal also When I did that, i registered the name Center of Opportunity Throughout the Country, with the idea that one day we have centers of opportunity in every community, major community throughout the country. To date, we've had, oh, I think, 17 states that have come in and see what we're doing. we've had to three different countries that have come in and see what we're doing. The Gospel and Rescue Mission has already prepared a a booklet of about 230 pages as to help how to help some of these communities to to build their own centers of opportunity. The idea that if one day we're able to do that, have an organization that brings them together so they can share best practices, what works, what doesn't work, and if employees want to move from one place to another, you can do that. The University of so Arizona has taken a big interest in it, the Health Sciences Department, so they're recommending it. As a matter of fact, they're making a presentation and what are there ah in one of the conventions that they're going, telling the attendees as to how to solve the homeless problem. The government will never solve it.
Speaker: ah And the reason this one works is that there's no government funding. ah Except for the 50, the main organization, the Gospel Rescue Mission, doesn't take a penny or government of government funding.
Speaker: So consequently, we don't have to report to the government. well If you report to the government, they try to tell you how to run it, And then the um reporting requirements adds another level yeah of expense. So ah we run it where, for instance, the government believes that everybody has a right. okay ah So somebody were to show us up, ah and and what we're trying to do is get these people back to being productive citizens of the community. ah So when they're in there, we're teaching them how to get... how to
Speaker: ah get a job, helping get a job. ah Right now we're teaching skills so that they don't earn just minimum wages. They get higher paid jobs. So you go in there, you won't see any distractions. The only time you'll see these people ah out to the lobby or about in the evening, and there's ah where they're they're either ah relaxing in the room, taking a nap, ah behaving very very quietly, not in disruptions. The the guard believes that if somebody comes in looking to come into the center, if they're high, drugged,
Speaker: or mental problems, then we should take them. Well, what we do is we save a bed for them, get them detox, them medicated, and then two weeks or a month later when they're detox, we bring them back. as ah they they They have to adhere to what we're doing out there, training them, helping them get better.
Speaker: And we graduated... Oh, God, ah I got the number, but I can't... It's over 1,000 graduates already gone through the program. If you have an addiction, you can stay there for a year to a year and a half until you're well and help you with the department of housing and provide all the... um furniture that you'll need when you move in.
Speaker: Wow. ah it's been very successful. it's It's a model for the country. Richard Carboda, the US Surgeon General, has been very involved with me in making sure that that that we ex exposed certain opportunities throughout the country. So, matter of fact, on Monday, good friend of mine, he's the Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, he happened to be in town, and he texted me if I wanted to have lunch with him.
Speaker: I had lunch with him and I told him about what we're doing here. And his wife is involved in Washington, D.C. and helping the ah the the the addiction problems.
Speaker: So I told him, well, you got to get her up here. wow So hopefully we're going get some exposure. Four years ago before, ah let's see, it's the first term.
Speaker: ah before he was running for reelection. i had to President said Trump was going to come to the to the center ah to look at it and hopefully expose it, but then COVID hit.
Speaker: and And he was running for a reelection, and he didn't come. So I was working directly with Mark Meadows, who's the z ah chief of staff. And someday it's going to happen. We're working with... a ah I've got a number of very wealthy friends that I'm trying to convince him to do what I did here Tucson, do it in the rural communities.
Speaker: No, that's that's ah so brilliant, especially this day and age. There's so many homeless out there and it's I love your model of dignity. i think that's an important aspect.
Speaker: These are all human beings. Sometimes we have a this off-the-cuff, like, oh they're just animals out there. you know They're human beings. and I have a friend of mine that I never knew how that happens, how you could go from being a member of society to being on the street.
Speaker: But it happened to a friend of mine. He was a very well paid MBA working at the University of Arizona. He had very high profile job and then he got involved with drugs and then he lost his his wife and his house and his car and it all came crashing down.
Speaker: My most trusted employees right now have been with me. So, matter of fact, this morning he comes in, every morning he comes in before he goes to work. He comes to the house and he celebrates seven years lots of sobriety.
Speaker: Same thing. He was a very successful general contractor. Had a motorcycle accident, got prescribed oxygen before he knew what he was doing. heroined ah He ended up being homeless for a couple of years, lost his house, lost his family, lost everything he had, and he was very successful.
Speaker: Ended up in jail. In jail he realized that he hit bottom. ah which he started rehabbing. and there are A year later, the judge released him to a Center Opportunity. spent a year at Center Opportunity. Graduated from Center Opportunity as a model a ah muddle guest. And I happened to run into him after he graduated.
Speaker: offered him a job to come work for me personally. So he takes care of all my houses, all my cars. He has the keys to everything. i mean I trust him explicitly. yeah And he thanks me every day. yeah And he thanks God for being freed from that.
Speaker: addiction problem. It can happen. A couple of days ago, the nurse that takes care of one of my grandkids that has a family disease, Fabri, was telling my wife that she lost a 19-year-old son, that he was saw given a pill, fentanyl pill, and all it takes is one pill.
Speaker: And he became addicted, he got the wrong pills and he OD'd. that It can happen to anybody. yeah I don't think there's a family that has not been affected by addictions, directly or indirectly, or good friends.
Speaker: We all know people that have been affected. Yeah, I do. i So after he he lost his job and and all that, he he was on the street, I'd get messages on on Facebook and i tried to help him out. you know I said, come, he i wanted money. I said, no, why don't you come over here? I'll feed you, I'll get you nice clothes.
Speaker: So he just he just didn't and he was living his own life. And just recently I found out that he's actually in jail, which I believe is a blessing for him because he was ah addicted to meth. He got her on meth.
Speaker: So I'm hoping that you know he'll get, sort of on the right path. He's a very smart guy. Well, you know what? First of all, they have to accept they have a problem and try to work at it.
Speaker: Yeah. A lot of people that has don't accept that they have a problem. Yeah, it's true. All right. As we round out the the podcast here, I just have a couple more questions. It's been a bit of about pleasure, by the way. Thank you, Manny.
Speaker: The first ah of this of the last two questions is, what do you want to be remembered for? I know, I want my family to remember me. um At some point, everybody forgets about you.
Speaker: yeah You know, i I think my legacy, if anything, is going to be a center of opportunity, what I'm doing for the homeless. And the foundation that we're leaving is going to be a pretty large foundation. As matter of fact, we have a board meeting today and want my family to be involved in the foundation, but I also have ah three outside board members that are part of the foundation. So one day when all our wealth gets turned over to the foundation, it could be a ah major foundation.
Speaker: That's amazing. So ah perhaps the H.S. Lopez family foundation name will continue to live on. Yeah. um On my ah my other job as ah as a CEO of a company,
Speaker: We're doing a ah job for Carnegie Science. So Andrew Carnegie had several foundations. And we're literally doing work right now with the foundation he started, God knows what, 80 years ago, whatever.
Speaker: As a matter of fact, the book that I, when I was in high school, I never dated, okay. I was a very shy kid, but I was working 40, 44 hours a week, going to school from eight to three then. work as a grocery store from 3.30 to 10.30 at night, so ah six days a week. So I remember asking a girl one day for a date and I got turned down. It's kind of a plan. Never again asked for a date. So I read the book by Dale Carnegie, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living.
Speaker: ah And once I adopted, read that book, what i got out of it is what i just mentioned a little while ago is what is the worst that could happen in any situation so i i can be turned down nine times and i i'm very persistent uh it's where i wouldn't have done that before yeah Yeah, that's very true. ah Persistence is something that persistency runs out with a lot of people.
Speaker: Just keep pushing. Just keep asking a different way, different approaches. Yeah, exactly. Last question. What is one truth about success that people don't know, but they should know?
Speaker: Humility.
Speaker: But sometimes you can't hide it. You can't hide success. But you know i I still consider myself a normal person. and I've been very blessed, very lucky.
Speaker: and I do like cars.
Speaker: I do like toys. But you know, i But I try to be humble. You know, like you said, right now I'll treat the president, the secretary of the interior came here today, or the homeless. No different.
Speaker: They're all human. We're all the same. When these people tell me stories, I break down. I cry with them. I hug them. Humberto, this has been an amazing pleasure.
Speaker: Thank you, Manny. Thank you so much. Cheers. Un placer. Un placer.
