Billionaires on Boats or Barrack , Bella and an Appreciation of Anticipation

Just because I love to share all the randomly interesting things that I find out there on the internet
From the Wall Street Journal blog
Bella and Edward Who?  Real-Estate Tycoon Deconstructs 'Twilight'

So what do you get when you put a brilliant billionaire named Tom Barrack on a boat in Turkey with some free time on his hands and nothing to read except 'Twilight'.
What you get is a thoughtful analysis of the book and a brilliant letter to the senior management at his firm Colony Capital.
Here is a brief excerpt
I boarded the gorgeous but stark Turkish Gulet right as the sun was setting. As I made my way into the main cabin I saw something so frightening it left me speechless. There, staring up at me from the ebony coffee table was a book. On the cover was a gorgeous red apple nestled between two soft and caring hands. Between the hands were written the words that strike terror in the hearts of every macho, red-blooded male…TWILIGHT. AAAARRRGGGGHHHH!! Alone, on a boat, with no wifi, no satellite, no magazines, no newspapers, just me and this book. This piece of chick lit, teeny bopper heartthrob stuff. Terror on the high seas! I wanted nothing to do with any of it. Not relevant, not interesting.

As I sat there with nothing to do the book kept taunting me. I began to think that there must be something I don’t understand. What could it be? What is it all about? Women don’t just read these books, they live them. They become each paragraph. I picked it up, but then immediately dropped it like a hot coal. What if someone saw me reading this? My macho reputation would be finished! I would be kicked out of the bench press section of the gym. My polo compadres would send me packing to the pony rides and my surfing buddies would exile me to the kiddie pool.

But it was a long night and there was absolutely nothing, and I mean NOTHING else to do. Long story short – not only did I read Twilight, I read the other two as well!! I was fascinated, captivated even. However, what intrigued me was not the same thing that hooked the millions of women whose lives and had been changed by this series, but something else entirely.
I love the way that Barrack starts his aversion to the book, then goes on with what he finds from reading the Twilight books and extrapolates that into lessons for life.
Also in the lessons for life category, Christina at Fashion's Most Wanted has posted the Dalai Lama's instructions for life. Yes, we've all read them before, but they are always worth re-reading.

Downsizing - The Bel Air Way

 

Well this is good to know

America's most expensive mansion just sold

Mohamed Haddid the former owner of the Ritz Carlton Hotels was asking a mere $72 million for Le Belvedere, his 48,000 square foot pied a terre in the hills of Bel Air. The actual sale price is unknown but it had to be north of $50 million.

 

In addition to its 10 bedrooms and 14 bath rooms, the little country cottage boasts a gym, a 20 car garage, an indoor theater that seats 50

and a Moroccan room with a Turkish bath because what fine Bel Air home doesn't need that!

Hadid says he chose to sell because he is "downsizing" his life. He's also confident that the properties he builds are unique enough to lure buyers, even in a down market.

"These are very special homes. I can pretty much ask for anything I want," he says. "There are certain properties that are so unusual, people are afraid they will lose the opportunity to buy them. Even if the market is 5% or 10% below, people with substantial funds will come in and say, 'let's do this now.'"

 
Over at Drudge Millionaire's Riches are Returning to Pre-Crises Levels
Ultra-high-net-worth individuals with more than $30 million to invest saw their wealth rise by almost 22 percent in 2009, faster than other millionaires, according to the report, which attributed the gain to a “more effective re-allocation of assets.” 

It's good to know that everything is back to pre-crises status quo...except of course for the 2.3 million jobs that have been shed since 2009.