At Thanksgiving, I Find Much to Be Thankful For. Here’s a Short List….

By JIM SMITH

For starters, I’m grateful to be an American. I’ve had the opportunity to travel to many countries, and I’m always happy to return home. I’ve traveled to every state except Alaska and lived in eight states plus D.C., and I’m certainly thankful to call Colorado home!

Having traveled to the Soviet Union, then Russia, and also to communist China, my appreciation for our free enterprise system is deeply ingrained in me. Without the freedom to choose one’s profession and to choose self-employment, you really don’t have any freedom at all.  We should never take that for granted.

It’s that free enterprise system which is the source of something else I’m so grateful for, and that is the constant innovation and inventiveness that characterizes America. Elon Musk, born in Africa, chose our country to invent Paypal, Solar City, SpaceX, and Tesla Motors.  The smartphone app described above is yet another example of American inventiveness and entrepreneurism. For an “early adopter” like myself, these are exciting times to be alive!

 

Closer to home, I am grateful to be surrounded by a fabulous group of agents who you see pictured above. This has been a year of great growth for them and for Golden Real Estate, and we all are thankful for our many friends, colleagues and clients.

 

I’m ever grateful to be married to Rita, and she and I are both eternally thankful to Body in Balance Wellness Center, whose “8 Weeks to Wellness” program changed our lives for the better.  Call them at 303-215-0390 to change your life, too!

Published Nov. 24, 2016, in the YourHub section of the Denver Post and in four Jefferson County weekly newspapers.

Thanksgiving Is a Gift We Give Ourselves, Reminding Us How Blessed We Are

[Published on Thanksgiving Day, 2011, in the Denver Post]

With all the news from around the world, we hardly need a reminder that we have much for which we can be thankful.  Thanksgiving is our opportunity to remember that. I don’t know of any other country besides Canada which has a day set aside solely to contemplate one’s blessings.

When I give the opening prayer at my weekly Rotary meeting, I like to say that “We are blessed, and we are a blessing.” In other words, it is because we are so blessed that we are able to bless others with our gifts of time, love, financial assistance and service.  It is out of our gratitude for how blessed we are that we are driven to do good in the world — and Rotarians do a world of good!

What are you thankful for? It’s a metaphysical law that we draw to us more of what we think about, so let’s think positives, not negatives!

I’ll start with my family, especially my now-deceased father, Abbott Smith, who taught me values I still hold dear. He was never a Rotarian, but those values he taught me are entirely congruent with the values of Rotary.

My family moved from Maine to Colorado when I was in kindergarten, and for that I couldn’t be more grateful! Somehow I was lucky enough to be enrolled in St. Anne’s Episcopal School, where I was taught first and second grade by then-Sister Irene, the school’s now deceased founder. What a blessing that was!

Space doesn’t allow me to recount my other personal blessings, so I’ll limit myself here to listing some professional blessings. It starts with being introduced to real estate as a career by the fine people at Coldwell Banker, including Kathy MacLeod and Rich Sands. I still recommend that agents begin their career at CB, even though I moved on to RE/MAX Alliance and then launched Golden Real Estate.

Being rather outspoken, I know that I have irritated some of my colleagues in the business, especially in my early years, and for that I apologize. Nonetheless, I am grateful for what I have learned from many of them and from people in related industries such as lending, inspection, appraisal and repair. I am so much smarter than I was 10 years ago, thanks to them.

And, of course, I am thankful for the several hundred clients who have honored me with their business.  Without the experience I gained from serving them, I wouldn’t be nearly as knowledgeable.

My wife, Rita, has been my love and inspiration since we met in 2003, and I wouldn’t be the success I am today without her presence in my life. I wish all could have the kind of relationship we enjoy.