Maybe It Was Destiny
Conclusion and Postscript
TODAY'S RAMBLINGS
3 Minute Read
Happy Friday, Here is the thirteenth and final installment of Maybe It Was Destiny.
I sincerely thank you for your indulgence.
Preface and Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
PRIDE COMETH BEFORE THE FALL
Getting my sister-like cousin Shelly Murphy and oldest friend Steven Simon - heroes of mine both - to invest in this new-fangled Casa Integration was a watershed moment. I had never once tried to raise any money for a business, and the fact I got these two rockstars on board told me I wasn’t crazy.
I wasn’t, and here’s what we produced. The idea was that a member of the “mass affluent,” doing a major remodel or building a new home <= 5,000 square feet in size could dial it in without the services of Casa 1.0 or anything like it. This is a video of the completed online recommendation engine.
It was created during the summer of 2017, and we went to market in late September.
Here’s a press release that explains more of it. I urge anyone putting technology in their home to consider my advice. Then and now, it is not wrong.
In reviewing these and other materials for Maybe It Was Destiny, I am reminded that Casa 2.0 wasn’t a bad idea.
It went nowhere.
THE DUMBEST THING I EVER DID
13 chapters for this? Nothing? Well, that’s why it was the dumbest thing I ever did.
I stopped doing Casa 1.0 work completely, so I was not making any money
I did not raise enough money in general
I was somehow foolish enough to think one single campaign could successfully launch this idea
Sure, my mind was clouded by burnout, but that’s no excuse.
We launched Casa Integration 2.0 and that one marketing campaign - professionally designed and executed as it was - garnered essentially no response.
One campaign. Dumb!
And with what can only be described as a whimper, Casa Integration was over.
Well, it was the dumbest thing I ever did until a particular company party in 2019. You can go read The Electrifying Conclusion of Lottery Winner for that story.
If you do, you'll see it all ended much the same as this one began:
I made the wrong woman mad.Maybe it was destiny?
POSTSCRIPT: MY DREAM CAME TRUE
Make no mistake: What happened after the end of Casa Integration was more violent of a roller coaster ride than anything I’ve written about here. It was so violent, it’s taken me 5 years to understand that, despite the punch in my face at the end, I was and am among the luckiest people you know.
Growing up in Albany, NY, the son of a first-generation American who worked for the phone company, I didn’t dream of this. Because I didn’t know it existed.
San Francisco was a place that you saw on television, and living there wasn’t on the menu. I didn’t know what business class was, and I certainly had never been anywhere near Europe. A Marriott was a fancy hotel to me. And sure, I had played company as a kid, but building a business from nothing and having it work to the glorious extent that Casa Integration did was unimaginable.
And having a billionaire client, and many more worth tens and hundreds of millions? Are you kidding me?
Yet it all happened. Because I was lucky: When the opportunity presented itself, I was prepared.
And also because I worked my fucking ass off for almost 17 years.
POSTSCRIPT: WHY I WROTE THIS
That’s easy, and I’ll quote from two songs by two completely different artists. First, my hero Kevin Parker.
Am I getting closer?
Will I ever get there?
Does it even matter?
And while Billy Joel is not a hero of mine, this song captures why I am compelled to put this (and Lottery Winner and London Calling) out there.
You know in my own heart
I’m a big man on Mulberry Street
I play the whole part
I leave a big tip with every receipt
I’m so romantic
I’m such a passionate man
Sometimes I panic
What if nobody finds out who I am?
THE END
FROM THE UNWASHED MASSES
, whoever you are, you are the very first person I don’t know who’s paid for a subscription. You rock.And my pictures of some of the churches in Rome got some love from the famed artist Charles Clough (directly at Substack!), Dr. Doreen Downs, and Fi Deuce - thank you all. I sincerely appreciate the feedback.
Thank you for reading this newsletter.
KLUF
It’s a record that captures the longing for a different world arguably better than any other. And as anyone who’s met me for about 5 minutes knows, it’s also my favorite album - so what better way to wrap this narcissistic milieu?