Jimmy’s Blog

Wow, wow, wow!   What an incredible sports experience last night at the Verizon Center.  It was easily one of the 10 best DC sports experiences I’ve witnessed.

Last night was Game 7 of the play-off round between the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers.  The Caps were the 2 seed and heavily favored over the Rangers.  But, they lost the first two games of the series and then faced a 3 – 1 deficit.  Not many teams have come back from down 3 – 1 to win a best-of-7 series.

After a great pre-game b-day meal at Rosa Mexicano for our good friend, Rich, we (Rick, Jon, Rich and I) headed over to the madhouse at Verizon Center.   It looked like 90% of the crowd was “rockin’ the red.”

The Caps came out playing tight and were down 1 – 0.   In fact, they didn’t have a shot on goal during the first 12 minutes of the game.   They did manage the tie the game 1 – 1 on a deflected shot, but after two periods, the game remained 1 – 1.

Many of the fans were at last year’s Game 7, where the Caps lost in OT to the Flyers.   So, there was much nervousness in the air as the third period started.   Halfway through the third period, we noted it wasn’t that loud in the arena — I’m sure it was because the fans were so nervous.

But, then with 5 minutes left, the future Hall-of-Famer, Sergei Federov blasted a shot past Lundquist, one of the best goalies in the world, to take a 2 – 1 lead.   The arena erupted — it was incredibly loud.   The Rangers tried to come back but they were stifled by the Caps D.  The Caps had an amazing 14 – 1 shots on goal advantage in the final period.

I’m so happy for Ted Leonsis, Dick Patrick and their partners.   They put so much time, money, energy and effort into building a world-class team.   Now, it’s time for round 2 against the rivals from Pittsburgh.  Ovie vs Syd the Kid.  It doesn’t get much better!

Tonight’s class is the last regular class of the semester.   Then, the students will present their final projects in next Monday’s session.

I know we’ll see a bunch of smiling, happy faces next week since nearly all of the 45 students in the Sports Marketing Strategy class are seniors and will be graduating in mid-May.

I’ve enjoyed teaching at Georgetown the past four years … and, this year has been terrific since we have an outstanding class.  The students have been terrific and engaged the entire semester.   In fact, the semester has flown by.  Thank you to this year’s class of students for making it so enjoyable and worthwhile.

I’m also going to teach in our new Sports Industry Management program (part of Georgetown’s School of Continuing Education) this summer.

Time to walk over to campus — I enjoy the nice, one-mile walk across Key Bridge.

I’m getting ready to check out of hotel and head back to DC later today.   The trip to Montreal was a blast — I was able to combine working on my business plan, visiting with a bunch of friends, working out every day at my friend’s new gym / spa, eating at some of Montreal’s cool restaurants and bistro’s.

My primary objective was to walk away with a more focused game plan after spending a couple of days meeting w/ my buddy, Rob.  I think we’ve come up with a good start and I feel good about the direction we’ve outlined for the next couple of months.

I also met up the past three nights with my friend, LC, and her crew of fun friends.  LC is a promoter who has an incredible amount of energy and bunch of fun friends.  We went Cafetaria one night; then to Business another night; then to Karma last night.  Montreal has great nightlife.

And, I had a terrific family dinner at Rob’s parents house, including his wife and two adorable children, his parents, his brother and girlfriend.

So, all in all, it was a good few days up here.   The weather in Montreal today is fantastic — sunny and around 80.   So, I’m going to hang out in Old Montreal for a bit before heading to the airport.  I’ll be back here soon!

I came up to Montreal this past Wednesday afternoon.   It’s an easy 75-minute flight from Washington, DC to Montreal.  I arrived here on mid Wed afternoon and breezed through customs – no line at all.

Montreal is one of my favorite cities — and I come here 3 – 4 times a year to visit friends.  This trip is actually a combination of visiting friends while also doing more work on the business plan for my new sports venture.

A good friend of mine, Rob, worked for a large retailer, based in Montreal, for the past decade — then made the move to a smaller start-up business.  So, I know he has plenty of “best practices” that he can share with me as I make the transition from working for a huge company to a small start-up.   I sent him the initial draft of the business plan I wrote while I was in Brazil.  I’m looking forward to getting this plan in more focus.

Time to go venture out in Montreal — I normally stay at the W since it’s pretty centrally located.  Plus, it’s right next to my favorite part of this city … Old Montreal.  OM has great art galleries, cool bistros and restaurants, interesting shops and the beautiful walkway along the water.  I’ll check back tomorrow.  Ciao.

We are hosting our NFTE “Dare to Dream” Gala next Wed, April 29th, at the Marriott Wardman Park.  We will be honoring our good friend, Mark Ein, as this year’s honoree.  Mark, who is the CEO of Venturehouse Group, is a long-time friend who’s an incredibly successful entrepreneur and philanthropist.

I’ve blogged about NFTE in the past.  It’s one of my favorite non-profits.   What is NFTE?  It’s the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.  The DC chapter has provided nearly 20,000 students — from low-income families — life skills and entrepreneurial education.   This has helped a vast majority of these students to start their own small businesses and / or pursue their college education.

I work with over 10 non-profits in DC.  Nearly all are focused on helping students from lower-income families attend college and / or start their career.  These include Hoop Dreams Scholarship Foundation, Year Up, Posse Foundation, Asian-American LEAD, etc.

I first got involved with NFTE in 2006 when I was asked to serve as one of the judges in the finals of the business case competition.   Since AOL was one of the sponsors, we hosted the finals competition on our AOL campus.  Before the finals started, NFTE hosted a luncheon for the 12 judges.   They asked each one of us to explain why community service is important to us.

As they went around the table, I was one of the last ones to speak.   When it was my turn, I spoke about the importance of education — and how we can use it to create a more level-playing field for children from lower-income families.  But, then as I tried to talk about an important topic to me, tears came to my eyes and I started crying.  My mentor, Ted Leonsis, who was at the head of the table yelled out, “Jimmy, are you crying?”   Then, he said, “stop, I’m starting to cry!”  🙂

What made me tear up?  I had just been named that previous week one of the recipients of Time Warner’s “Andrew Heiskell” Award, which honors TW employees for outstanding community service.   I asked if I could bring my long-time mentee, William Richardson, as my guest (I’ve mentored William since his freshman year in high school and am paying for part of his college tuition).   I was trying to explain how cool it is that I’m able to bring and introduce a young African-American man from the Nation’s Capital (where only9% of its public high school graduates from a 4-year college) to Dick Parsons, an African-American who’s the Chairman and CEO of Time Warner, the world’s largest media company.   The thought of making the introduction and connection is what me tear up — but it was tears of joy and happiness.

In summary, this is why organizations like NFTE are so important.  It provides the training and skills to help people from lower-income families learn new business skills.  These lessons will help the students learn how to start and operate a small business while also learning business skills which will help them as they pursue their college education.

We still have a few seats and tables available for our gala next Wed night.  We’re expecting over 400 guests, including Mayor Fenty and Senator Warner.   If you can attend the gala and help support NFTE, we’d greatly appreciate it.  You’ll have the opportunity to meet many of the outstanding young men and women from the NFTE program.  If you are interested in attending, please contact Amy Dickstein at amy@websterconsulting.com.    Trust me, it will be time well spent on your behalf.   Thank you.

Well, just as I blogged last night, I’m already back into my “go-go” pace.  And, I’m loving it!

We left Rio de Janeiro at 6:30 last night.   Took a short flight to Sao Paulo, had a 2 1/2 hour layover and took off at 10:30 pm.   We landed at Dulles at 7:00 a.m.  I was able to get about 4 – 5 hours of sleep (I normally don’t sleep well on planes).

I had a baseball game scheduled at 8:00 am this morning.  I wasn’t too tired so I was determined to play.   It did an hour to get through customs so I didn’t make it to the ballfield until 9:00 am.   But, it was only the third inning — and we were down 6 – 2.

I wasn’t sure how I would play after being on the plane for so long.   I did drop the first fly ball hit to me in center field (I was pissed at myself)!   But, I did hit a sharp grounder to third in my first at-bat — the 3B didn’t handle it well and a run scored.  I caught the next couple of balls hit to me.   Then, we entered the last inning down 1 run.   I was scheduled to bat second in that inning.   Our first batter got on base, then made it third after a steal and passed ball.   Since we had to get in that runner to tie the game, I surveyed the field and noticed the 1B playing back.  So, I laid down a bunt along the first base line.   Both the pitcher and 1B went for the ball and no one covered the bag.  So, I made it safely to first and the run scored.   I then stole 2nd and 3rd base.  The next two batters walked.  Then, our next batter got hit by the pitch and I scored the game-winning run.  So, it was worth the effort to get out there to play ball!

I went home — did three loads of laundry — then took my Mom to a Greek Easter barbecue at the home of the wonderful Pedas family.   A bunch of my friends were there — Tavs, Ted L, Rick, Billy, Jarrod, JP, etc.   The Pedas and Tavlarides family were so wonderful and nice to my Mom.   We had a great time.

So, it was my first day back after 10 days in Brazil.   And, instead of relaxing, it was a fun day full of baseball, family and friends.   It doesn’t get much better!

Today is my last day in Brazil before heading back home to Washington, DC this evening.  It’s been a terrific trip … very relaxing and refreshing … but I also had time to work on an initial draft of the business plan for my new venture.

One of the interesting things about being in Brazil, or for that matter, nearly any foreign country, is that I’m completely anonymous.   I hope what I write next comes out sounding right.

I love living in the Washington, DC area.  And, I really do like the lifestyle, but at times, I’m stretched too thin since I don’t know how to say “no” enough.   Over the past few years, it’s been a pretty hectic pace — working at AOL, teaching at Georgetown, volunteering with over 10 non-profits, family, friendships, playing ball, mentoring dozens of youth, etc — it’s an “always on the go” pace.   I do like this lifestyle and I’m not complaining, but your time is nearly always on demand.

So, it’s refreshing to get away … read, relax, work out, chill out, etc.   That’s why this trip has been good.  But, that being said, I do miss DC, family, friends, students, mentees, teammates, etc.  So, I’m ready to dive back into it tomorrow when I get back home.

Ciao, Brazil.  Obrigado.

I left Buzios earlier this afternoon and just arrived in Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.  The 3 – 4 days in Buzios was excellent.  It did rain quite a bit but that allowed me to relax and read as well as spend a good chunk of time on working on the business plans for my new sports venture. 

As I blogged earlier, Buzios is a cool spot and I definitely recommend the Martin Pescodar boutique hotel.   The hotel features 18 different rooms, outstanding views and a very accommodating staff.   I’m definitely going back during my next visit to Brazil.   I’ll post pics of the place on FB when I return home.

The most active area of Buzios is Centro, where the shops, restaurants and bars are located.   It was a 3 kilometer ride from the hotel (btw, the taxi’s have a flat rate of about $7).   I loved Centro — a great combination of nice, trendy shops as well as local dives to eat traditional Brazilian food.   I had a bunch of excellent meals during my time there (at pretty low prices).

I just checking in to the Copacabana Palace Hotel, which is one of the grand hotels in the world.  It reminds of the great hotels that you see in movies about Cuba and Miami in the ’60’s.   I stayed here last Oct and very much enjoyed it.  I’m going to head out now and will blog more about this place later.   Ciao.

After a wonderful few days in Ipanema, I left this early afternoon to come to the town of Buzios, which is located about two hours outside of Rio de Janeiro.   The car ride was certainly interesting!   The roads here aren’t like the big highway system in the US.   The driver drove here like he was in a F-1 or NASCAR race.   It reminded me of riding with my friends when I was a high school kid in Japan!

It was great to get outside of a big city (Rio has over 6 million residents) to check out the countryside of Brazil.  It was a definitely a nice change of pace.

Buzios is a quaint, cool and funky beach town.  It was supposedly “discovered” by Brigitte Bardot in the ‘60’s.  And, many people compare it to Saint Tropez in the South of France. 

I’m staying at this great boutique hotel called the Martin Pescodar, which is owned by a good friend of mine from Washington, D.C.  I love this place!  The hotel is so different than the ones I’ve stayed at in Rio the past two trips – the Fasano, Copacabana Palace and Caesar Park.  It’s not the type of 5-star service with customer service over the top – instead, it’s one with much more of personal  and unique style.  There are 18 rooms of many different sizes and shapes.   I’ll load pics I’ve taken of this hotel and the Buzios area on my facebook page.  If you’re looking for a cool and unique hotel during a trip to Brazil, I highly recommend this place.

The center of town is 3 kilometers away from the hotel.   I went there for dinner with the GM of the hotel last night.  Then, I ventured there by myself for a couple of hours this afternoon for lunch and to do a little bit of shopping.  A group of us are heading back there for dinner and maybe some clubbing tonight!   Peace.