Podcast in Queue Brian Bonafede – grit and hard work

This is my good friend, Brian Bonafede. A successful CFO at a fairly large real estate company that he co-founded with his brother and sister. These are excerpts from the interview we had back in March of 2019. Be looking out for the podcast that is soon to come...

 

Hard-Work: His mom, him and his family

From the interview:

Brian: I was born in San Jose, California and I grew up on the East Side. And from what I remember, I grew up in an apartment complex. An apartment complex that my mom was managing. You know, it was what I remember back to three, four and five years old was she was running a ninety six unit apartment complex by herself. You know, my my real father was abusive she ended up kicking him out. So here she’s raising me; 5 years old, my brother 6 years old and my sister Laura 4 years old. So I had a great childhood in a way where I didn’t know the difference. My mom, coming from Greece, in a little village in southern Greece as an exchange student when she was 18 or 19 years old. She came to America and lived with her aunt in San Francisco. I learned a lot. She met my real father and moved to San Jose to manage now my stepfather’s Dad’s apartments. As a young person she needed a job and she was the smartest person that you’ve probably ever meet. And you’ve (Chris) had the chance to meet my mother…                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      ~Brian Bonafede

Brian: And then it was interesting is you know ninety-six units as you can imagine a lot of units to manage. There was six buildings. And me and my brother and sister would go to the swimming pools – there’s six swimming pools in each one we’d go we’d run from one swimming pool, to the next one, to the next one and we had summers we that’s all we do and we learn to swim we were like three or four years old and we just kind of living on our own – without supervision and you know like I said my mom was busy managing apartments. But I got my work ethic from my from my mom and from my uncle because they put us to work right away. No child labor laws back then. I mean I’m sure there was but : mowing lawns trimming trees at the complex and there’s a bit on nostalgia when you walk by a fresh lawn that was freshly right because it just brings back memories – like it brings you back. Great memories you know. So I’ve always been around hard work and hard labor not knowing the difference but we’re just competitive and we worked hard…