- My father’s family fled Belgium during World War II in the middle of the night when he was 16.
- He told me not to buy real estate and to pay for everything in cash, which is advice I’ve ignored over the years.
- However, his advice on the merits of entrepreneurship and living below one’s means I keep.
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When my dad was 16 years old, he woke up very early one morning to see his dad quietly leave the apartment for the darkened streets of Antwerp, Belgium.
He was meeting his business partner under cover of night to divide up cash and goods from their business so he could take my dad and grandmother away from the encroaching Third Reich to Lisbon, Portugal, and then ultimately for the United States.
There was no real estate investments to tie them down. And in…
