Welcome to 2013.

Thank you to everyone for your incredible support last month. Our family gathered in Durango, CO to remember and celebrate my brother Whitney’s life. He would have enjoyed the memorial service!

Your Life By Design:Creating A Bigger Future.

Every new year I try to find time to sit down to plan out the year and focus on a “bigger” life. This year my friend Curtis Estes gave me a copy of his book, “Your Life By Design: A Step-By-Step Guide To Creating A Bigger Future”

The easy to read book has practical exercises on building your vision, implementing a strategy and obtaining transformational results. Here are a few of my favorites:

Make a “Highlight Reel”. What are the moments so far that have made you proud, happy or inspired? Identify them so that you have an idea of what you want to accomplish in the future.

“The Pyramid Flip”. Curtis asks you to figure out the activities that you do that you love, the give you energy and that inspire you to greatness. You need more of these. Also figure out the activities that you do not want to do, even if you are good at them. These probably fill up most of your time. This exercise is intended to get you to focus on the first activities and less on the second.

“The To Be List”. Not to be confused with the To Do list, this list identifies what you want others to think of you and remember you for. Have you ever figured that out?

The implementation part of the book has a variety of checklists to help you put your strategy into action. It includes identifying your compelling “why” and establishing SMART goals. One exercise prompts you to write out your ideal schedule and compare it to your actual schedule. In the end you should end up with your Life By Design Manual that will help you throughout the year to reach your goals and create your bigger future. I highly recommend this book.

In The Works: What We Are Doing…

– After an all day mediation, our client settled his partnership dispute over the construction and sale of a Hollywood Hills mansion. The case involved resulting trust, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and a number of other legal claims. We are pleased that the parties were able to reach a good resolution. – We are filing a lawsuit on behalf of our homeowner client after his consultants failed to act on his application to the City, letting it expire and ruining his chance to build the home of his dreams. – We continue to help several clients with partnership disputes over real estate projects and operating businesses. – We are still in the midst of homeowner disputes over boundary encroachments from neighbors. – We have also helped several clients with the purchases of industrial building

The Other Side Of The Card…

Laine was honored to introduce Mayor Riordan to the LA5 Rotary Club for a discussion about the City’s dire financial situation.

Laine also spoke to the Rotary Club of Westlake Village Sunrise about Building Men in Uganda and about the burn surgery and treatment for Adolf, the boy from Uganda.

CREW held an intimate evening event and dinner with Colony Capital’s Thomas Barrack, which Laine attended. Mr. Barrack has an incredibly inspiring story about how he became one of the most successful real estate investors.

Adolf has had two surgeries so far and is recovering extremely well. While his legs are still in splints, he is attending school, learning English and playing non-stop. This photo is from a trip to the Long Beach Aquarium. His story was highlighted in the Los Angeles Times.