Westport”™s Jim Randel, a real estate investor, attorney, author and entrepreneur, has been busy for the past two years writing books and building a company with the goal of educating individuals as the chief financial officers of their own lives.
“That”™s the mission of our company with the books I”™ve been writing,” said Randel, “to take issues of personal and financial achievement and put them into a context that”™s a quick read and easy to understand and digest.”
Randel is a principle at Rand Real Estate Services and chairman of Rand Publishing in Westport.
Randel has just released his seventh book in his “The Skinny On” series, called “The Skinny on Success.” The No. 8 book, “The Skinny on Time Management,” is due for release soon. Previous books in his series include the topics of willpower, direct sales, the housing crisis, credit cards and real estate investing. The books are no more than a couple hundred pages and include illustrations.
“What this is all about is understanding the principals to be an effective chief financial officer of your own life,” said Randel. “Personal finance is something that”™s not taught. You”™d think the high schools at least the colleges would have done this by now, but they haven”™t. There are so many people today who don”™t know what a mortgage is, or why lease versus buy a car, what an annuity is, or what”™s a preferred stock versus a common stock. There are all of these really basic things that, unfortunately, many people only learn by making the mistakes.”
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Randel has traveled the country speaking about his books. He has spoken at the National Association of Realtors Annual Convention as well as at the Harvard and New York University business schools.
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Randel most recently has worked with the Women”™s Business Development Council in Stamford.
“They wanted someone who could communicate to people who come to them for advice on basic financial principles; financial literacy, etc.,” said Randel. “Many people have lost a lot of money recently and some of it was from not understanding these basic principles.”
Randel said his bestselling book in the series has been an unlikely favorite; one of the more general topics: willpower.
Randel said his new book on success tries to demystify the idea of why some people are successful and others are not.
“It”™s not because they”™re necessarily smarter or better looking or luckier or more talented,” said Randel. “It really comes down to three things, going after something you feel passionate about, taking action and then persisting against the inevitable setbacks.”
Randel said “The Skinny On” series is currently shopping around a television pilot. Videos of Randel speaking, his blog, and his books can be found at JimRandel.com.
“The pilot is being made in the end of November,” said Randel. “What we”™re trying to do is to give people the truth, give them good solid information, give them the pluses and minuses and give it to them in a way that anyone can understand.”
