In part 1 of this story, I introduced you to Casey, who was already on one hell of a roll down in the Dominican Republic, but here’s where the story gets really ‘meaty’.
While working in the Dominican, Casey noticed that the scales of the economy there were starting to tip. Case in point — those men who walked into the bar and asked for him by name…they were investors.
Over time, foreign investors began to see what potential there was in the DR (especially since Americans weren’t allowed into Cuba), and started pouring into the country in droves.
They sought out people like Casey: North Americans who knew the local language, customs and terrain and could act as a liaison between the two parties.
Casey was already doing well for himself as a bartender, but with becoming a liaison for foreign investors, he was skipping massive steps up the income ladder that his friends back home would have to work another ten years to accomplish.
If you’ve ever visited the Dominican and stayed at a resort, chances are the deal that got the resort built was put together by a gringo like Casey.
What brought the good times to an end?
“I met my wife and we had kids that we wanted to raise back home, not the Dominican, so we moved back to Canada and I used that money to buy us a very nice home and set some money aside for the college funds.
I’ll tell you this much however — the only reason I made out so well was because I was at the right place at the right time.
No one can land the same opportunities in the Dominican Republic that I had back then.”
What is tough to pin down about the ‘right place, right time’ paradox is that sometimes, you arrive to the dance WAY too early…
…and you simply don’t have the time to wait for the market to catch up to you.
