An Arms Deal…
The other day I had an black market arms deal go down. I was approached in regards to the arms deal from a long time client. I said why not and went along for the adventure. We were to meet at 9:45am last Wednesday by Bayside in downtown Miami. We had the cash; they had the arms. When we arrived, I received a call that alerted us to a black Subaru Forester parked along the curb towards the parking lot and facing out to Biscayne Blvd. The caller told us to follow the car to an unknown destination.
My anonymous friend and I drove along behind the car as we meandered through the sprawling streets of Miami. After 20 minutes in who knows where, we stopped at a red light. Next to us another black Subaru Forester stopped in mid-traffic and put down its wind shield; we did the same. They threw the arms into our vehicle; we threw back the sack of cash into theirs. Then they sped off. When the light turned green, we drove on. No sirens went on. No one took notice.
The above might be a story I should not write about when blogging about my life as a yacht broker.
My essential purpose in writing is to more deeply understand the knowledge and skills I acquire while in yacht sales. I do not have many readers, and the pay is as poor as here at WOW. I write about market trends I see which clearly show such changes as an increase in the popularity of multihulls (growth from 20% to 30% of sailboat market since 2004) and the dominance of over 100′ motoryachts in the Fort Lauderdale market ($1.6 billion of the $2 billion total value of yachts for sale). I write reviews of yachts which I have represented, seatrialed, sold, or delivered such this today's review of the Gozzard 36. I write descriptions of the geography of cities and countries where I travel. All the research and writing I do helps me get an edge to make the best decisions in an ever changing market.
All these rather typical articles are heavy filtered. Part of the yacht sales business is privacy; another part is persuasion. In my writing, I have to always be thinking about what information not reveal which feels counter intuitive. Sometimes the most exciting and entertaining details such as an arms deal or a more benign catastrophic survey/seatrial are obscured because revealing them would compromise people I have a responsibility to protect. A friend of mine and magazine writer once told me that he quite the brokerage business "to have freedom of expression." I enjoy the challenge of writing in such a medium though sympathise with his perspective.
I know I am not alone. Tom Tripp wrote in a piece sometime ago about the challenge of magazine writers writing reviews of manufacturers who advertise with them. It is a tough deal to disparage the models of the person who essentially writes your pay check. I think every writing medium requires compromises. Even in novels, you must handle the inclusion of details from your personal life that may complicate your relationships with friends and family. Maybe the true novelist is the one who can throw care to the wind; I do not know.
I think the true artist in business blogging is the one who can manage the politics of all these stakeholders and still manage to grow as a writer and contribute worthwhile information to the sum of human knowledge.
Please feel free to see how I fared politically this week writing a review of the Gozzard 36.
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