As with any business, the members of my staff spend a lot of time together during any given week, so much that they become a second family.
So after being approached numerous times over the past five years by national and/or public companies to merge, join or be bought out, we decided, as a group, to remain an independent firm and not be tied to, or part of, some national organization.
First off, independence allows us to be agile and quickly adjust to the changes that keep us at the top of our game in the commercial real estate business. It keeps us motivated to perform at our highest level.
But independence also allows us to keep our family lives flexible and to integrate our business lives with our family lives as seamlessly as possible. Family is everything.
This idea of independence comes from both of my grandfathers and father, all whom operated their own very successful, private businesses. Coming from Italy, one grandfather opened a textile factory and the other a construction company, while my father took his young family to Colombia in the 1960s and started a fastener business far from the comfort of Cumberland.
My forefathers' experience is a big reason why MG Commercial has remained independent. In discussions with my father about my business, he extolled the benefits of being your own boss, of controlling your own destiny and of allowing your "business family" to combine their business and family lives in the best way possible. •
