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WHAT’S GOOD MIAMI: 11.14.26
The world feels upside down, and Miami is about to turn right side up.
This morning an Instagram post rounded up a single 24 hours: a CEO undone by a spy scandal, Microsoft down around the world, and every flight in America grounded. In On My Mind, I explain why November always feels like this, and why the cloud is exactly where growth starts. December is the month of miracles, so don’t make big decisions out of fear.
On this week’s What’s Good Podcast, I sat down with Robert Finvarb. Bobby grew up on Abbott Avenue and is now building NoBe PARC three blocks from where his parents brought him home. He was a lawyer who stopped listening to lawyers. He made the deal his wife made him take, bought a gas station that turned into a whole block, and is opening a Hyatt in Wynwood. Plus The Ten Questions, and why there is still no gym in North Beach.
Keep calm and carry on.
ON MY MIND: THE WORLD IS FREE FALLING, KEEP CALM
A insta post landed in my phone this morning. You probably saw it too.
In 24 hours, it said, the Nvidia CEO goes down in a spy scandal, Microsoft and Outlook go dark around the world, a building collapses in New York, a tanker sinks a river cruise ship in New Orleans, and the FAA grounds every flight in the country. It ended the only way it could: “WTF is going on??”
The feeling was very real. Everyone I talked to this week felt it. Something is off and nobody can tell you what comes next.
That is November. It always is.
November is the hardest month of the year. In South Florida, the growth is beginning, but everyone is still behind.
Years ago I wrote a short piece called When Things Are Cloudy. The idea came from The RZA of the WuTang, of all people. “Confusion is a gift from God. Those times when you feel most desperate for a solution, sit. Wait. The information will become clear. The confusion is there to guide you. Seek detachment and become the producer of your life.” It means you are standing exactly where growth happens. The move is not to force an answer. The move is to sit, breathe, and let the picture clear up on its own."
That is the hardest thing in the world for people. We hate waiting. We would rather make the wrong decision fast than the right one slow. But cloudy is not the time to swing. Cloudy is the time to see. Let go of your own point of view for a minute. Listen. The information always comes.
And then comes December.
December is the month of miracles. I do not mean that in a greeting card way. I mean it in a business way. Every year, the deal that was dead in November closes the week before Christmas. The client who ghosted you calls back. The city fills up. Miami gets its swagger back. People are in a giving mood and a buying mood at the same time, which is the rarest combination in commerce.
So if this week felt like the world was coming apart, good. That is the cloud. Stay in your lane, do the work in front of you, and do not make any big decisions out of fear.
The sun always comes out in Miami. It is kind of our thing.
WHAT’S GOOD PODCAST: ROBERT FINVARB, THE NORTH BEACH NATIVE, WHO CAME HOME TO BUILD
Some developers move to North Beach. Robert Finvarb was born there.
If you have driven around Miami, you have seen the name on a construction fence. The first time I saw it, I assumed a Swedish developer had discovered Miami Beach. Bobby admits there might be a little Scandinavian on his dad’s side. The rest of the story is pure Miami.
The Finvarbs are a Miami real estate family. His father, Richard, is a developer. His mother was a real estate broker. His brother Ronny runs The Finvarb Group with their dad, the team behind projects in Sunset Harbour and South Beach. Robert, who goes by Bobby, runs his own company, the Robert Finvarb Companies. Different businesses, same dinner table. “We love each other.”
