We got back to the Rose Bowl and decided to go to Old Town Pasadena to walk around and kill time. We all hung out for a short moment and they went back to the hotel to clean up for dinner.  We met back up at a hip and modern Thai restaurant in Pasadena, Saladang Song.  The restaurant had a very chic outdoor area with two long tables that fit almost forty of us.  We had a great dinner and I told them that tomorrow’s event will eclipse anything that has happened already.  Everybody had a very skeptical look on their face after my announcement.  One person even asked if Barak Obama was going to be there.  I was quite confident that they would be much more excited than that.

At 10 am the Distributors arrived at my house.  In front of my house sat the latest ‘08 and ‘09 Ferrari collection.  We had an F430 coupe, an F430 Spider, a stealth gray F430 Scuderia, a 599 GTB Fiorano, and a 612 Scaglietti.  Their eyes popped out at the sight of the 5 Ferraris.  LA Auto Gallery’s General Manager, Obi, was there to welcome them and he let everybody know to feel free to sit in each car, to experience the car.  After he gave a brief description of each car, I announced that the members of the FC will have a chance to test drive the cars.  People came up to me and said that this was more exciting than having Obama.  I simply said, “I told you so.”

Johnny was first to drive; he chose the Scuderia which has out performed the Enzo.  Dave drove him down the hill where they switched places.  I took Adriana Gomez in the red F430 Coupe for her test drive.  Adriana was constantly mis-shifting the gears, scaring the daylights out of me.  She was so happy though, it has been one of her dreams to drive a Ferrari.  We got back before Johnny & Dave, and as they came back you could hear the engine of the Scuderia from blocks away.  Johnny jumped out of the car with biggest grin.

Next in line was Joshua Lau who was joined by Obi in the Scuderia.  I took Cus in the F430 Coupe and Michael went with Dave in the 599.  Roy and Thien from Corporate followed us to film us in the cars.  We went down the freeway for a few miles before exiting to turn around and head back.  When we all got back Josh bragged about how he scared Obi to death with his driving and we had a great laugh.  Michael being the cool leader that he is had a mild grin.

Then was Azya’s turn; she went with Obi in the Scuderia while Dave took Cynthia Banh in the coupe.  I stayed back to show the rest of team the rest of the cars.  After fifteen minutes Michael told me that Azya got pulled over by the police; that scared the daylights out of me as she was driving Scuderia.  I was only hoping that she was not going over 100 mph because that would be very serious.  Everybody was concerned for Azya, then Dave came back to pick up Obi’s credentials.  The police were about to tow the car away because neither Obi nor Azya had their Driver’s License on them.  Can you imagine? Neither person in the car had credentials or a driver’s license on them and on top of that, Azya is from Mexico.  That gave us a good scare, but soon after, Obi came back with Azya.  Both of them were smiling and Azya was even showing off her ticket.  Obi said the CHP Officer was very nice, all she did was give Azya a ticket; we are so fortunate that she let them go.

We gathered everybody around and announced a bigger surprise next.  We got downstairs, Obi was there waiting, and on big screen was the Ferrari Website, which is exclusive to the GM.  He announced that he was allowing Michael to order any Ferrari of his choice.  Michael chose the 599 GTB Fiorano, the same one as Dave’s, but in a lighter shade of blue, with white interior and blue accents.  Obi also allowed me to order two other cars, along with Dave, and we both ordered the F430 Scuderia Spider. 

The next surprise we had was to offer Michael to take Dave’s car now and swap it in April when his car was finished being made.  My Rosso Dino F430 Spider is awaiting Johnny Ly to increase his production and then he’ll be next in line to take over the car.  We all thanked Obi for his gracious offer because this never happened before.  Ferrari is so exclusive, you’d be lucky to go to a dealership and spend any time with a salesperson.  There is no such thing as a test drive either.  You would have to pay for the car first and then you can drive it.  Not only did the General Manager bring all the cars to the house and let all of us sit in them.  The FC members were able to test drive them.  As a matter of fact, the Scuderia only had 500 miles before Johnny drove it.  I haven’t even driven that car yet.  You can actually say that Azya, Johnny, and Josh had a chance to drive a Scuderia before I was able to…and that’s the truth.

I hope the Distributors understand that there is nothing normal about this event.  We had to build a 5 year relationship with Obi for this to happen.  For the record, this is not something I requested from him.  This was something offered to us because of the friendship we have.  I tried to give Obi a tip, but he would not take it.  He valiantly declined my gesture and stated, “I did this for you, not the money.  Do not insult me.” 

I said ok and asked for a group picture.  He handed us his duffle bag and I told Hector to slip the envelope into his bag. 

After Obi and the cars left, I wanted everybody’s view of what they learned in the last few days.  Chester Leung did the best in his delivery of what he learned because he was very detailed.  It was very moving because it was not just a bunch of clichés or memorized phrases, he was very genuine.  There were three others that stood out to me – Sunlin Hem, Mercedes Tran, and Eyston Perez.  They spoke about how before they came to this event they had a completely different idea of what the Company’s Leadership was about.  They only came, at first, for the superficial agenda.  They felt like outcasts, they could not relate because they perceived the demand of what it takes to be a leader to be unreachable.  What they openly expressed to all of us was that they were hiding; that they were officially ready to go home to run and hit numbers.  But after spending some time with us, they realized that the real production was in learning how to work together as a team, not hiding, not falling to temptation and acting selfishly or destructively.

Maria Mobil stood up and cried.  She felt that she was treated unjustly.  She thought that Ahmad was too tough on her regarding her conduct at this event- sleeping on the floor of the van while everybody was engaging in some sort of interaction.  She felt hurt because she worked so hard the night before, staying up until 4 am and could not help but to sleep in the van.  Then she continued dramatically crying, saying that she’s here in America at her young age and has no family, as if she was all alone.  I reminded her that the only reason why Ahmad was giving her the strong critique was because he doesn’t want her to look bad; it does not look good in front of everybody when if you are secluding yourself from the group.  He did this because he cares and reminded her that we are here to become a family and that what we create here is greater than a biological bond because we have these sessions that help exfoliate the emotions and issues that we face.

People come into the business but want to be individuals and separate from everybody else.  I believe after that Maria was relieved as she smiled.  All the things she said were simply unnecessary mental drama.  I believe that Eyston, Sunlin, and Merecedes had a new epiphany that we are doing is the right thing and the direction we are going will only be beneficial for all of us.  There is only an upside and no downside to it.  Next thing we knew it was getting late and we had to finish up.  I introduced them to what I’ve been learning lately from Fareed Zakaria GPS just before getting ready for dinner.