RE Log Fall 2019

FALL 2019 Ransom Everglades LOG 23 the right questions. Focus.” My mom is always optimistic. She puts a good spin on anything that happens. A classic example was with the Miami City Ballet, many years ago, when the orchestra went on strike. I can remember her on the phone with donors, saying: “This is actually a good thing. Now there won’t be any mistakes.” I think my approach falls somewhere between my parents. I will look at a situation and think of all of the things that can go wrong. Then I will think about it more, and I will evaluate the other side, the upside. I incorporate both perspectives when making a final decision. Did you grow up knowing you would go into your father’s business? It wasn’t until my junior year in college [Brown University] that I became aware of how successful our family business had been. My father hid all this stuff. Whatever we had – which is not what we have now – he hid it from us. When we were growing up, he did not want us to be extravagant in any way. I tease my dad that he is parsimonious and that he instilled that in us, or at least tried to (Andy laughs). It wasn’t until Forbes magazine came along that I understood how much he had built. Do you mean the Forbes 400 List of richest Americans? It came out when I was in college. I don’t know if someone sent it to me or I found out about it somehow. I was like, “Wow, look at this. I need to think a bit more about this. What does this mean?” I talked to my dad about it. He said, “I wish they’d lose my name.” How did that change things for you? I always had envisioned going to business school after I finished my degrees in computer science and economics. My father didn’t want me to go to business school; he wanted me to come and work for him. At the time, he had two businesses, the TV business – WSVN Channel 7 – that was well-established, and a nascent business park in Miramar. I thought real estate would be an excellent experience but I had every intention of going to business school. You never went to business school. You ended up earning recognition for your work on the 400-acre Miramar Park of Commerce. I was put in the position at a young age to develop the business park. I was required to work as the leader, to work collaboratively. We had engineers, architects, landscapers, designers and contractors, and we had to find a way to get the buildings built, built on time and within budget. We had to work with the tenants, to make the whole thing come together. It was extremely valuable. It was about this time that you went into spearfishing? I started spearfishing with some of my friends from water polo after college, and got really serious about it after I took a free dive class about 17 years ago. That’s when I got into diving deeper, exploring the waters off of Miami. When I was in my 30s, I would take my boat 300 miles into The Bahamas to remote areas where even the Bahamians were warning me about drug smugglers. I spent nights out there just by myself on a 28-foot boat with a gas stove. I would make fisherman’s soup during the course of the week. To make fisherman’s soup, you take the leftovers from every day, and you keep putting them in your soup. By the end it’s unbelievably good. “I was put in the position at a young age ... to work as the leader, but at the same time work collaboratively. We had engineers, architects, landscapers, designers and contractors, and we had to find a way to get the buildings built, built on time and within budget.”