How many hide their Ferrari from employees?

what's an Opera Coupe?

 

There seems to be a lot of business owners / succesful people on this forum (which is kinda why I like posting here). So you guys might understand my perspective on this. I think the fundamental problem is that many people are lazy, which leads them to being studid, which leads them to not being in a great financial position and thus never being able to afford a car such as a Ferrari, and thus they become jealous, so that you guys have to hide your Ferrari.

I assume (apart from inheritences and lottery winnings) that all you succesful business owners did it by becoming smarter, taking risks - risks that are minimised because you made yourself smarter, and hard work. Thats, if I had to guess, is how you became succesful.
Same for professionals, you studied hard since whenever, got your degree, and continued to work hard, now you reap the rewards.
Most people don't have this kind of drive, or they have drive but they work "dumb" - they may work hard but then overload themselves with consumer debt, hence going nowhere, or not research proper investments and end up taking run of the mill advice and getting 5% or something per year from some generic fund.

Myself, I worked pretty hard back at home in NZ, researched investments (while my peers would spend their spare time watching TV etc) while skimping every penny (while others spent), decided upon property (while others said your'e crazy) and made an educated guess. 4 years later in a rising market I am now worth quite a bit. Then (now) I headed to London cause I knw I could earn much more over here (meanwhile - why would you want to go to london its cold etc - stay in NZ). Now I make very good money.

Yet when I reward myself for this work, all the majority of the dumbasses will see only the rewards, not the hard work / risks that went into getting it. Theres no way I could drive even a new bmw around to one of my rentals, let alone a ferrari, cause the tennants would freak out (I got property managers anyway).

So yeah I feel no pity for employees that may never be able to afford a ferrari, if they can't afford it, then I think most of the time its their own fault. They may come ask you for advice, but in my experience people want the quick answer. Unfortunetly, when we should have the right to flaunt, we have to be secretive about our wealth and hide it.

just my 2 cents
end rant

 

well for me...my manager drives a Z8, so whats the point....

 

Here's my story ..... I own a large 1912 estate that I rent for weddings. I don't hide my cars ..... but usually keep them in the garage ... but the doors are 90 years old and half glass panes, so anyone who bothers to have a look inside can see my assortment of cars. 996, Hemi Roadrunner and 550. Anyway .... most of my client's tend to arrive in nicer cars, Mercedes, BMW's, sometime's even Porsches. I had a guy come for a first visit once who was looking for a wedding locations, he drove a 2002 C2 ... after doing my standard sales bit, we started talking about cars because he was clearly into this .... showed him my 550, then offered him a ride. We went for a 45 mintue drive up Azusa Cyn at speed .... I let him drive on the way back ..... when we returned he said "Ok, I'm ready to book" .... sold a $ 35,000 wedding on the spot ... all thanks to my ferrari. Does this mean I can write it off as a sales tool?

Now ... I'm sure there are other's that would feel my prices are too high if I can afford a collection of nice cars ..... goes both ways.

 

I only have 3 employees and find it easy to drive any of my collector cars to work. On the weekends, I sometimes let them drive my cars. Its a great way to go for a cruise with all my cars at once and be able to see them and follow and hear them. I guess it helps when we're all sports car fans to begin with.

When a customer makes a comment on any of my cars, I just say that other investments have been fruitful. As long as I charge a reasonable price for our products, what can people say?

Pete

 

Dave: you drive an “Almost Ferrari” so it should not raise any jealousy. LOL – just joking.

When I was in Algar’s week before last, on the second floor there was my Mondial t, a 430, two more Mondials, and then a Dino. George said that a Dino was really a street legal go cart and as such was an extreme amount of fun. The Dino looked like much fun.

George is the first mechanic that I have met that I have both liked and trusted.

On this thread, my two cents or nickel:

If one is not being fair with one’s employees, I would not take a Ferrari to work.

If one could be hurt in security clearances by appearing too wealthy, I would not take a Ferrari to work.

If one is up for a deserved promotion and someone else could start rumors that would hurt the chances, I would think twice before taking a Ferrari to work.

After these cases, it becomes cloudy. There are always people who are mad that others are happier than they are. Is unhappiness for oneself worth it to make these people happy? People who inherit large amounts of money seem to especially have these problems.

After this, one has to look at how much will it hurt and help (generally both in the same organization). How much will it affect other important goals?

How much joy will it bring to drive it to work (and cost)?

Taking all this into consideration, one can than make an informed judgment.

Just what I have seen of life.

 

Secrets in military units are kept like water in a sieve. So, my boss found out I have one. What does he do? He asks me to pick up his 15 year old daughter, who's a sports car freak, and take her to her softball game with a specific request to drop her off in front of her friends. "Yes, sir. I'm on it...." What else was I to say??

I looked like either a sick, deranged, old man or a guy who became a dad at 18....

 

I only blab about it so that Urotrash will buy one.

 

The pictures in my office would give me away either way.

 

It is not unusual to have to do favors or help people to advance. However, one can go too far.

At one point when I worked for Civil Service (Army) I had a girl friend named Candy. She used to do things like babysit for her boss, a Col. However, one day she went to bed with him to advance her career. We broke up over it.

I have tried telling people how little the Mondial t costs. It does not work for me. Either they do not believe me. Or they seem to want to believe it costs much more (they have seen a car that costs over $100,000).

Now if people ask how much it costs, I just say it cost over $130,000 in '89 $ (which is true). If they ask how much I paid for it, I just say that I got a good deal on it - which is also true. If they press for how much I paid, I just respond that I do not reveal exact prices.

 

I have 4000 employees and whether the two Ferraris or any other issue "you cant make everybody happy all of the time" most of my guys think I am lucky and would do the same if they were in a position to do so.

 

here in Florida I drive a VW passat to work and save my 575 for the weekends...very few of the other docs drive their toys to work as well...I even know one ortho guy who drives a beat up 1980s lincoln townecar to work everyday...meanwhile, I have dinner at his 3.5 million dollar house...ah florida and the power of homesteading

 

Noobs are LOVING the older threads today.

 

I drive my Spider to work every now and then... but then I'm only a humble employee

The Chairman doesn't give a toss, but the auditors were quite interested when they saw it!

 

As long as this thread is resurrected, I'll join in. I drive my Ferrari to the office every so often, and have given rides to employees and customers from time to time. My partner and one of my employees have actually driven it at a track event they came to. There's a shelf with Ferrari stuff on it on the wall by my desk, including a Kyosho model of my 308QV and the Schumacher F1-2004 car, an autographed photo of Schumacher, a fender shield, cup, 8.5x11 "info sheet" I have used at car shows and some other misc. Below it is a collage of photos that my wife put together for me, and on a corner of my desk is a frame with the cover of an FCA NewsBulletin that has my car at Indy. Either the Ferrari or the salt water nano-cube aquarium will always be a good conversation starter when we have visitors.
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Well said..... I do the same to some degree..
the less my co-workers know about my toys the less B.S. i run into..