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Copyright by John T. Reed

When I was young, I wanted to be rich and famous. Once in college, Who’s Who in America came up. I said, “I’d like to be in that someday.” Decades later, I was.

Today, America; tomorrow, da vorld!

Then, after a number of years, my name disappeared from it. I figured it was because I stopped selling my books in book stores—and because I had never purchased a copy of Who’s Who. I mentioned that theory in a Web article. Suddenly, I got a letter from Marquis, the publisher, assuring me I was not dropped for those reasons, but rather because I failed to send in the annual update. They put me back in the book, but this time in Who’s Who in the World! Jeez!

The 12/7/09 (today) letter informing me of this says it, “…distinguishes you as one of the stars of your field.” I have forwarded this to my wife and sons, who have long been insufficiently appreciative of the eminence among them.

Fame and a dime…

What does fame, or as I more often put it, mild fame, and a dime get you? (note to young people: that phrase was invented when coffee cost a dime everywhere—the answer to the rhetoical question is “a cup of coffee”) There is a chapter about fame in my book Succeeding. One famous former pro athlete read it and said I captured it precisely.

Curly Joe—who doesn’t know that?

I often attend Commonwealth Club talks in San Francisco. I met Frank Luntz, Fox pollster and author of What Americans Really Want…Really there recently. He was impressed that I knew the name of the fifth Stooge as a result of having seen the Three Stooges perform live when I was a kid. (He asked the audience to name the five “Three Stooges”—Larry, Moe, Curly, Shemp, and Curly Joe; there was actually a sixth named Joe Besser briefly—to show that we were more likely to be able to do that than to name the nine Supreme Court Justices—Thomas, Kennedy, Scalia, Bader-Ginsburg, the good-looking recent chief justice, the “wise Latina,” and three other guys—who probably think they are famous.)

THE John Reed

Both my wife and I have separately suggested me as a speaker to the Commonwealth Club. No go. But one day the guy in charge of booking business speakers, who knew my name, introduced me to the speaker of the night as “John Reed.” Then, after the head booker walked away, the speaker asked me in a reverent, awestruck tone, “Are you THE John Reed?”

I have gotten that question many times in the past. I used to inquire into the description of “THE John Reed” before I answered. But I always turned out to be THE John Reed, so now I just answer, “Yep.”

There is one other famous John Reed, whom, by incredible coincidence, I once spent a month with when we were in college.

So I cannot make the cut to speak at the Commonwealth Club, but some of the guys who do would probably attend my speech if I ever did.

Mild, sub-household-name fame like mine is a little spotty. Depends on whom you are talking to.

‘Go right in, sir’

A few months back, the head of the Bay Area Wealth Builders invited me to attend the John Schaub, Jack Miller, Pete Fortunato speech in San Francisco, gratis. When I tried to enter, he was somewhere else. I told the guys at the door I was Jack Reed and that Mike Morrongiello said I could attend for free. Blank stares.
I asked them, “Have you ever heard of ‘John T. Reed?’” “Oh, Yes,” they quickly said. “That’s me.” “Go right in, sir.”

No witness protection program for me

It also has its disadvantages. I would like to attend various real estate investment seminars anonymously. Can’t do it. As they say in the Cheers theme song, everybody knows my name—and face. Well, not everybody, but it only takes one.

Way back in 1978, I took the Bob Allen Nothing Down seminar when Bob Allen was the speaker. I tried to get a freebie in exchange for giving him one to my seminar. They had never heard of me and turned me down so I paid full fare.

The guy sitting next to me started to light a cigarette even though we were in the section designated by Allen as “no smoking.” I reminded him of that. He gave me a load of crap. A guy behind him asked him, “Do you know who you’re talking to?” “Who?” “That’s John T. Reed.”

“I don’t care who he is,” said the would-be smoker. He neither put away, nor lit, the cigarette.

I later was the first to break the story that Allen, then the Money magazine cover boy, most famous real estate guru in the world, was in big financial difficulty. He subsequently went bankrupt. Before my story about his financial difficulties, he and I debated on KQED radio in San Francisco and on the Good Morning America TV show. Somewhere along the line, he learned my name.

Not close to Close

I mentioned “Sing Out ’66,” a.k.a. “Up With People” in a Web article. I was in the cast of that traveling song-and-dance show. I wanted to link to a Wikipedia article on it, found it, and was astonished to see in it that I was one of their “notable [15] alumni [out of 20,000].” (The only other “notable” who was in it at the same time as I was Glenn Close. Don’t remember her, but in the Web article I invited her people to contact my people so we could do lunch.)

Real estate investment fame may get you into a BAWB meeting, and spotted when you do not want to be spotted. The big picture is it only rarely comes up and, at my low level of fame, it’s usually just mild fun—not worth the enormous effort so many people make in pursuit of it—and it has disadvantages.

John T. Reed