My Ruminations On Rome & Real Estate Lessons For Cooperative Societies

Rome retains its historical prominence as one of the defunct world powers of its time. My recent fascination with Rome emerged from my interactions with the Rome Business School on an Executive Program in Agribusiness.

The impact of the Roman civilization continues to hold sway even in today’s modernist world. So much so, an entire book of the Bible and Paul’s longest epistle is called the “Epistle to the Romans”. Rome, the capital of Italy, is actually a fascinating city with pristine historical and archaeological relevance. Just imagine the USA in another 2000 years. That’s what Rome is today- an ex-world superpower.

From its towering Colosseum to its water aqueducts, to its extensive road networks of 80,000km (80 million meters) of hard-surfaced highway built primarily for military and economic reasons, to the Trajan’s Market, the first covered shopping mall or supermarket in history, Rome (also known as The Eternal City) is an inexhaustible repository of ancient and modern wonders.

From perspectives, 1km is the length of 13 Airbuses (big commercial planes) and the length of Roman roads over 2000 years ago is akin to lining up over 1 million long airplanes! That blows my mind…

The ancient mystery of Roman civilization and how it continues to hold its place and represent the best of human and spiritual antiquity is truly alluring and worth studying. The story of Rome is a challenge to business organizations to brave the odds and embrace mastery in the marketplace for the betterment of society.

For Christians, Rome is the place where Jesus Christ was precariously executed for the salvation of mankind on a charge of treasonable felony. In real estate, Rome is significant as the city where distress sales emanated.

Crassus, a Roman aristocrat was a legendarily wealthy man who made the bulk of his wealth by buying burning buildings at knock-down prices and renovating them to resell at huge profits. This is similar to real estate trading or land banking which enables the trading public to escape the pangs of increasingly biting inflation to earn considerable profit by buying high-yielding real estate, not to own long-term. The real estate company, like Crassus, flips the purchased properties on behalf of its trading partners at significant profit backed up by a postdated cheque, a contract, and a receipt. Cooperatives can take advantage of real estate trading to build passive income and grow revenue for the benefit of its members.

 Applying the investment principle of the “Rule of 72”, Cooperatives can go the extra mile by using the power of compounding to achieve more with less over a period of time by trading real estate.

 “Seven Ways Rome Impacts Your Life Daily”

You must have heard that when you are in Rome, you behave like Romans. But surprisingly, here are seven ways you behave like a Roman despite not being in Rome:

1. The Roman Numerals

I immediately remember Nursery and Primary school days when we had to learn the Roman Numerals by rote. However, what we were not told is how it will not be exactly relevant to our future lives a few years down the line.

Whilst the Roman Numerals have since given way to the simpler Arabic Numerals, proponents believe that Roman numerals have enduring cultural relevance, as seen in their continued use in the sporting event & movie titles, book chapters, names of monarchs, building cornerstones, and as well in astronomy and chemistry, in the names of moons and the periodic table respectively.

2. A Dish of Spaghetti

If you’re a lover of spaghetti or any other variant of pasta, you probably didn’t know that pasta is perhaps the predominant food in Rome. With the iconic pasta quartet of carbonara, cacio e pepe, amatriciana, and gricia, Rome stands out as a pasta master.

3. The Roman Catholic Church

With over 1.1 billion Roman Catholics in the world, Catholics are greater than nearly all other religious traditions. There are more Roman Catholics than all other Christians combined and more Roman Catholics than all Buddhists or Hinduism.

The Roman Catholic Church has a highly sophisticated theology and an elaborate organizational structure headed by the papacy, the oldest continuing absolute monarchy in the world. The Church was at the forefront of Western Civilization and remains relevant as a Christian Organization with unparalleled social responsibility.

To be continued next week… 

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Rejoice Alabi Esq, ChMC; MBA, Real Estate & Finance (in view), Msc Agribusiness (in view)

Rejoice is a law graduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University in the 2013/2014 set. He proceeded to the Nigerian Law School where he graduated with a First Class in 2016 and was called to the bar in the same year.

After a brief period of private legal practice, Rejoice began his real estate career with PWAN PLUS BUSINESS CONCERNS LTD (owners of Cedarwood Estates and an affiliate of the PWAN Group- Nigeria’s first and foremost real estate network marketing company) in 2018 as a legal officer and has since risen through the ranks. He currently serves as the Head of Administration, Executive Assistant to the MD/CEO, and a Non-Executive Director in one of the company’s subsidiaries.

He is pursuing a double Masters Degree at the Institute of Real Estate & Finance, India, and the Rome Business School, Nigeria.

Rejoice can be reached at +234 901 504 8728 or via email on alabitober@gmail.com