It was with great shock and sadness to learn this last weekend of the death of one of our colleagues, Michael Bradley.
Michael was working for Celtic Bank looking at some of their REO assets in Texas when he and two co-workers hit fog and crashed the plane they were in, leaving no survivors.
When someone you know dies unexpectedly, whether in a car crash, or as in the instance, in a plane crash, it puts you in an altered state of mind. The truth of how fragile life is becomes much more palpable when the tragedy is close to home like this was.
Michael was my age and had been in the business for the same duration as me. While we never worked on a deal together, we took several CCIM courses together, and I think it is fair to say we thought of each other as contemporaries and with mutual respect.
Mike was the kind of guy who you knew just “had things figured out”. You weren’t sure how, but you knew that Mike was going to get the job done.
He always seemed to have unique and creative deals working and he truly was a self-made man.
Like me, I know he was passionate about his career and did what he believed in. From reading his obituary, I know he had people he cared about in his life, and he had several recreational pursuits that he enjoyed.
I know this is not our typical blog post, but this really hit me this week, and I wanted to take a moment to reflect on Michaels life with the question:
Am I doing what I can to live as fully as possible while I am here?
The answer for me is most days, Yes! I love working in industrial real estate, and helping people to achieve and sustain their dreams of owning or leasing commercial real estate in Utah and nationally.
I am blessed with an incredible wife and two dogs, (who are more like our kids). We travel extensively and get to spend time pursuing our hobbies. We engage with the community and volunteer to organizations and people we care about.
My life is full and blessed.
It is my hope that you are living fully and realizing your dreams. Make a point to reach out to someone you care about and let them know it today!
Michael Bradley
1968-2013