Love on the Malecon Read Free

actually make a career out of it. And so Derek’s
unfortunate start in life had been preparing him for his first real
job. Derek was always able to channel his anger with his parents
into the ring and it never seemed to fail him. It wasn’t long
before he had won a rather large chunk of change.
    When Derek was twenty-five years old, he
decided to take a vacation to Mexico. He wanted to get away from
all the hype of the fighting world. By no means was he a household
name, but the UFC following was growing and he figured he could be
recognized in a place like Cancun. He settled on Puerto Vallarta,
which was a smaller, more authentic town, to relax. He had just
come in from running on the beach when he sat down at the Playa
Vallarta bar for a beer. A man had stopped at the bar to take a
business call.
    The man surely didn’t think that Derek was of
any consequence because he spoke freely in front of him. He
discussed the area just north of Puerto Vallarta: Nuevo Vallarta.
From what Derek could gather, Puerto Vallarta had been growing past
capacity and expansion had already begun north with huge success.
He figured investing in some land further north now would lead to a
huge payday in the near future. It seemed like whoever was
listening wasn’t biting. Standing in front of Derek was an
opportunity- a man with an idea who needed someone with the means
to invest. When the man ended the call, he sat down next to Derek,
looking frustrated and defeated. Without much more thought, Derek
told the bartender to bring over two shots of tequila and
introduced himself.
    Given Derek’s age and appearance, the man was
apprehensive. He was Roger Long, a real estate developer. Roger
became more receptive to the idea when he learned about Derek’s
fighting career and the winnings he would like to invest. They had
talked for most of the afternoon. Derek had been ready to retire
from his fighting career and move on. He had a large bank account
from his winnings and there wasn’t much motivation left to keep him
going. Almost all of his frustration with his parents had been
sorted out during the past five years in the UFC ring. Winning was
nice but it wasn’t enough. This seemed like the perfect plan:
invest his money so that it would grow for him. He and Roger agreed
to take a drive out to the location and have a true business
meeting about it. Roger had all the contacts necessary in Mexico to
actually make this happen but the laws were tricky, especially when
you weren’t a Mexican citizen.
    Derek didn’t have a fancy college degree nor
did he pay much attention in high school. But he did have street
smarts. He learned to trust his gut in life, to follow his
intuition, and it had served him well. His intelligence showed in
his fighting. He paid attention to his opponent’s tells, he watched
to see where fighters planted their feet before swinging or
expressions they would make before certain attacks. He always
thought he could just fight, not understanding that his brain took
a part in the whole thing. Now he could turn that to his business
investments.
    The land the men invested in soon had a hotel
built on it. The Samba Vallarta was a boutique-style hotel that was
popular for the area. Part of Derek’s criteria in the negotiations
was that he be given living quarters on the site and a percentage
of future revenue. He received one of the suites with a kitchenette
and was always welcome to stay as long as he liked.
    During the process, Derek had realized this
industry could be a gold mine and he had no intentions of living in
the States again. As soon as the Samba Vallarta was built and
generating money, he began looking into new sites in other areas of
Mexico. Predicting areas with growth potential, purchasing land
before the expansion began, and then negotiating with hotel
companies that desired the property seemed like such a simple idea.
Kind of like the common place notion of “ buy low, sell
high.” Derek seemed to have a gift