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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024
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If It’s Not Fun, It Will Never Work

Jim Morris goes to Washington every June. The boss of Pacific Life, OC’s largest private co., joins industry colleagues “to get immersed in the big issues,” he told me. “And we attend the congressional baseball game at Nationals Park, Ds vs. Rs—makes me feel better about my deteriorating athletic skills.” Morris’ first appt. in D.C. got cancelled. He was meeting House Whip Steve Scalise. Scalise and four others had just been shot while practicing the day before the game. (The Louisiana congressman was in stable condition at press time.) “I was somewhat surprised that the day was quite a normal day,” he said. “I listened to Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi. I liked their tone. There was a feeling of cooperation—time will tell how long that lasts.” The 14th CEO in the 149-year history of PacLife is also realistic. He doesn’t see any major legislation this year—at best a deal on infrastructure spending or repatriating foreign profits.

Chapman University economist and President Emeritus Jim Doti agrees with Morris. At the university’s 39th Forecast Update, he noted the party of the new president always loses seats next election cycle. Pres. Obama’s Democrats dropped 63! in 2010. So the Dems crave gains in 2018. “That’s ominous for the economy,” Doti said at his Musco Center performance. “To reach 3% growth, we need tax reform. The GOP is on its own.”

This week we profile family-owned businesses (F.O.B.s). A.G. Spanos helps run an F.O.B, the Costa Mesa-HQ’d Los Angeles Chargers. He keynoted our 18th annual awards luncheon. “When people think of the NFL, they think corporate,” Spanos said, “but we’re very much a family business.” A.G. represents the third of three generations of Spanoses; 93-year-old patriarch Alex still makes ownership calls for the franchise he bought into in 1984. Today A.G. Spanos Cos. owns 100% of an NFL team valued at $2.1 billion—a “Hail Mary” from an $800 bank loan to sell bologna sandwiches to migrant workers in Central Valley.

Among our 2017 F.O.B. winners, Hobie & Tuvalu Shops, shaped by surfboard pioneer Hobie Alter in 1950 in Laguna Beach. Alter’s motto: “If it’s fun, it’s never work; if it isn’t fun, it’ll never work.” (See Mediha DiMartino’s story, p. 3)

Inspiration Point: James Rosebush, Reagan adviser and author, (“True Reagan”) was featured speaker Tuesday at the OC Advisors in Philanthropy event at the Avenue of the Arts Hotel in Costa Mesa. Reagan’s philanthropy and humility were the focus of Rosebush’s talk: “He never used the pronoun I,” Rosebush said of the 40th president, “most egoless, guileless person you could ever meet.”

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