Panama, Casco Viejo, Casco Antiguo
I`m sure some poet must have said it at some point, somewhere: inexperience can be excused, but never lack of passion.
“You shall not develop your historic building using only excel”.
While excel is necessary to understand profitability, this 300 year old site holds buildings that are loaded with a character of their own. They want to tell you their stories, they want you to bring them back. They were made with noble materials and at a human scale that related to people back then and now. They don´t know nor care about excel. They just are and have survived generations. Developing them is a long process that involves a lot of micro managing and balls in the air, which are incredibly interesting and beautiful for those who have passion. If not, then nothing makes sense, leading to early burn out and quitting. Don´t get me wrong, having experience helps bigtime, and excel is important. But having passion is a Casco Viejo must-have.
My favorite story about bonding was from a developer that did pretty much everything himself. Every day I passed by I saw him doing something different, supervising others, but also straight up doing the work and sweating it. And smiling. I can assure you there is no detail in his building he doesn´t know first hand, a wonderful case of the jockey getting to know his horse and the horse his master. When a project gets to be that intimate, it shows. And when it is done only with excel, with no love in the process… well, it has very visible consequences.
One love! Let`s get together and build alright!
