Luxury Real Estate

By Joey Pauley

Team building is essential for any company. When I worked in Philadelphia, many of my coworkers had similar interests to build on. Team building was very easy. We had a foosball table (as essential to any startup as the computers we programmed on). Every Friday we had a competition between the staff in the office that made for some great bonding. As the less-skilled players’ aspirations were crushed, the cream of the foosball world rose to the top.

Here at Luxury Real Estate we have a foosball table too but it has a few broken players that have not been fixed in years. What do we do then to promote bonding between team members? . . . Go-Carts!

Last week we went to K1 Speed in Redmond to race go-carts. After getting the fastest lap time in qualifying I was in the pole position so it was my race to lose. Pedal to the metal, I took off to an early lead. After one of the racers crashed I noticed I was a few corners ahead of my closest competition, Trevor Rowe, our Lead Web Developer. I took it easy for the next few laps resting on my lead until I felt Trevor getting close. The pedal hit the floor again.

Pretty soon with one lap to go Trevor and I were about to lap Dave, one of our Web Production Specialists. This was Trevor’s chance and I knew he was not going to pass it up. We all went around a tight corner as Trevor took the outside line I took the inside around Dave and something had to give. That something was Dave. His car spun out as we both rubbed him. As any good racer knows “Rubbing is Racing.”

The last of the race was uneventful but, unlike the foosball games at my previous employment, I earned something I was never able to get, 1st place.


Note: The person holding the bottle of Champaign on top of the podium is me. Trevor is on the right and Jean-Yves Piton, the Global Services Membership Manager, is on the left. Participants from 4th place on are out of the picture ;-)


Editor’s Note:
As a Technical Account Manager with LuxuryRealEstate.com, Joey Pauley helps members with their Web and technology needs. He does a phenomenal job in all of his projects, as you can see by visiting the many websites he has helped design. I was definitely one of the people who got 4th or worse in this race. It was a lot of fun and a great challenge. Hopefully you can use team-building activities in your company, as well. Photo taken by James Hughes, the LuxuryRealEstate.com Controller.