CHAPTER ONE
SUCCESS
“If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z.
Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut”
Abraham Lincoln
“My life has been like a movie,” said Tony Lima as he smiled at the crowd of friends and business partners. They’d gathered for an opening party at his recently renovated residence in Cocoplum, Coral Gables, Florida. “This is the only way that I can describe it.”
With his wife Sharon by his side, the Brazilian-American founder and president of Exbrus Corporation had good reason to smile as he basked in the aura of his stunning surroundings, the product of his and his wife Sharon’s imagination and talent.
In the best tradition of glamour, glitz and success the party swirled around equaling a Hollywood event with every bit of understated elegance as beautiful women in evening wear and men in their best suits partook of the food and wine that again was unequaled.
After buying the extended structure and leaving it only with its walls, Lima started to give the home a personal touch. Working together with the Brazilian architect Ed Peroba, he defined his specifications, turning out to be of delicate and contemporary patterns and an exterior of multiple terraces.
The finished home is a gracious Spanish Colonial with ochre walls and an orange Spanish tiled roof. The grounds are green and manicured with tall coconut palms, trimmed to perfection, adorning the property. Well-groomed cypress trees hug the walls.
This particular attention to details resulted in an inner living space of 7,584 Square feet. The floors are covered with aurora perola Brazilian marble. Moreover, all the vast woodwork, starting with an amazing multiple entrance door, the wood of the TV room and even the family’s bedrooms, and all the finishing touches are done exclusively with selected Marfin and Tauari wood from South America.
In the comfortable TV room a particular characteristic is the custom built leisure and security system that controls the home video, audio, temperature and the interior and exterior lights from a simple touch on a small monitor screen. “I have my own home cable TV here,” he said. “I can control it by Internet from any place of the world. This is very important because I travel a lot, and I can see my kids.”
Touring the house with his guests, using wide gestures, Lima said, “Each of the seven rooms has a balcony. I imported the St. Thomas stones from Brazil for these balconies and for the floor around the pool,” he continued. “It is a very rare stone because even on a very hot day, this stone remains cold. You can walk on it barefoot even if the temperature is 100 Fahrenheit outside.”
On the lower level a gleaming black grand piano plays counterpoint to the shining marble floors and provides tasteful music for the party.
Outside by a spacious tiled terrace a swimming pool shimmers in aqua splendor and on the adjacent canal sits a gleaming white and teak 52-foot yacht at the dock.
A man of humble origins Tony epitomized the American Dream. With a keen insight for business he found global success in the logistics arena of the import- export trade.
Following in the tradition of entrepreneurs such as Andrew Carnegie and John Jacob Astor, Lima learned his business from the ground floor up, starting as a car salesperson in California. Soon, however, he discovered his true niche initially exporting automobile parts and then expanding into several other areas of the import- export business.
“Tony is a real visionary,” boasts his partner and close friend, John Blacker, Jr., Chief Operations Officer for Exbrus Corporation in South America. “He saw the necessity of overcoming the obstacles and boosted the business of importing-exporting a step forward, providing End-to-End Service, emphasizing time saving and cost cutting; he saw a way to overcome obstacles that could slow the process of merchandise transportation and took the importation-exportation business to a higher level.”
At present, South America is his primary market but Lima has set his sights on the international market. “Our focus allows our customers to concentrate all their trade operations in one supplier, who is able to manage all aspects of an international logistics operation from acquisition through delivery; we offer individualized customized solutions that combines a fixed delivery time and cost reductions,” he explained to his guests. He also told them that the company delivers the best high- tech information system and Internet tracking to provide complete and efficient advanced logistics at a competitive price.
Lima founded Exbrus Corporation in California in the late eighties. As Florida became the Latin America gateway, he moved his headquarters’ offices to Miami in 1997. Even though, he has homes in other countries, he and his wife decided that their main home would be in Cocoplum, Coral Gables, FL. The couple intends to raise their three kids, who are six, three and one years old, in the USA.
According to Lima, the refurbishment took approximately a year. He wanted Sharon, a talented decorator, to use her experience for personalizing the interior. Each piece of furniture was imported from different countries where he has business.
Lima proudly walked through his home, showing each rare piece, such as a Chinese chandelier custom made for him, highlighted by each little statuette, hanging over the entrance tall foyer, and impressive bathroom accessories imported from Italy.
“Tony is a determined individual,” said Robert Johnson, a Controller for Exbrus Corporation, an ex brother-in-law and Lima’s friend for over 20 years. Johnson, a native of Kansas, and an aerospace executive fluent in Portuguese, recalls how Lima drove from Los Angeles to Sao Paulo in 19 days (10,000 miles) just to announce the Exbrus Corporation Internet tracking system. “Retreats in business by no means intimidate him; he is focused and obstinate”.
Even though at the age of 42, Lima has reached enormous financial and personal success, he remains close to his roots supporting two Brazilian charity funds.
Located in his home town of Jaguariúna, near Sao Paulo is the “House of Children,” a home for 300 abandoned and orphaned kids. Orphans are a rising social problem in Brazil “As a Third World Country, Brazil is still fighting to provide this sort of public service to help these children,” said Marcos Paz, Exbrus Corporation International Director and an enthusiastic supporter of this project. “Tony is dedicated to this important cause giving his own money and taking his own time to raise funds to expand the installations.”
Lima was clearly touched when during the evening he showed his guests a special DVD presentation of the orphanage. “These unfortunate children need hope,” he said. “During hard times in my life, I was always motivated by reading about people who gained success despite everything against them.”
With the same spirit, Lima also takes part if a vocational academy called “Project Tesourinha,” in Sao Paulo, where underprivileged young people can study to become beauticians. Nowadays, the school has 400 students and is growing.
At the end of the evening, while he was looking outside his well-equipped office, Lima revealed that it was only the beginning of his personal as well as philanthropic projects. He thinks that this particular project, estimated at approximately $3.5 millions dollars was “amusing,” but he anxiously awaits his true master plan “a dream home” in the years to come.
When asked about his business aspirations, he paused and said with a barely veiled smile, “There will be always challenges and this is what I love.” (Written by local reporter)
Challenges! Tony had no idea about the effect of his words! He had no idea about what lay ahead. It’s easy to judge someone at any specific time. Most people forget that everyone has a past. Let’s go back in order to understand his story.