[Rob's note: This is a guest post by David Orlando Hincapie. David reached out to me a while back with a shared interest in Tim Ferriss blockbuster: The Four Hour Work Week. He Face-booked me last week, with photos of he and Tim, at the Four Hour Body launch party in Manhattan. I asked him, if he would share his story, of how he wound up partying with Tim. ]

Enter David

My phone rang and a message read, “Want to go to a Tim Ferris book launch party? Tuesday 8pm NYC.” It was Tito, of course it was. He always knows about these kinds of things; seminars, concerts, charities, you name it.

I offered the invitation to Mohammed. After all, I was at his close to finish property, which he had bought only months before, and was nearing conclusion.

“Bro, want to go to a book launch party in New York?” I asked.

“Book launch for who?” he replied.

“It’s Tim Ferriss, an author that I’ve followed for a few years. He demonstrates how to automate things in your everyday tasks and business while enjoying the simplicities life has to offer”, I told him with an optimistic tone.

“I don’t want to give you an answer yet, I still have homework, but I’ll let you know” Mohammed answered. After all, he was right, we had finals that week at Rutgers. My Economics classes and his dual major in Finance and Accounting weren’t exactly a walk in the park.

Either way I replied, “Nice. Alright, where at?”

It was Tuesday night, Mohammed wasn’t coming and Tito wasn’t here. “Where is this guy?”, I asked out loud and then proceeded to text him, “Donde andas?” ,which literally means, “Where are you walking?”, but in many Latin American countries is used as a means of saying, “Where are you?” or “Where you at?”.

I should be used to this, after two years and almost ten months, this is the norm. But it goes both ways, I’m usually late, my brother is too, and Tito, well he’s just Tito.

Who would have predicted that this business would have lasted for as long as it has. I mean, I haven’t had a romantic relationship that has lasted this long. But out of all the distresses, the agony and the frustration, this had grown to be a much more mature bond that was previously thought to be.

What was it that had brought us closer together? Maybe it was the cleaning or the constant oversight of each other’s work, or maybe the endless nights, when psychics, economics, astronomy, politics, and the future of civilization were discussed at two in the morning inside some empty cafeteria. Or just maybe, that before there were four and now the partnership consisted of only three.

After the man of the hour had finally showed up, we hopped into my sister’s hybrid. It had to be the hybrid, I mean it does around 45 miles per gallon and it’s a very comfortable. I guess that’s what I usually look for, no need to go from 0-60 mph in under 2 seconds, and have to fill it up with $60 worth of gas, or have a shiny logo in the front that basically means it’s the same car as the downgraded brand only worth $20,000 more.

The uneventful ride through I-95 North to Manhattan consisted of a brief conversation about the franchise, wikileaks and my appetite for public radio. We took the Lincoln Tunnel which was surprisingly empty and once in the city it only took a few turns and a drive through seventh street until Greenhouse.

It was a frigid night and the line extended around the corner of the club.

“This means waiting”, I said, “I hope they let us in with my book and your camera”, I added. He could not leave that camera. What began as a form of entertainment for him had now developed into a business that consisted of capturing images of voluptuous young women, national sporting events, and even family portraits.

Inside was packed. A myriad of yuppies stormed the club, some with expensive suits and others with high heel boots. Maybe it was the open bar feature that the club had been promoting for the event, or maybe they really liked Tim’s work. Either way, we took higher ground and waited for the show to begin.

A surprisingly fashionable Tim appeared in a high VIP booth that held an entourage and various owners of the venue. “Thank you so much for coming everyone, I really appreciate it”, said Tim, in his distinctive tone of voice.

I couldn’t believe it. Right there in front of me was the polyglot that held a Guiness world record in tango and did all these amazing things around the world and now he was talking to us. His fans.

A million things to say came to my mind and while Tim kept talking to us and saying how he had read every forty five thousand of his messages, I shouted, “What did I say?”, which apparently a few people including Tim found hilarious.

The extroverted gear kicked in and made me want to say something else. So, as he concluded in telling us that he would come down and greet us personally, I shouted, yet again, “Sign my book!”.

As he came down from the vip booth, he was surrounded by fans and six feet tall bodyguards, stopping for anybody that wanted a picture.

“Alright, here he comes!”, I said. I knew he had to come by us so I reached for the marker in my pocket and pointed at him. Tim looked confused, but proceeded to grab it. I pointed at my chest and signalled to sign it, which cracked him up.

“No, not me! The book! El libro!”, I shouted.

“The first edition! This is great!”, Tim said in a surprising manner and proceeded to sign the book.

The book read “Pura Vida” which is used in Costa Rica, as a way to express satisfaction or a means of saying, “very good”, or, “great”, and even to say, “thank you”.

He took a few pictures with us and proceeded to meet the rest of the awaiting fans.

“We have to speak to him!”, said Tito in a determined tone.

“Let’s just wait until there aren’t that many people surrounding him”, I replied.

Through out the night we met some interesting people. Financial guru, Ramit Sethi, was there, along with Christian Hudson, who was accompanied by a tall brunette. Daniel Huss who wasn’t famous, but was a huge fan of Tim’s work. Daniel, a young entrepreneur that had built a “muse” business helping college students ace test like the GMAT was about to go into a three month trip to Thailand. Nice.

After the mob of fans had left and Tim was ready to leave, I approached him and praised him for his unique people-charming skills and asked him various questions in Spanish and English.

“Tim, have you ever been to Colombia?”, asked Tito.

“Never, but I have been wanting to go for a long time”, Tim replied.

“You have to, it’s a beautiful country!”, I said.

“And your Spanish is not bad at all. How long did it take you to learn it?”, I asked really intrigued. After all, this guy knows fluent Japanese, Chinese, German and Spanish.

“Well, it took me about three years”, He confessed.

“And you have an accent! An Argentine accent!”, I quickly added.

“Yes, it’s a Porteño accent. I picked it up in Buenos Aires”

I told him that for some reason Argentinians were very cocky and thought of themselves to be better than everybody else. I shared the joke of the Argentinian, that while making love to his girlfriend, he made her yell out loud “Oh, God!”, which he then replied “Just call me Carlos”. I thought he found that humorous.

Either way, I must agree, they have excellent fútbol players.

“Hey, Tim, so when are you going to Colombia?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but tell you what, leave me your business card and when I’m ready, I’ll send you an email and we’ll go!”, Tim answered.

I proceeded to give him two, in case he lost one.

We took a few more photos with him and then proceeded to leave.
—–
David Orlando Hincapie has been living in the U.S. since the age of fourteen and against his efforts has kept a distinctive accent. David acquired a commercial cleaning franchise using only credit cards and has kept himself in business for nearly three years. Mexico is his favorite country to visit, especially for its gastronomy and the modesty of its people. David is currently finishing his undergraduate studies in Economics at Rutgers University. Although he seldom writes, he loves the power of words and is considering very deeply into writing a financial help book.  Reach out to David on Facebook here www.facebook.com/davidohincapie

##################

Rob: Speaking of Colombia. Kim and I are off to Cartagena for the New Years celebration. If you’ll be in the area- hit us up on FB or Twitter.