This post will show you exactly how to get an expedited passport.

Actually, I will show even share with you an alternative method, for when you really screw things up like I did for my recent trip to Costa Rica.

We planned the trip about 4 months ago.  I told Cindy we needed to check the passports to make sure they were all in good standing.  Turns out, it was just mine that had expired.

No problem.

I had plenty of time to go through the proper channels and renew my passport.  Because it was a renewal, I didn’t even have to waste a day driving into the city to wait around for them to call my number.  I could just mail my passport in and in a few weeks, they would send me the new one.  This is all done through the U.S. Department Of State via the Bureau Of Consular Affairs.  Now to be clear, unless you meet the requirements listed on their website, you may have to visit an office in person.  Click HERE to go directly to the Department Of State website for more info.

The routine processing time for this is about 6-8 weeks.  As you can see, I had plenty of time to renew.

But, I put it off.

And off some more.

With about 5 weeks to go, Cindy asked me if I had renewed my passport.

Shit.

Let’s see if they have an expedited passport option.

I was in luck.  It turns out if you are a complete procrastinator like me, you can pay a little more money and have your new passport within 2-3 weeks.

Great!

So instead of paying the $110 to renew my passport, all I had to do was pay an extra $60 to expedite it.  I know, I am an idiot…more on that later.  In fact, you will see more of that through out this blog, because I want to be as transparent as possible, and sometimes, I am an idiot.  Well, maybe not, I just do idiotic things.  Yea, that sounds better!

Somehow those next few weeks just got away from me.

Now I was down to only having two weeks left before our trip.  What this meant was I would still have to pay the extra money to have my passport expedited.  However, I would have to go down to the Philadelphia branch office in person.  This is exactly what I was trying to avoid in the first place.  I called the office to make an appointment.  To my dismay, the automated system said no appointments were available for the next two weeks.

Oh shit.

I kept calling and pressing all kinds of extensions until I found a live person.  She told me I would have to wait until Friday at midnight and try to see if there are any new appointment slots, since the system works on a two-week rotation.

Yeah, that wasn’t going to work.  That meant I only would have about 9-10 days left to get this done.  So I did what anyone would do in my position…I called the New York, Boston, and D.C. offices, which were all “relatively” close to me.

No luck.

OH SHIT.

At this point, panic started to set in.  I did the only thing I could think of doing.

I googled what to do when you need a passport fast.

The list of reputable, somewhat reputable, and “a guy who knows a guy down by the docks” came up.  Most of them were in New York, so it was going to mean taking a day to go to NYC, and figure this out.  This was not good, as I didn’t know who to trust.  They all had mixed reviews on sites like Yelp.com.  Now as a point of reference, I would normally go with “a guy who knows a guy,” because they tend to get things done.  However, I would only go this route if I had a personal referral from someone.  So I went through my contacts on my phone until I came across someone who could point me in the right direction.  After a few calls, I finally got a name.

Enter Howard Broder, owner of The Passport Guys (www.thepassportguys.com).  Sounds legit…legit enough, at least.

1st comfort point:

He was located in Philadelphia, rather than New York.

2nd comfort point:

He had a phone number (215-739-3844).

3rd comfort point:

He actually answered the phone when I called.

I spoke with Howard, and he asked me to explain my situation.  Once I told him I had less than two weeks to go, he said “No problem.  You can come down in the next couple of days.  If you told me your flight was tomorrow, you would need to leave NOW.”  He then tells me what I need to bring with me, and how much it will cost.

Wow, is this guy really that good?

I make an appointment for the next morning, and drive down to meet him.

4th comfort point:

He actually had an office, and I didn’t have to meet him in a parking lot somewhere.

I walked in and met Howard.  He is a pleasant guy, and we got down to business, filling out the forms.  He tells me to give him a few days, and that he will call me by Tuesday to pick up the passport or he could overnight it to me.  I choose the in person option, as I don’t want to take any more chances at this point.  Tuesday comes along, and boom, my phone rings and it’s Howard saying I can come pick up my expedited passport!  I drive down Wednesday morning, and sure enough, Howard hands me an envelope with my old passport, as well as my new one.  It even looks real!  I thank him, and off I go.

Fast forward a few more days and I am sitting in the security line, waiting my turn.  Half jokingly, I say to Cindy, “Wouldn’t it be funny if this passport is fake?”

The look I get in return, tells me it would not be funny.

I am finally up next, and they scan my newly minted, expedited passport.  The security officer looks at my photo, looks up at me, looks back at my photo and says “Have a nice trip.”

It turns out Howard Broder and The Passport Guys are the real deal.

So the lesson here is don’t be idiotic like I was and wait until the last-minute.

However if you do, or you lose your passport, or whatever the issue, you can give The Passport Guys a call, and Howard will take care of you.

Do you fly Spirit Airlines?  Well, I did  on my trip to Costa Rica, and let me say, I will NEVER fly Spirit Airlines again.  In this post I will break down my top 5 reasons, but I can assure you there are many more reasons.  But first, a little background as to why I even booked my flights with them in the first place:

I am a pretty loyal American Airlines customer, especially because I use their credit card for almost everything and earn great points for travel.

This trip was different.  Friends of ours organized this tour.  They were flying out of Newark. They chose Spirit because of the so-called “savings” over other airlines.  Because we wanted to arrive as a group, we decided to join our friends and fly Spirit as well.  When we booked the tickets (through Expedia), we couldn’t believe the “deal” we got.  From there, it all turned to shit…

Top 5 Reasons Not To Fly Spirit Airlines 

1)  They Kill You On Baggage:  

 

So part of the reason the flights are so cheap is Spirit Airlines hammers you on baggage charges.  Not only do they charge you for your checked luggage, as many other airlines do, however they also charge you for your carry on!  I have never paid money for a carry on before.

On top of that, Spirit lowered the weight limit to 40 pounds per suitcase.  Now,  50 pounds is typical on most airlines, according to THIS CHART courtesy of www.cheapair.com.  So your options are to pay through the nose for an “overweight” bag, or pay for a 2nd checked bag.  It’s all a little confusing, because you can be part of the their discount club…or you can pay when you book your tickets for savings…or you can pre-pay online for savings…or, well you get the idea.

Needless to say, it cost us (a family of four) $670 in baggage fees!

2)  They Charge You Extra If You Check In At The Airport:

Crazy huh?  They charge you an extra $10 dollars per person if you check in at the airport rather than online.  Their theory is it’s more cost-effective to do it online, thus “passing” those savings on to you.  HA!  I have heard less bullshit come out of the mouths of (alleged) loan sharks for the mob about their fees!

Luckily, I caught this, and we checked in and printed our boarding passes online.  At least this should save us some time at the airport, right?

Easy, not so fast.

You see, for some reason, when you print your boarding passes from home, their bar codes won’t scan through the initial security check point.  You don’t find this out of course until after you stand in the security line for 20 minutes.  Once you find this tidbit out, you have to go back to the Spirit desk and have an agent print out a standard boarding pass for you.  So much for saving time, and Spirit Airlines saving money.

3)  They Added More Seats To Their Planes (which means less room for you):

Spirit Airlines boasts about how the more people they fit on their planes, the less it costs per person (they printed this on the back of my boarding pass).  While this is true on paper, what about the comfort of your patrons?

Speaking of the comfort of your patrons, they shrunk down the size of the folding tray as well…to the point that an iPad mini won’t fit right on it.  In fact, about the only thing that will fit on it is the complimentary nuts and water.  Oh wait, there are no complimentary nuts and water.  I must be thinking of a different airline.

4)  They Did Not Collect The Departure Tax:

When we got to the San Jose airport to fly back home, we went to the kiosk to print our boarding passes.  A Spirit Airlines employee promptly took them from us and had to call someone to see if the departure tax was paid.  Departure tax was news to me, and I just assumed it would have been covered in the cost of the ticket, as most airlines are doing these days.

Nope.  Not Spirit Airlines.

So we had to go wait in a long, snaking line. A supervisor for Spirit made us get out of line and go across the walkway of the airport to form a new line, because the current line was causing a traffic jam.  Less than a minute later, the same supervisor had us move back to the original line.  It took an hour and a half just to make it to the counter.  Once we got there, we received the news…add another $116 to the cost of the flights for departure tax.

Finally, we make it through security and board the plane.  This is just in time to overhear one of the employees tell the flight attendant that we were going to be delayed at least half an hour.

The reason?

There were still people at the counter trying to resolve the departure tax issue…almost an hour later, we finally took off.

The Final Reason (at least for the purpose of this blog post) I Will Never Fly Spirit Airlines Again

5)  The Customer Service At The Airport Was Horrible:

Once we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale, we had a 3 hour lay over.  Plenty of time to get through customs, get our bags, and make the gate for the next leg of our flight, right?

Wrong.

We cleared customs without issue.

Then came the baggage claim.

They had 3 different Spirit airline flights dumping bags onto the same carousel.  We wasted an hour just waiting for our bags.  People were taking the wrong bags because the board was not updating which flight was on the belt at the time.  We finally get all our bags and head for the check in kiosk.

The kiosk told me there was an error processing our tickets, so I went to speak with an employee.  She was in the middle of fielding a question from another upset customer.  Before she would acknowledge me, I had to listen to her tell another customer that she doesn’t have any time for people’s attitude, and she is just trying to get through her day.

Great.

Finally, she turns to me and asks what do I need.  I tell her I am trying to print boarding passes but it won’t allow me to.  She tells me the flight is closed already and we missed it.  Now, you have to understand, our flight wasn’t leaving until 8:55 PM.  It was 7:15 PM at the moment.  I asked her how that was possible and she said “The gate is closed, I don’t know what else to tell you.”

Awesome.

I lost my temper with her, and asked how they could move the time of the flight up on us.  Her response was “Look, all I can tell you is you can try to go to the counter, but your not making this flight.”

Perfect.

I go to the counter, ready to unleash holy hell on someone.  Instead, I  hear that my flight is not closed, and the person I was speaking with was referring to another flight to Newark, that was scheduled an hour or so before mine.  Hmmm, shouldn’t she know there are two flights to Newark, an hour apart from each other?

Anyway, we now get to our gate and await our 8:55 flight.

Boarding begins around 8:20, or so…at least it is supposed to.

At 8:30 PM, they show our flight delayed until 9:30 PM.

I go to the counter and ask what happened, as our plane is already at the gate.  I am told there are issues with air traffic control out of Newark.  Oh and that flight before mine? Cancelled for the same reason.  “Don’t worry,” she tells me.  She will have another update at  9:15 PM.

9:15 Pm comes and goes.  At 9:25,  go back to the counter.  Unfortunately, they can’t give me an update.  There is a crisis at hand.  It seems one of the employees cell phone fell behind the check in desk.  At least that what it turns out to be.  First they thought someone stole it, but after calling it SIX times, they pinpoint the ring coming from inside the kiosk.

Phew!  Crisis avoided.  So…can I get an update?

“Oh yea”, she says, The captain said we will be boarding in 15 minutes.”

Un F’ing Believable!

I will never again fly Spirit Airlines.

Is it any wonder Consumer Reports ranked Spirit Airlines 1 star out of 5?  You can see for yourself HERE.

Do you think you will fly Spirit Airlines after seeing what I went through?

 

 

 

The quest for power is everywhere amongst us.

Every person we pass on the street has experience having it in one way or another, at some point in their lives.  That very moment when that person felt it, whether they knew what it was, or whether they had no clue what had happened to them, their lives were forever changed.

Perhaps you are thinking, “I have never experienced power in my life.”

 

Well, let me take you back to being a child.

 

No, let’s go further back, a toddler perhaps.

 

Actually, let’s go back in time to when you were an infant.

 

You remember being an infant, don’t you?

 

Don’t worry, neither do I.

 

However, I am willing to bet that at some point, perhaps while still in the hospital, at some point you were hungry.

 

Around that same time, I am willing to bet that you also went to the bathroom in your cloth diaper.

 

At both of these times, would you be willing to say since you didn’t quite have the grasp on language that you hold today, perhaps you may have cried?  You know that blood curling shrill that babies make when they are hungry, or wet, or, well, worse than wet?  What happened next?  Your mom came over and took care of the situation, didn’t she?  In order to stop the crying, she fed you, or changed you, or both.

 

This was your very first experience with power.

 

Damn, did it feel good.

 

From this point on, we have either been seeking power, accumulating power, or both.  Those of us that are a little more self-righteous, may not want to admit it.  Hell, you may have suppressed the feeling so much, that you may not even believe there is anything to admit.

Then, well then there are the rest of us.  And this post is for you, my friends.

 

Before I go on however, a word of caution to those who believe power is beneath them.  YOU may not think you want, need, or even crave power, however there are plenty of people around you who do.  It would be best for you to understand why they feel the way they do, so that you at least know what you are up against when interacting with such scoundrels (wink, wink).

 

Having a healthy relationship with power is essential to becoming the best version of yourself.  It is necessary whether you want to succeed in your career, or build a business.  Power helps you become a better investor, a better spouse, a better parent, a better person.  It allows you to be your most authentic self.  Wouldn’t you agree when you are being your most authentic, genuine self, you are being the best version of you?

 

Power makes you happy.

 

Don’t believe me?  Ask anyone who is lacking power in some area of their life whether or not they are fulfilled.  Chances are, they are not.   I truly believe in order to be happy, we must feel fulfilled.

 

Can you cross the line and become power-hungry?

 

Sure.

 

Can you further cross the line and become manipulative, or even worse, Machiavellian-like?

 

Of Course.

 

Then again, sometimes having a bit of Machiavelli in you can protect you as well.  Even if you don’t life your life as Machiavelli did, you must agree there are people out there who absolutely try to replicate his ruthlessness.  The best way to overcome them, is to understand how they think, so you can see their moves and outwit them.  Thus by becoming a student of power, whether for personal gain, or personal protection, is extremely important.

But where do you start?

 

I believe the best place to start is with The 48 Laws Of Power, by Robert Greene.  Not only is this THE Bible when it comes to the study of power, it gives you both a blueprint on how those craving power behave, as well as how to go about increasing your power in a softer, more socially acceptable approach.

 

I have read this book somewhere between 5-7 times, and I keep a copy of it on my desk as a reference manual.  I use it to help me navigate certain situations in my life, and also to reflect on the behaviors of those I deal with on a regular basis, whether in business or on a personal level.  It allows me to keep others on their toes, and myself on my toes as well.

 

After you finish reading the book, do some heavy reflecting.  You will notice how those in your life, both now, and in the past, have used many of the techniques you read about against you.  Perhaps you will notice how you yourself have used some of the techniques, both consciously and subconsciously to go after, and get what you want.  In fact, you may even realize you have more of a thirst for power than you ever realized.

 

What are your thoughts about power, and those that seek it?

 

 

Hey there!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my site.  If you would like to learn more about me personally, feel free to visit my ABOUT page.

This post will be the best starting point for this site.

It will dive into why I created this and what I am hoping to accomplish with it.  Most importantly, it explains why I need your help to do so.  Basically, it’s the reason behind my desire to live an epic life.

The reason I created this site, is to chronicle my journey to creating and living an epic life.   Now, my idea of an epic life may be very different from someone else’s.

That’s okay.

The idea of an epic life is subjective, and can be anything you want it to be.

For me, an epic life is one where I am financially free, allowing me to be location independent.  When you combine these two goals, it gives me the ability to go down as many rabbit holes as I choose to.  I can explore any subject, hobby, or whim that I am interested in.  I am an incredibly curious person, and I love sharing my curiosities with others.

But how do I accomplish step one, which is creating financial freedom while I am able to be location independent?

Well, mostly through building businesses and other streams of income, and investing in certain areas, in an effort to build wealth.

Now, this isn’t going to be another boring business or investing/wealth building site.  Sure we will be covering plenty of those things.  Business and wealth are two of my many passions.  For such a long time, I procrastinated from starting this site, because I have so many (too many?) passions and interests.  A “flaw” of mine is I feel the need to start a business around each of my passions and interests.  This would make me a serial entrepreneur.  Oh, and it also would make me just a little bit crazy.

According to common belief, this is an issue, because I should be focusing on just one thing.

One business.

One passion.

I am sure that is sound, solid advice…for most people.  Unfortunately, I would be bored out of mind focusing on just one thing.  For me, bored does not fit into the formula for living an epic life. If I took just one of my many passions, could I turn it into a stand alone empire?  Sure I could.  But why can’t I do that with many of my passions?  Many people say you can’t do that.

You know what’s great about not caring about the opinions of others?

You get to write your own rules, set your own goals, and not care what anyone else thinks!

So, speaking of goals, I needed to define WHY I am always looking to build businesses around my interests and passions.  I wanted to understand what the goal was for being so “crazy.”   Honestly, I had to  think long and hard about this.  Thinking about it just wasn’t enough though.  I did several journaling exercises and have had numerous conversations with coaches, mentors, colleagues, and loved ones to get to the bottom of my WHY.

What Is My Big WHY?  Why Live An Epic Life?

As I dug deep, I began to discover that the underlying reasons for all this came down to a few core beliefs:

1)  Above all else, my passions stem from an insatiable thirst for knowledge.  I truly enjoy learning new things.

2) An unstoppable desire for freedom, both financially, as well as location independence (we will discuss more about this through out future blog posts).

3) A calling to share both my thirst for knowledge and my desire for freedom with as many people as possible.

For me, the best way to achieve having the time to learn about anything I wanted, while being anywhere in the world I wanted to be, and be able to still afford not just the necessities, but the niceties of life, was to master both business and wealth.  These are the cornerstones (in my opinion) for being able to live an epic life.

The Vision

The vision for petebecchina.net  is to be a learning platform…not just for you, but for me as well.  We will dive deep into what it takes to master business and wealth.  We will learn, share, and teach each other about marketing, sales, leadership, competitive intelligence, negotiating, copywriting, different business models, revenue and profits, passive income, investing in all forms, mindset, wealth creation, wealth accumulation, wealth protection, and wealth distribution, just to name a few of the subjects.

This platform will also serve as my lab.  You will see me test different concepts in my businesses and projects.  We will see what works, and what fails.  We will learn how to improve upon both the successes and the failures, and most importantly, we will learn how to improve upon ourselves.

That is ultimately what this site will be about, improving myself to be the best version of “me.”

That also means not just focusing on business and wealth creation though.  We will dive deep into other aspects of personal development from health and nutrition, to happiness, relationships, and pursuing various means of fulfillment.  Of course, there will also be a healthy dose of travel, thinking big, and living bigger.

And this is why I need you.

Part of the enjoyment for me, the living bigger, is being able to share all of the ups and downs with like-minded people.  I want this to turn into a community, so we can all grow together.   I am going to be touching on, sharing, discovering and teaching a lot of different topics.  By now means am I a “guru” or expert in any of them.  However, I am an enthusiast of all of them.  With your help, I can improve my skills, learn from you, and live an epic life.

We can help each other create the destiny we believe is possible.

The destiny we yearn for.

Are you ready to take this journey with me?

P.S.  Please know from the beginning, I am not politically correct and I am not an angel.  You will see me curse, laugh, cry, get angry, and overall be very passionate about my opinions and beliefs.  I won’t judge you for your opinions, but you sure as shit shouldn’t judge me for mine.  As long as we are all in agreement with this statement, we are going to have an amazing time together!