“I didn’t create it because I had to, I created it because I wanted to,” explained Miguel Pilgram of his eponymous real estate company, The Pilgram Group.
Pilgram, who is developing a trio of properties in the Sistrunk and downtown areas of Fort Lauderdale, started his career in the military and served as a Petty Officer in the US Navy in Desert Storm. While serving, he learned the skill that would be the key to his success today, which, according to Pilgram, is to be “fully committed to what you are are doing, and don’t leave anything to chance.”
After the Navy, he put that knowledge to use working security in the casinos in the US and Asia. But he missed the travel the Navy afforded, so he jumped at the chance to work abroad for Star Cruises, a Chinese/Malaysian company. That job brought him to China, where he tackled Mandarin, traveled extensively, and learned the way business is conducted in Asia. In 2002, Star Cruises purchased Norwegian Cruise Lines. Pilgrim was tapped to assist in the handover of the global security/surveillance program. “Not only did I have years of experience, it really helped to have an American who had been successful working within the Chinese mindset,” Pilgram explains. “The Chinese are extraordinary in that they are always thinking like entrepreneurs. Even if they work a 9 - 5 job, they aspire to be the best...they own it. They act collectively by instinct, and never think twice about sacrificing personally for the greater good.”
He worked for NCL for a decade, becoming second in command of Global Security and Surveillance in 2007. “Since I was constantly on a plane,! I had time to noodle around with my 401K in the stock market a bit, and developed rigid parameters,” says Pilgrim. His systematic approach to picking stocks provided an exponential return on a small four-figure investment that enabled Pilgram to buy his first property.
