Speaker 1: This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
Speaker 1: and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
Speaker 1: from the arts to sports and business to history and
Speaker 1: everything in between, including your stories. Send them to our
Speaker 1: American Stories dot com. They're some of our favorites. And
Speaker 1: we love to bring you stories about families and about ethics,
Speaker 1: and today we bring you a story about both. It's
Speaker 1: the story of a father, Steve Raikman, and his son Mike.
Speaker 1: Here's Robbie with the story. Mike Raikman owns a mortgage company.
Speaker 1: Being in the real estate business. Runs in the family
Speaker 1: from his father, Steve side.
Speaker 2: He started off going to school to become a priest,
Speaker 2: believe it or not, and luckily for me, he dropped out.
Speaker 2: But he and my mom our high school sweethearts and
Speaker 2: you had five kids together and basically took over his
Speaker 2: father in law's business, which was basically a damage appraiser.
Speaker 3: We were builders and consultants. We did some contracting, mostly
Speaker 3: repairs of fire damage, and we did consulting to insurance companies.
Speaker 3: We would have to write up the specifications for repair
Speaker 3: and estimate the damage.
Speaker 4: I was the young guy.
Speaker 3: So I got to go to all the dangerous places.
Speaker 3: I was shot out a few times. I had people
Speaker 3: come after me with knives. I was young, so I
Speaker 3: could run fast. One time I was in the South
Speaker 3: Bronx and the local group of I guess it was
Speaker 3: a gang, saw me go into this four story apartment house.
Speaker 3: It had multiple fires in it. There's no one living
Speaker 3: in it, and typically I would go up to the
Speaker 3: roof to measure the building and then I'd work my
Speaker 3: way down. So they thought it would be fun to
Speaker 3: set the building on fire below me.
Speaker 4: So I'm on the roof and I see the spell
Speaker 4: coming up and I said, no, this is this is
Speaker 4: just a pain in and neck.
Speaker 3: So I had to jump across courtyards to the building
Speaker 3: next to it, out and into the street and got
Speaker 3: away from the gang. I wanted to either fry me
Speaker 3: or beat me up or still steal whatever.
Speaker 4: That was just work. That's what we did every day.
Speaker 1: But what creates the kind of man that puts himself
Speaker 1: on the line like that.
Speaker 3: I was born and raised in Long Island. We lived
Speaker 3: in a small house with my mother's parents, and there
Speaker 3: was my sister and my parents. My father was a
Speaker 3: very strong Irish Catholic. I must have been around five
Speaker 3: or six, and we were sitting at the dinner table,
Speaker 3: all six of us would always eat together, and I
Speaker 3: was making fun of the garbage man, and he pulls
Speaker 3: me out of the dining room, and he furrows his
Speaker 3: eyebrows and says, never ever make fun of any person
Speaker 3: that does an honest day's work for an honest day's pay.
Speaker 3: I don't care what his color, what his speech is.
Speaker 3: An honest man is to be respected. And that always
Speaker 3: stood with me. My father once said to me, I'm
Speaker 3: giving you my name. There's nothing wrong with it. Make
Speaker 3: sure you pass it on as clean as I gave
Speaker 3: it to you. It's Matt meant a lot, you know.
Speaker 3: He always said this one thing. You have two hands,
Speaker 3: and one is to work and one is to help
Speaker 3: your neighbor. That's basically the way my value system was
Speaker 3: structured from a young man.
Speaker 1: Steve's father also instilled in him a father's duty to
Speaker 1: his family.
Speaker 3: When I got out of college, I worked for a
Speaker 3: few years as a school teacher. But back then the
Speaker 3: school populations were dropping, and although I a tenure, I
Speaker 3: had to wait at the end of every school year
Speaker 3: to see if someone would retire or die. And I
Speaker 3: by this time, my second child was on the way,
Speaker 3: and this was no way to support a family being
Speaker 3: questioning if you have a job.
Speaker 4: So I got a.
Speaker 3: Job offer from a firm which I worked for in
Speaker 3: the summertime.
Speaker 4: My boss there was a guy named Bob Lang, and I.
Speaker 3: Always used to like to say that if he walked
Speaker 3: up to a payphone and there was a dime in
Speaker 3: the coin return, he'd put it back in the phone.
Speaker 4: And wouldn't use it because he was that honest. And
Speaker 4: that was that was throughout our little office.
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, sometimes I had some unscrupulous people who would come
Speaker 3: and or for bribes, say oh, you know what, I
Speaker 3: could really use sixty thousand dollars on this.
Speaker 4: And the damages maybe worth ten thousand.
Speaker 3: My standard reply to that was, well, if you give
Speaker 3: me two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, I'll get you
Speaker 3: your sixty. And they'd look at you and I said, well,
Speaker 3: because I'd be out of a job right away and
Speaker 3: possibly in jail, and someone has to take care of
Speaker 3: my family.
Speaker 1: And you're listening to Steve Rakeman, you'll be hearing from
Speaker 1: his son Mike too, But listening to Steve talk about
Speaker 1: his dad and what a profound experience to have at
Speaker 1: the age of six making fun of the local garbage
Speaker 1: man and the father just pulling you out and saying,
Speaker 1: never ever make fun of any person who does an
Speaker 1: honest day's work for an honest day's pay. Ever, and
Speaker 1: you can bet that young man never did. I'm giving
Speaker 1: you my name, there's nothing wrong with it. Pass it
Speaker 1: along as clean as I gave it to you. What
Speaker 1: words of wisdom, And know this it came from his
Speaker 1: half of coupering. These are the kind of things that
Speaker 1: get instilled in young people through their faith, and then
Speaker 1: outcame these principles by which to live. And we talk
Speaker 1: a lot about faith and how it animates good people's
Speaker 1: lives in this great country. When we come back, more
Speaker 1: of Mike and Steve Raikman's story here on our American
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Speaker 1: And we're back with our American Stories and with the
Speaker 1: story of Mike and Steve Raikman. We heard from Steve
Speaker 1: about how his father instilled in him the virtues and
Speaker 1: values to stand up to monsters and to just do
Speaker 1: the right thing. Now we'll hear from Steve's son, Mike,
Speaker 1: and how Steve did his best to do the same.
Speaker 1: Here's Mike.
Speaker 2: Well, once I got to a certain age that kind
Speaker 2: of like really sort of understand things and what was
Speaker 2: going on, it was clear to me that my dad
Speaker 2: was a man principal. There was right and there was wrong,
Speaker 2: and there was really nothing in between. That there was
Speaker 2: no gray area. He would tell me, he said, you know,
Speaker 2: we would live and again quotes a much better life
Speaker 2: from a financial standpoint. When I was growing up as
Speaker 2: one of five kids, you know, he could have taken
Speaker 2: all that money, and you know, as aif ten year
Speaker 2: old kid, I was like, well why not. I could
Speaker 2: have got to you know, the Air Jordan's I could
Speaker 2: have got you know this that the other thing, all
Speaker 2: the stuff that I always wanted. But it was plain
Speaker 2: and simple. He's like, it's wrong, it's illegal. There's no
Speaker 2: ifens or butts about it. And the time that you
Speaker 2: do it first, the first or or it could be
Speaker 2: the only time that you do it. That's it. Now
Speaker 2: you got to target on your back. You always got
Speaker 2: to look behind you when you walk. It took me
Speaker 2: a little while to kind of like let that all
Speaker 2: sink in, but it was very eye opening and connected
Speaker 2: a lot of the dots of what my dad had
Speaker 2: taught me. Since you're from a very young age going forward,
Speaker 2: he would tell me stories. You would speak a lot
Speaker 2: about mafia guys, so a lot of his when he
Speaker 2: would go to claims and losses and stuff like that.
Speaker 2: He'd be in you know, Brooklyn and the Bronx stuff
Speaker 2: like that, where he would go in and the building
Speaker 2: owner would be there when he got there, sitting at
Speaker 2: a table. Tell my dad to come sit next to him,
Speaker 2: and he'd have a gun on the table, try and
Speaker 2: intimidate him and tell him like, this is what's got
Speaker 2: to happen.
Speaker 5: He kind of didn't really necessarily know what he was
Speaker 5: walking into.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, well, Dad, if you're doing that, you
Speaker 2: might as well take in the cash too.
Speaker 1: Come on.
Speaker 2: It was interesting stuff. And I went to work with
Speaker 2: him maybe once or twice. And I think had he
Speaker 2: told my mom ahead of time where he was taking me,
Speaker 2: she probably would have tried to kill him, because we
Speaker 2: went to some really nasty areas. As a fifteen year
Speaker 2: old kid, I probably should not have been there. But
Speaker 2: here I am today, unscathed from that.
Speaker 3: At least.
Speaker 2: You know, when I screwed up and I knew that
Speaker 2: I was going to have to face the music from
Speaker 2: my dad, it wasn't I wasn't fearing like, oh, he's
Speaker 2: gonna he's gonna slap me. It was the I was
Speaker 2: fearing disappointing him because I know that he taught me
Speaker 2: better than that. I know that, Yeah, listen, we're all
Speaker 2: gonna make mistakes, we're all going to you know, none
Speaker 2: of us are perfect by any stretch of the imagination.
Speaker 2: But it was I know I should have known better,
Speaker 2: and I let you down because you taught me to
Speaker 2: be better than what I was. Got to a really
Speaker 2: bad car accident when I was drunk in college. This
Speaker 2: was pre cell phone era, and my parents were visiting
Speaker 2: my other brother in college, and I couldn't get a
Speaker 2: hold of them. And it happened on like a Friday
Speaker 2: night or something. It I couldn't I had to sit
Speaker 2: there for forty eight hours until I could even tell
Speaker 2: my parents what had happened. So the anxiety from that
Speaker 2: to say, I made these bad decisions, I did this,
Speaker 2: Now I'm going to be in trouble, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 2: Finally got them on the phone, and you know, they
Speaker 2: want to make sure I was okay, you know I
Speaker 2: wasn't hurt in any way, stuff like that.
Speaker 5: Later that week, I had the first time I had
Speaker 5: to go to over it.
Speaker 2: So the drive up from where my parents live on
Speaker 2: Long Island up to Upstate New York by college when
Speaker 2: it was about six hours, so I knew my dad
Speaker 2: was getting on the road at like six am. He
Speaker 2: was gonna be there by noon, and you know, so
Speaker 2: I knew, you know where what time about he was
Speaker 2: going to arrive in my apartment. I was dreading this,
Speaker 2: dreading this like I can't even tell you. I was like, oh, man,
Speaker 2: I messed up so badly. You've gave me so many lectures.
Speaker 2: When I got my car to go to college about
Speaker 2: this exact thing, and sure enough, knock on the door,
Speaker 2: I open it. I got a crack in the face
Speaker 2: and then probably one of the biggest hugs I've ever
Speaker 2: got from him in my life, because it was like,
Speaker 2: you're an idiot, boom, but you're my son, and I
Speaker 2: love you.
Speaker 5: You're my idiot, and we're going to get through this
Speaker 5: and fix it. I always had a good.
Speaker 2: Issue with my dad, and at that point, you know what,
Speaker 2: one funny outcome of it was that I wasn't allowed
Speaker 2: to drive a car for about a year and a half,
Speaker 2: So anytime I wanted to come home from school, basically
Speaker 2: my dad have to drive up, pick me up, and
Speaker 2: then we drive back. So I would get to spend
Speaker 2: those six six and a half hours in the car
Speaker 2: with him, driving from up state New York back down
Speaker 2: to Long Island, whether it was coming home for Christmas,
Speaker 2: coming home for Thanksgiving, or just for the summer. And
Speaker 2: he would do up and back the same day. I mean,
Speaker 2: we maybe stop for a sandwich. So he's in the
Speaker 2: car twelve thirteen hours and I'm in there, you know,
Speaker 2: just just the way down with them or the way up,
Speaker 2: depending which way we were going. We still would talk
Speaker 2: about although it was a lot of driving, and maybe
Speaker 2: at the time, you know, it's like, oh, I just
Speaker 2: want to get home, but it just was nice to
Speaker 2: have six hours of, you know, just dad sontime. Now,
Speaker 2: having kids on my own, I can understand that your
Speaker 2: time when you have siblings, you're one on one time
Speaker 2: with your pa parents or one of your parents, is
Speaker 2: a lot different than when you're competing for their attention
Speaker 2: or they're competing for your attention with all your other siblings.
Speaker 5: And we were, you know.
Speaker 2: For better or for worse, I had six and a
Speaker 2: half hours to kill in the car with my dad.
Speaker 2: So you know, I'm a mortgage banker. We arrange residential
Speaker 2: home mortgages for people looking to buy or.
Speaker 5: Refinance a house.
Speaker 2: And you know, I could easily, you know, had made
Speaker 2: fraudulent documents in order to qualify someone for a loan
Speaker 2: that they may not really be able to pay back,
Speaker 2: but the customer wanted or I want to buy this house,
Speaker 2: so I could wipe something out, change your number here,
Speaker 2: change a comma there, and all of a sudden they
Speaker 2: qualify for it, which basically it's going to catch up
Speaker 2: to them sooner or later that they're not going to
Speaker 2: be able to afford this place all for the sake
Speaker 2: of a commission check. That's certainly not something that I
Speaker 2: ever did or wanted to do. And you know, I
Speaker 2: like to thank my father for instilling those values into
Speaker 2: me as a young kid, because I saw so many
Speaker 2: people go the their way that they wanted to make
Speaker 2: the quick buck and they didn't care at whose expense
Speaker 2: it was. And then eventually it was a lost loss
Speaker 2: because whoever they did that for that person, they were
Speaker 2: going to put that they were putting that person into
Speaker 2: a worse situation. In addition to that, eventually they were
Speaker 2: gonna get it was gonna catch up to them. They
Speaker 2: were going to lose their license as well. And throughout
Speaker 2: two thousand and five, six seven eight, during like what
Speaker 2: they would call a wild while West of mortgages, where
Speaker 2: people were doing things they shouldn't do, and eventually it
Speaker 2: all caught up to them and they would get, you know,
Speaker 2: bar from the industry. They would never be able to
Speaker 2: work in mortgages again. And you know, like myself, a
Speaker 2: lot of the other guys that work here didn't partake
Speaker 2: in any of that, and that's why we're still here
Speaker 2: today with healthy licenses that we don't have to fear
Speaker 2: overever having revoked or anything like that. We have a
Speaker 2: lot of younger guys that work here too that we
Speaker 2: mentor as well and can kind of, you know, trickle
Speaker 2: down all those same things that were instilled in us
Speaker 2: as young people and have gone through this and saw
Speaker 2: it in the industry as well. It's it's not something
Speaker 2: that we would do here. And you know, you're basically
Speaker 2: jeopardizing things for the whole company as well.
Speaker 5: You got to also be.
Speaker 2: Able to answer to the man upstairs, so that that
Speaker 2: certainly plays a role in everything as well. And you know,
Speaker 2: when you have that is the focal point of your business,
Speaker 2: you're gonna land in good hands. My dad sends me
Speaker 2: at a young age, God blessed you with two hands.
Speaker 2: Wanted to take care of yourself and your family, and
Speaker 2: the other one is to help other people. And I
Speaker 2: actually told him that that. I remember him telling me
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago. And my dad is not
Speaker 2: a crier, but I saw him he got like a
Speaker 2: little emotional because his father passed away when he was
Speaker 2: like fourteen or fifteen years old, and it was something
Speaker 2: that his dad told him, and he didn't think that
Speaker 2: I remembered him tell him that story when I was
Speaker 2: a kid, but you still do. I definitely remember it.
Speaker 2: It's something I passed on to my kids as well.
Speaker 1: And a great job on the storytelling by Robbie. And
Speaker 1: thanks so much to Steve and Mike Raichman for sharing
Speaker 1: their father's son's stories. Steve talking about his father, the
Speaker 1: values and principles that got passed along to him, Steve
Speaker 1: then passing those along to his son Mike, and Mike
Speaker 1: sharing those principles and values as well, and ethics. In
Speaker 1: the end, my dad was a man of principle. There
Speaker 1: is a right and the wrong. And if you're listening
Speaker 1: and you're a guy, well, can your son say that
Speaker 1: about you or your daughter? When I screwed up, I
Speaker 1: wasn't fearing he would slap me. I feared disappointing him.
Speaker 1: And every dad, every mom knows the discipline and love. Well,
Speaker 1: there are two sides of the same coin. A beautiful
Speaker 1: story about fathers and sons, about love, about discipline, about God.
Speaker 1: Here on our American stories