Interview with David Adelman, November 29, 2019

Calista Ginn: Okay, perfect, amazing. So, this is just a casual chat about leadership philosophy and it's for my Global Leadership seminar. So, yeah! These are-- I have ten to fifteen questions I'm going to ask you.

David Adelman: K.

CG: Perfect! Okay. So we'll just start by introducing ourselves. Hi, I'm Calista Ginn, and I'm interviewing David Adelman. Essentially, we'll just start off with-- what has been, in the most concise way or however you wanna do it, just give us a quick interview of your career and how you got to where you are now.

DA: How quick?

CG: Take as long as you want.

DA: When I was in high school, to earn money, I mowed lawns and did any odd jobs I could get a hold of with my buddy and so we sometimes painted and cleaned up houses or whatever, and my dad had some rental houses, and so I would help him with cleaning and fixing them up between tenants. And one time I asked if I could buy a rental house. And he said, y'know, I don't see why not. You have some money to go to college, maybe you can use that for a down payment. We called the realtor, and the realtor came to my house that Saturday and we drove around and looked at houses to buy. I found one over by McCreless Mall on the South side of San Antonio, and somebody who had been down on their luck, I suppose, was behind on their payments. So I was able to make the back payments and assume their mortgage, and buy the house for a relatively modest sum of money, a down payment. Then I painted the house and cleaned it up, put a "For Rent" sign in the front yard, and voila! At sixteen years old, I was in the real estate business.

CG: I love it!

DA: Yeah. Fast forward, I went to college at UT [The University of Texas at Austin], and I went to a realtor company on West Campus and looked into buying a place rather than renting when I went to college. The guy that showed me around was a college student, he was in the business fraternity.

CG: Were you a business major?

DA: I was an Economics major with a minor in Finance at the end.

CG: Oh, cool!

DA: I took all the real estate classes and business classes, I just did all that. So I go around with this guy, and he was a college student, showing me apartments for sale. At the time, it was the bottom of the real estate market, or near the bottom, in the late 80's. So I bought from a mortgage company a condominium that had been forclosed on, right near the university. And I, again, used my college money to buy it. I asked him about his job, and what he was doing-- y'know, renting out apartments to college students and selling apartments to their parents sometimes, and I was just intrigued by it. The summer after my sophomore year, I got my real estate license. I went back to that same office where he worked and I asked for a job, and they gave it to me, working on commissions, basically apartment locating. Then I started renting advertisements in California, in San Jose newspapers, because I heard that people were rich out there.

[laughter]

DA: At the time, there was no money in Texas for buying real estate because the market was in the worst shape it had ever been in. It was called the 1980's Savings and Loan Crisis. It was the original financial crisis from our time. So I would run ads, and my ads would say "Investment Property - Austin, Texas; David [Adelman]" and the phone number to the office. People would call, literally because of this ad in a newspaper, and they would come to Austin and I would show them properties for sale around the university, or in Central Austin, in fact. I would sell them properties, and then we would manage the properties and lease them out for them and charge them fees and commissions along the way, so I would make fees on selling and everything. I sort of halfway taught myself the investment real estate business by just running numbers on the back of a piece of paper where you would say, this is the rent, these are the expenses, this is what you have left over divided by how much it cost; these are the returns that you can make. I was able to produce those kinds of analyses pretty simply and convince people to buy those properties, and I would make commission. I ended up graduating UT with more money, or more net worth, than I had when I went to school. And all I had was enough money to go to about, I don't know, let's say two years of college when I started. Paid for my own school, paid my way through, and was able to make a little money along the way. Had a really, really good time. That allowed me to obviously stay in the real estate business. Had that experience, had the degree from UT, was already working. So I stayed the course, stayed in Austin for four years, until Sharon and I decided it was time to get married, and she had the big idea to move back to San Antonio. We found ourselves kinda friendless in Austin. We tried to move back to San Antonio, and I decided to go strictly into the commercial real estate business at that time. When I was making the move, I perceived it to be a step up. I decided I would go strictly commercial and join a firm there and I've done it ever since.

CG: Awesome. I love it. So, next question: what cultural identities and experiences are most salient for you? So, I guess, what drew you to SA? What kept you in SA? Why do you think developing SA specifically is important?

DA: I'm a big believer in roots. Roots are good. Having roots in a city allows you to have a different level of passion for your city, versus if you just think about being a foreigner in a place, I think it's more difficult to adapt or join the social scene. When I say social, I don't mean the party scene, I mean things like your religious faith community to where you enjoy your hobbies to wherever. I think if you're from a place, you tend to have an easier time. So for me, going home, where I grew up, [was] very comfortable. I had a bigger network, knew people, knew people who knew people, pretty much if you need something you could ask somebody who will know somebody. It just feels, to me, that if you are from a place, there's some advantage. I've been fortunate that I was able to build a career in a place that was also where I grew up and where I had family and long-term friends.

CG: Yeah, definitely.

DA: Staying rooted there, I like it. I know people move in, and my great-grandfather obviously immigrated to the United States, all my great grandparents did. They were oftentimes either forced to leave their homes, or they were pursuing better economic opportunities in America because they didn't have them in Eastern Europe. They had to move, and I'm sure it was very difficult and challenging. Whereas if you move to your hometown, you don't face those levels of challenges.

CG: For sure, yeah. What experiences have most shaped you as a leader?

DA: Ooh.

CG: I know, tough question.

DA: I can't say that there are any particular experiences that did that.

CG: You touched on college. Were there any other kind of mentors, or even just--

DA: Mentors, yeah, I wanna talk about mentors.

CG: Yeah! People in your daily life that you admire, like just famous figures in history that you admire?

DA: Okay! Let me focus on two things: mentors and characters that I admire. Mentors are a definite. Mentors that you meet along the way, people who are older and more seasoned that you get the opportunity to talk to and learn from-- for sure. Mentors would start with my father, there's tons of wisdom he imparted. I had a godfather who, when I was in high school, I used to do his bookkeeping for him, Uncle Elmer. He taught me a lot and shared little tidbits of wisdom, that type of thing. He was a really special person to my father, actually. Uncle Elmer was named Elmer Jacobs, and he was kind of like a second father to my dad, actually, so I got to have experiences with him. One experience, I'll tell you, for sure, he liked to go to the bank and he was the master of the schmeichel. The schmeichel is just a little something. He would carry little boxes of chocolate with him. He would always dress up to go to the bank. He would wear a three piece suit and full sweater, and he had a cane and a top hat, and he would go walking through the bank and would shuffle his feet. He died when he was 97 years old, but he was in his 90's at the time. He would stop by the desks of various people along the way, and he would say good morning, good afternoon, and they would all go, "Oh, hi Mr. Jacobs! Good to see you!" He would give them a little box of chocolates or something, and he would always pair it with a little compliment, like "you look lovely today!" and he would go to the teller and make the deposit of his Social Security check. It was an entire production [laughter] but it was just unbelievable. He would always have something nice to say to somebody.

DA: Another mentor that I looked up to was Marty Wender, he was a real estate guy that I had talked to from time to time. I really looked up to him, he was a big developer in San Antonio. He's a man of a thousand stories. Often retelling the same stories, however, he has many, many stories, and he loves telling those stories about different things that happened in his career. I learned little bits and pieces of wisdom from him. Another mentor was a guy I worked for when I came back to San Antonio. He brought me into the firm and very quickly realized some of my talents. Put me in the right place at the right time. Just had a really good big-picture look at things. He help set some of the strategies for the properties that we pursue, and the work that we do and build. He was a really good long-term strategic guy. Not very good at tactics and execution, but lots of knowledge. He's the most well-read guy I've ever met, constantly bringing me articles and sending articles and making observations about that commentary. He had a really good way of seeing something, and then drawing connections from it. I've learned that's an important thing. He taught me a lot about the pace of negotiations, when you have to be patient. You know the old saying, deals have to die before they get done sometimes. Always be resilient and don't lose hope when those deals falter. He was a really good mentor.

DA: Then, looking at the famous figures side, I've read a lot of books on real estate and real estate developers, and investors in general. There's a guy named Bill Zeckendorf, read his book called Zeckendorf, it's really great. Trammell Crow, massive idol of mine. Gerald Hines from Houston, incredible developer. Each of them have their specialities and things about them that were really worth understanding, so read a lot of books about them. Books around Sam Walton from Walmart, and Warren Buffett, one of my idols. I read both of his books.

CG: My dad loves his thick book-- I think it's a biography, I don't know if it's an autobiography, but my dad is a big time Warren Buffet fan.

DA: Huge Buffett fan. Buffett says "better to buy a good company at a fair price than a shitty company at a cheap price". Understanding value and recognizing value, Buffett is just the master of that.

CG: Definitely.

DA: I would say that's shaped me more than anything.

CG: Cool. Next question: how have you learned from obstacles and challenges faced in your career?

DA: The age-old adage, you get punched, you just have to get up and keep going. You realize when you succeed, even after having failed, it's profitable. Overcoming challenges, you realize every challenge is overcomable and a learning experience.

CG: This is a fun open-ended one. What does leadership mean to you, and how would you define a good leader?

DA: I think it's the-- oof. That's a hard one. Leadership is when you set the direction for something that people will actually follow, and it won't work against you, and they do it willingly and voluntarily. If you're a good leader, your team is gonna go with your gusto vs. book-logically. You don't want to force people to do something unnatural, so you have to be good at articulating the vision and the plan, then you get people to come with. Great leadership is the ability to chart the course, but not steer the wheel. Being able to delegate and trusting people to do that work is really good leadership.

CG: Yeah, for sure. I completely agree. For this class, we read On Leadership and he said the same sentiment of lead[ing] from within, and he talked about knowing your constituency and he had this one really good metaphor where he was like it shouldn't be a "follow the leader", it should be walking within the crowd and seeing all the different directions your constituents want to go, so completely agree.

CG: How would you characterize your personal leadership style, specifically in regards to your field, and your day to day life?

DA: My leadership style is pretty hands on. I think that I infuse a lot of fun in what I do. I'm not an autocrat, but I'm all about fun.

CG: Yeah!

DA: I'm very focused around "failure is okay". I tell people, you gotta take risks, you gotta try stuff, and if you fail, that's alright. I would say that I-- I don't wanna say reward failure, not failure from being lazy, but failure from trying something that didn't work out. As long as the intent was right, I encourage people to take risks because I always say, ultimately, failure leads to success. If you fail twice in a row, quit making the same mistake. Yeah, just leading by example, being willing to do it by myself. If I'm walking a property with the team for example, and I see a piece of trash, I'll pick it up. It's not like I'd point at somebody and say "pick it up." I'd do it myself.

CG: A very intentional kind of leader.

DA: Yes.

CG: You kind of touched on it in this question, but what are your professional strengths and weaknesses? You can talk about Myers Briggs, DISC, my internship-- they're obsessed with the DISC test.

DA: Yeah, I've done those profiles! I don't consider them weaknesses, I just consider them personality traits.

CG: That's a good way to put it.

DA: I have the trait where I'm a little disorganized, so organization's not my thing. I don't take notes and go through my notes and make sure everything is super well-done, I rely on other people to take up that position. I would say that's my single biggest weakness. My other biggest weakness is that I don't really like to tell people the bad news. So I'll be late to let them know the mistakes they're making. Strengths would be just, I really have a way about convincing people to do stuff. I'm just a master salesman. I can sell ice to an Eskimo. I can find a way to make it happen.

CG: Leaders help turn ideas into action and empower others. We already kind of talked about this, but what is your philosophy on getting from idea to action? Are you more short-term or big picture, do you work backwards?

DA: Definitely big picture-- painting the vision for the project, and what we're gonna try to accomplish, then asking people "how's it going" along the way, like a nice way of nudging them along the path.

CG: What specific ways do you empower people in the workplace? [For example], I know you said it's difficult telling people the bad news, what are your strengths in telling them the good things, like a more morale-based leadership? How do you see that playing out for you?

DA: Ask that question again.

CG: Sorry that was kind of all over the place! How do you empower, if you're working on a team, how do you empower other people you're working with and what's your philosophy on morale in leadership and how effective that can be?

DA: I'm definitely all about letting people do it their way, a "go for it" kinda thing. Morale-wise, I'm the person that always walks by and says, "hey, I hope you're having a good day", I really believe a fun workplace is gonna have a lot more results than a scary workplace, a harsh workplace, a discipline workplace. Working in our environment is like working at montessori school. Not a lot of rules, a little bit free-form, just trying to get the job done. One of our company policies is that you can work remotely from wherever you want. We provide you with the complete remote capabilities to work from home, work from your iPhone, work from a laptop, wherever. Lots and lots of flex time and flexible time off. Just know you're on a small team, and you're absent, you're gonna hurt your team, but if you can get the job done from wherever you are, that flexibility is a morale booster by itself. Everybody that works for me says it's really great because you have a lot of flexibility, you can raise your kids, you can go to their ball games, you have a great deal of flexibility. It's not all that common in the workplace. It's something that is an element of your compensation.

CG: Oh, for sure. My internship-- six people are in the company, and the VP, she's a Belmont grad, and she's a newer mom, and she works remotely a lot of the time. I always think about how beneficial that would be for women in the workplace if more workplaces had that sort of flexibility. I don't know. I think that's a really cool policy.

CG: Okay, so, question one of two. What are two or three action steps you believe are essential to enable others to be successful? DA: I think that communication is critical. Having either a regimented meeting schedule, check-ins, pointed time because people get busy and sometimes they forget to communicate, so if you force it and have a regular meeting schedule, it helps for planning and stuff like that. Communication and other modern tools like Slack, if you're familiar with that. It allows people to collaborate on teams and that type of thing. That's one thing. And then goal-setting. I think having goals is pretty critical. Like the old saying, "if you fail to plan, plan to fail".

CG: Yeah! I like that.

DA: I didn't make that up! That's an old saying. It's planning and goal-setting. What's your plan? Even if you say to a friend, "hey, I'll meet you at nine o'clock on Friday night," that's a goal, that's a plan, you've set a plan in motion. The other person knows you can meet there. Same thing applies in business. Other people are just trying to guess. Another good analogy is a football analogy. If the quarterback doesn't tell the team, "hey, I'm gonna throw the ball to the right side of the field, and we're gonna do this to try to get the ball across the goal line", the other players are like, "who should I block? Which way should I run? Should I go to the left? Should I go to the right?" They wouldn't know what to do. But if the quarterback calls the play, they now know what they're doing and what their role is in that particular play. They understand the goal is to get over the finish line, over the goal line, that's the point. They need to know exactly how they're gonna do that.

CG: Yeah, for sure! Last question, this is a tough one. What do you want your legacy to be?

DA: Oof. [laughter]

CG: I know. [laughter]

DA: I always tell people, all the time, that we need to leave the planet better than we found it.

CG: Amen.

DA: And so literally that comes across so many different ways. Sustainability, not damaging the planet. Using less plastic would be an example, lowering your carbon footprint, all of the technical green-y things. Also educating the next generation. If the planet's gonna be better, people need to be more educated and thoughtful. Those are two areas that I spend a fair amount of time. In our business, we are doing better than the other guys in terms of sustainability with green building products and so forth. Not just those products, but also place and location because that affects people's carbon footprint. I spend a fair amount of time in the education arena. I want to feel like I made a positive impact on my planet when I'm gone. That I didn't hurt it.

CG: Yes, that's a great answer! Okay, that's everything-- thank you so much, truly, like, I cannot thank you enough.

DA: No worries. Happy to help!