Join me for a riveting sit-down with construction and real estate mogul Ken Banks as we explore the foundations of a 50-year legacy that's towering over Maryland's horizon. From his audacious start at 28 to reimagining the iconic Johns Hopkins Hospital, Ken's narrative is a blueprint for aspiring trailblazers. His keen insights on strategic ownership in the concrete jungle provide an invaluable masterclass in constructing a business empire brick by brick. Delving into the challenges that come with managing colossal projects, Ken's candid anecdotes on maneuvering through economic upheavals and the human element of his workforce are as foundational as the structures he creates.
The entrepreneurial battlefield isn't for the half-hearted, and we peel back the layers of determination needed to stand tall amidst the industry's titans. We engage in a mental skirmish, examining the warrior-like resilience essential for anyone daring to forge their path in business. Ken's tales envelop you in his world where setbacks are but a pivot or pause in the grander scheme, offering a potent reminder that the journey is as fluid as it is fierce. Embracing the "do or die" mindset, this conversation is an ode to those who brandish their dreams like a sword, cutting through the cacophony of mediocrity to claim their victory.
As we wind down, the narrative arcs towards the sanctity of a well-rounded existence. Ken and I reflect on how one's true measure of success isn't bound by the confines of financial gain but interwoven with the threads of family, spirituality, and camaraderie. This dialogue is a meditation on the art of balancing the relentless pursuit of ambitions with the tender moments that give life its sheen. We close with musings on professional evolution, the elation of learning, and the fulfillment derived from fostering both personal and professional relationships—the kind that form the sturdy beams supporting the towering edifice of a life well-constructed.
Watch the video episode of this on YouTube - https://linktr.ee/konnectedminds
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
How many people are gonna make a million dollars
this year?
If you're going to start abusiness, you gotta have about a
hunger in your gut.
You gotta have a hunger in yourgut.
You cannot be afraid of 18-hourdays.
You gotta think differently andyou can't be afraid.
You can't have fear.
You have to look forward.
That's saying you know I'mgonna do this.
No matter what I'm gonna do,I'm gonna get it done.
When you're a business owner,you can't plan.
(00:22):
I've seen a lot of people thatare going to school, they're
going to MBAs and all that, andthey try to start a business.
They can't do it.
There's benefit in having tocheck every week.
Music.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Welcome once again to an awesome episode of Connected
Minds.
Now, if you hear once againlistening to this podcast, then
I'm sure that you get value fromthe content that we release.
Today I'm gonna have aconversation with Ken Banks, who
is an entrepreneur, abusinessman, a strategist, who
(01:03):
owns Banks Global.
Banks Global is a constructionand development company in
Maryland.
He's done great works in theskyline of Maryland up to a tune
of 100 million US dollars.
Now, if anyone of you is hereand is listening to us, then I'm
sure you wanna stick around andlisten to the cues that he's
gonna give us when it comes toreal estate companies, how he's
(01:27):
done it over the years.
Look, he's been in business forover 50 years and for me, it's
certainly a man that I want tosit down and have a chat with,
mr Banks how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I'm doing great, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, yeah, and today I really just wanted to find
out you know what yourbackground in terms of real
estate is when you first startedand the ropes that you've taken
to get to this level.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
You know, I first started in the construction
industry, and so I was inconstruction for a number of
years.
I started my constructioncompany in 1980.
I was 28 years old and wentfrom doing work in a residential
(02:23):
kind of construction andgradually went into commercial,
and so we built some of thelargest structures in the
Washington DC area, baltimorearea and back in the States.
One was a $600 million hospitalfor Johns Hopkins.
That was a joint venture.
Another one was the HiltonHotel in Baltimore and another
(02:46):
was a $5,000 Cedar Green.
These are multi hundreds ofmillion dollar jobs, usd.
And so that's where I started.
I needed office space, and sowhy not have an office space
where you own the building?
And so I bought a building andmoved in with my offices, and
(03:09):
economically it made sensebecause I'm paying myself rent
from my company.
You know, my company pays merent, the owner of the building,
that kind of stuff and tax wiseit works out a little bit
better.
And I use my company to do theconstruction.
So, wait a minute, this is apretty good deal, right?
As I began to buy more and moreproperties and bigger and
(03:30):
bigger properties, and I would,you know, find a financing, do
the construction and then leasethem out or rent them out, and
that was my model for a numberof years.
And then, at a certain point intime, the projects.
There were a couple of projectsthat came by that were just too
(03:51):
big.
I just couldn't.
I couldn't handle them myself.
It was just too big.
And so and one was this was myfirst one, but one was the
redevelopment of 88 acres aroundJohns Hopkins Hospital.
It was massive, multi billiondollar project and I knew it was
too much, too big for me, right?
(04:12):
But I had the politicalcontacts and be able to be a
strong person to be able to getthat project done in the state
of Maryland.
And so it went out and foundpartners to be able to do this
project with him.
So when you develop a, find apartnership.
(04:34):
Now there's a couple ofdifferent joint ventures.
The first joint venture I hadwas with the company and I had
the job, and it wasredevelopment of 500 apartments.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Apartment, just a redevelopment, it was just rehab
.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
But it was a very complicated structure, financial
structure and a lot ofpaperwork that had to be done et
cetera, et cetera.
And I wasn't really set up forthat.
We were set up to do theconstruction.
And so my first joint venturewas one of the largest
construction companies inAmerica Whiting and Turner and I
(05:15):
said, look, you guys do thepaperwork, take care of that and
we'll take care of theconstruction.
It was a 50-50 joint venture.
And so I came in, we put oursuperintendents on the project,
we ordered the material, we hadthe subcontractors and we did
that work.
And they did the other side ofthat, the administrative side,
and all that, and it worked outbeautifully, and so that was my
(05:37):
first joint venture which workedout very well and the joint
venture that I bought to themand so other joint ventures are
much bigger- you know, with allthe businesses that you've done
right and all the experiencesthat you've built, what are some
of the things, the struggles inbetween, that you had to
(05:58):
overcome?
The struggles in usuallymanpower in the construction
world anyway there's manpowerbecause it's like a feast of
famine.
You get these big jobs and youhire people and you get all
these people right and at timesI had almost 100 people in my
business.
You know, not a huge companybut 100 people.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
That's quite a lot of people running around, right?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And you know you're hoping that you have work for
those 100 people all the time,but of course sometimes it drops
down.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
And so now you don't need a hundred, now you need 70.
And so what do you do with the30 people?
Because you're thinking thatmaybe next month this job is
going to come through.
You know what I mean?
Those are the kind of things inbetween, and there's also the
cyclic kind of economic timesthat all countries go through,
and so there are those, thesedown times, you know, and right
(06:53):
now we're most of the world isin high inflation.
So what do you do, doing highinflation, and so, as a business
owner, can you take advantageof that?
Can you take advantage of that?
And you see, a lot ofbusinesses now have taken
advantage of high inflation byraising their prices when they
didn't necessarily have to, andso that's happening all across
the world, where businesses havehad just their costs have
(07:16):
increased because of supplychain difficulties.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
But when?
Speaker 1 (07:21):
those supply chains, difficulties became manageable.
The costs haven't come down,they've stayed up.
In fact they keep on risingthem until people scream.
And when they scream then theystop Right.
And so you know at any point intime, if you have money, you
can make money doing high timesin inflation, but if you don't
(07:42):
have money, it's reallydifficult, very difficult,
because it's so many things thatmost people are at a place
where you know, when things cost10 or 15% more than it did last
year, it's difficult to survive.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I've actually just seen in an email that the UK are
preparing to increase theminimum wage.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
The minimum wage yeah .
Speaker 2 (08:02):
But it's funny, you speak about economies and you
know the current struggles thatcountries are going through.
Again, the UK also released, Ithink a few months ago, that
they're in recession now.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I mean, I think they've been in recession for
years before now, but it's comeout and it's official.
Do you still think that realestate is a good investment now?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Of course, you when you say real estate, real estate
is has a lot of differentpieces to it.
Okay, you can't say real estateand say it's good or bad.
You have to say what part ofreal estate, like I would say
office space is probably realbad right now because in in, in
(08:49):
an age where so many people canwork from home, businesses have
gone to the point where theydon't need 50,000 square meters,
right, or you know they need10,000 or whatever.
Everybody's, almost almosteverybody's cutting down,
cutting back in terms of theoffice space needs.
So if you're a developer andyou are in office space needs,
(09:15):
it's not it's not a good placeto be, yeah.
Now, if you're in medical, ifyou're in rental, some.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Well, what kind of?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
rental.
You know if you're housing, youknow that's rental.
But business rentals is notwhat I was going to say.
Storage, what do you call that?
Storage units, you know, foryour computers and things of
that nature.
This distribution is very goodin certain, in certain areas.
This you know because of youknow companies like Amazon and
(09:47):
you know they.
Just all the distributioncenters are doing well and
there's medical centers aregenerally doing pretty well.
So you got to kind of say pickyour field.
So if you're in residential itmight be very good, according to
whatever you're in.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, that's true.
You know when most of us, whenwe start business, we don't have
the first hand experience.
We've never done it before.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Because I remember coming out of university and
saying, look, I want to registera business and start a pharmacy
.
The only experience I had waswhat I had in me which is Derek
saying that he wanted to dobusiness.
Now, what sort of mindset doyou think an individual needs to
be able to pick themselves upto say, I want to have a startup
business?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
You know, I think that's a good, great question.
That's a great question becauseI've seen a lot of people that
are going to school, that aregoing to MBAs and all that, and
they try to start business.
They can't do it.
Yeah, because I think it takesmore than that, and I'll say
that I was fortunate enough tohave a very poor upbringing and
(10:54):
so a desire burned within me andI think that many business
owners not people who get moneyhanded to them and continue
business ever.
But if you want to start abusiness, you got to have a
hunger in your gut.
You got to have a hunger inyour gut.
You cannot be afraid of 18 hourdays for months on end.
(11:17):
You can't be afraid of thatbecause if you want and the
other part of that is you haveto be not you know there's
benefit in having to check everyweek from an employer, right?
Yes, get a check.
I know I can plan.
(11:38):
Everything is safe when you'rea business owner.
You can't plan.
You might get a big hit, butthat might be the only hit you
get for a couple of months,right?
So you got to think differentlyand you can't be afraid.
You can't have fear.
You have to look forward.
That's the.
You know I'm gonna do this.
(11:58):
No matter what I'm gonna do isI'm gonna get it done.
You know you have to take.
What is that Japanese generalwho, when they were going to war
, right, and they got into theseships and they took these ships
over to the island, the otherisland, where they were gonna
fight?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
And the general turned around and they burnt it.
They burnt the ships to theblind.
It's actually a think and growrich.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
They said you know, we, either we either win or we
die.
There's no option.
And so sometimes when you takethe option away, when you take
the option away from I used totell people you know, I give a
speech and I say, look, how manypeople are gonna make a million
dollars this year.
You know, let's say, a thousandpeople in order.
(12:42):
Maybe one person raise theirhand and he's that person lying
right.
They're not really the reason.
I said I'll tell you what.
What if I told you that If youdon't make a million dollars
this year, you're gonna losesomething very bad, like your
children.
You're gonna use your children.
You're gonna use your childrenor your parents or whatever.
(13:03):
You're gonna lose them.
If you don't make a milliondollars this year, how many of
you now are gonna make a milliondollars this year?
All the hands go up.
I said what's the difference?
What's the difference?
The difference is we know wecan do it.
It's just that we don't feellike doing it.
But when something is given toyou that you have to get it done
(13:25):
and you will not take any otheranswer except to get it done
you're gonna get it done.
And so that's what businesstakes.
You have to have that fearlessattitude.
You have to have that mindsetthat I'm gonna make this happen,
no matter what, and you'regonna run up.
You're gonna wind up seeingadversity.
You're gonna come into itAlmost looks like a hard stop.
(13:45):
You're gonna have hurdles inyour way.
You're gonna have peopletelling you you can't get it
done.
You're gonna have all kinds ofthings happening, but at the end
of the line your mentality isgonna be I'm gonna make this
happen.
It's gonna happen for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Whoa.
Now, yeah, whoa.
At what point did you feel yougot very close to giving up.
And what happened?
What was the time I I can't.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I Can say I've been very discouraged.
I can say I've been verydiscouraged, but and I, and I
can say that I had to stop um Abusiness, right, I had to stop
because I just just had to dosomething else.
I had to, I had to make money.
You know, and sometimes,sometimes you fail, but you
(14:36):
don't fail.
You fall down, but you don'tstay down.
The only, the only, the only.
There's no shame in fallingdown.
The only shame is not gettingup again.
And so you know, I was amartial artist, you know, I was
world champion.
And and years ago.
And you know you get knockeddown like I got teeth knocked
(14:57):
out.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I got broken hand and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
And you know, but you , you can.
You can get knocked down, butyou can't stay down.
You got to have the attitudeyou're not going to get back up
and I'm going to be successful.
I don't, I don't care what, and, and you can get knocked down
once.
You can get knocked down twiceor three times.
So I I've never, I've nevercome close to quitting my dream.
That's what I'll.
I'll say.
I've been discouraged, I'vebeen you know All kinds of stuff
(15:24):
, but I've never come close toquitting my dream.
If I have a dream that I wantto see happen, I want, that's
what I want to happen, and so Ican.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
That's it you know um Some of us right, yes, uh, we.
At any any point in time,there's a thought in our mind
Are we doing it right?
Are we doing it right?
Are?
We doing it right, because youmove from this business.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Then you add on that business, then you add on that
business.
Yeah, it never stops, yeah, andyou can't know, you can't know.
But you got to take a step down, a path in, and the path will
show you.
You know we can't we can'tpredict, we can't know, but you
know you have an idea and andyou and you and you, all you got
to do is be right 70% of thetime.
Hmm, that's all.
(16:08):
You can't.
You're not going to be right100% of the time.
It's not going to happen.
But you, but you're going tojust along.
You write most of the time rightand you make, you make some
decisions.
I, I can look back on my lifeand, oh my god, how did, why did
I do that?
That was, that was pretty dumb.
You know that was pretty dumb,yeah, but but overall, most of
the decisions have been havingproper and so, yes, you start
(16:30):
down a path and usually you haveto be a left or be a right,
that that path is not quite whatI want, but I have to move,
move a little bit to the left orright, um, so those, those
things are, are going to happen,but you can't know.
It's like All the lights arenot going to be green when you
(16:51):
start a journey.
It's not going to happen.
There's going to be some redlight somewhere and you're going
to, you're going to hit those.
You got to make a left or rightand you got to do whatever you
got to do.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
You know, in your own words, in my own words, you
said yes if I was to spend 90%of my time in life Doing one
thing, then I'll miss out onlife.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yes, so um, that referred to living a
well-rounded life and and um,Not being I I said before not
being afraid of working 18 hourdays.
You know that's.
(17:30):
That's a period in life andsometimes a start of a business.
You have to dedicate yourselffully but there's also family
and so, um, I'm not going toneglect my family, I'm not going
.
I'm still going to have familyand I'm still going to have
exercise, I'm still going to.
So I believe in the world and Istill want to travel.
(17:50):
I still want to see the world.
Certain things couldn't happenat a certain point in time, but
I but I understand that we wantto be holistic beings.
You don't want to say, youdon't want to have a billion
dollars and look around and sayShack said something recently.
Shack says something veryprofound.
Shack said something veryprofound.
The basketball player yeah, hesaid that, um, he was talking to
(18:15):
somebody else and he and Idon't remember who he was
talking to.
But he said to the guy um, youdid it right, you, you you've
gotten all this, uh, attention,you become world champion.
It was a football player, youknow, you got.
You got a ring, um, and youhave your family.
He said I messed up.
He said I live in a hundredthousand square foot house all
(18:37):
alone.
Whoa, you know.
He said I'm alone.
And so, you know, family hasbecome very important to me, and
my wife has shown me howImportant family is.
I grew up in a situation wherefamily was was tough, it was
raised.
Being raised with an alcoholicfather was was tough.
Right, it was just different,different dynamics um, but yeah,
(18:59):
live a well rounded life Umchurch, whatever, if that's you
know, spirituality, family,friends all that is important Um
, I think yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So when I, when I heard that quote, yes, that you
said Um, then the next questionthat came on my mind was then
how do you?
You know balance.
You know family, business andrelationships, friendships.
You know how do you balance it?
(19:33):
How do you do it individually,like I don't know, I've done
this for so long now.
You don't have to start to doit.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I don't have to work as hard as I used to work right
so I gotta look with an extratime, but I keep in contact with
my friends and I try to do thaton a daily basis.
My family is important, so Imean, every year we're doing
something.
Every Thanksgiving is like aThanksgiving and family reunion
at the same time, unless for aweek we take our grandchildren
(20:01):
out for almost a month everysummer.
You know just things like that,you know.
And so I like spirituality andso I meditate every day for, you
know, an hour or so in themorning and sometimes in the
evening, and so there's this Ifind space for everything Well
(20:23):
balanced.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah, well balanced.
I'm gonna find space foreverything Very holistic.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And then we travel, we get to see the world.
We've been in Africa for thepast month, three different
countries.
You know, I mean that's livinga life, man, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's living a life.
And to me I mean I could besitting home.
I got some friends that sithome, but I think also just
staying healthy, I wanna be ashealthy as I possibly can.
(20:50):
You know, I told them be 72 ina couple of months.
And, man, just I wanna keep ongoing.
I wanna break a world's record.
I'm not in the world, I do.
I wanna break a world.
There's a world's record inrowing that I became aware of in
my age group that I'm talkingabout, right, and I said, man, I
(21:10):
think I can do that, I think Ican.
So I'm gonna start working outin terms of doing this.
You know not, you know therowing machine, yeah, the indoor
rowing, and so what?
You know?
Just a goal, just something todo, just something to keep me in
shape right.
And I mean you look, fantastic,you look amazing.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
I mean, if I get to your age and I look like you,
then I would say hey, god thanks.
Well, that's what I do.
I thank God every day.
You look amazing.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Because it doesn't have to be like this.
You know sickness isn't coming.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, you know, but yeah, you're doing fantastic.
My whole round of life isimportant.
Yeah, I've got a very, veryimportant question, okay, right,
and it's important to mebecause I believe it's a
misconception.
You know, there's a lot ofmisconception about having a
woman with her own money.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Her own path.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Her own dreams, aspirations.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Right.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And you, you yourself , as a successful businessman,
is married to a lady who has isalso very successful.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
And I'm sure the time you met her she was as
successful as you were.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
We met and we were both fledglings in our
businesses.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Right, I mean, we weren't, you know, we, we met at
a certain point where she wasgetting started in her business,
I was getting started in mybusiness and we just kind of
grew.
Our businesses grew and we grewtogether.
Our businesses grew together.
But we had similar ideas aboutbusiness and about how to grow
business and about how to besuccessful and about how to
(22:42):
present yourself to the worldand how to and how to sell,
because every, every business isyou gotta sell.
No matter what you got, youknow you gotta sell.
And so, yeah, we having asuccessful wife, I think is a
blessing and I don't know, Iknow some people are intimidated
about that, but you know weboth have our own success, we
(23:04):
both have our own money you know, and we.
There were times when she wastraveling a lot, I was traveling
a lot.
We might be apart from oneanother, almost 100 days a year
apart, but when we came togetherit was fantastic.
Now with together much more.
(23:25):
We might skip 10 days a year orsomething.
You know somebody looking andsaying why don't you go
somewhere and check some placeto go?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
But we just I think, why not?
Because the way I look at it isif you're a successful man and
your woman is waiting for you tocome home every day and you
don't come home and she'sworried, and you know, gloria,
(23:54):
my wife has something to do, Ihave something to do, we have
our lives to live Right, and shehas her dreams and her vision.
Why would I want to get in theway of her dreams and vision?
I don't want her to get in theway of mine.
And so we have freedom to go todo whatever it is that we think
we need to do, and that entailstraveling, and it did entail
(24:17):
travel for quite a bit, but nowit's a little different.
But I enjoyed that.
I enjoyed us being able to talkabout our successes and our
failures and what they mean toeach other, and we just found
that that relationship hasbrought us closer.
Wow, that being able to talkabout those kinds of things has
(24:37):
brought us closer.
Rather than you know, upon Uponand she, you know she had a lot
more because she was in a.
She had a lot more notorietythan I did, you know, in terms
of people all over, and knew herbecause she was a business and
my business was in, you knowcertain area when I was doing
(24:58):
her business was national, so alot more people knew her.
but you know we had to becomfortable with that as a man.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, but thank you so much, thank
you so much for your time.
Thank you, I think you've donefantastic and you know you've,
you've.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I think I got energized about 15 minutes in A
little bit more yeah yeah, yeah,but I think it's been great.
I think it's been great.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I've learned a lot.
You know I'm on a journey.
You're almost living the futurethat I want to live Right.
You know, so it's a lot oflearning you know, and even for
the people that are listening tous, you're not going to watch
this podcast as well.
I appreciate you Because Ithink when you came in I said
that look, I want to get intorealistic properly, and that's
construction.
So, the workers.
(25:44):
Do you know that projects theywork under me Right, so I want
to learn the ropes yeah, yeah,you know, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Hope I was helpful.
Yeah, no, thank you so much,thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Thank you so much.
Thank you, derek, take care.
Thank you, pottery barn.
How many people are gonna make a million dollars
this year?
If you're going to start abusiness, you gotta have about a
hunger in your gut.
You gotta have a hunger in yourgut.
You cannot be afraid of 18-hourdays.
You gotta think differently andyou can't be afraid.
You can't have fear.
You have to look forward.
That's saying you know I'mgonna do this.
No matter what I'm gonna do,I'm gonna get it done.
When you're a business owner,you can't plan.
(00:22):
I've seen a lot of people thatare going to school, they're
going to MBAs and all that, andthey try to start a business.
They can't do it.
There's benefit in having tocheck every week.
Music.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Welcome once again to an awesome episode of Connected
Minds.
Now, if you hear once againlistening to this podcast, then
I'm sure that you get value fromthe content that we release.
Today I'm gonna have aconversation with Ken Banks, who
is an entrepreneur, abusinessman, a strategist, who
(01:03):
owns Banks Global.
Banks Global is a constructionand development company in
Maryland.
He's done great works in theskyline of Maryland up to a tune
of 100 million US dollars.
Now, if anyone of you is hereand is listening to us, then I'm
sure you wanna stick around andlisten to the cues that he's
gonna give us when it comes toreal estate companies, how he's
(01:27):
done it over the years.
Look, he's been in business forover 50 years and for me, it's
certainly a man that I want tosit down and have a chat with,
mr Banks how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I'm doing great, thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, yeah, and today I really just wanted to find
out you know what yourbackground in terms of real
estate is when you first startedand the ropes that you've taken
to get to this level.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
You know, I first started in the construction
industry, and so I was inconstruction for a number of
years.
I started my constructioncompany in 1980.
I was 28 years old and wentfrom doing work in a residential
(02:23):
kind of construction andgradually went into commercial,
and so we built some of thelargest structures in the
Washington DC area, baltimorearea and back in the States.
One was a $600 million hospitalfor Johns Hopkins.
That was a joint venture.
Another one was the HiltonHotel in Baltimore and another
(02:46):
was a $5,000 Cedar Green.
These are multi hundreds ofmillion dollar jobs, usd.
And so that's where I started.
I needed office space, and sowhy not have an office space
where you own the building?
And so I bought a building andmoved in with my offices, and
(03:09):
economically it made sensebecause I'm paying myself rent
from my company.
You know, my company pays merent, the owner of the building,
that kind of stuff and tax wiseit works out a little bit
better.
And I use my company to do theconstruction.
So, wait a minute, this is apretty good deal, right?
As I began to buy more and moreproperties and bigger and
(03:30):
bigger properties, and I would,you know, find a financing, do
the construction and then leasethem out or rent them out, and
that was my model for a numberof years.
And then, at a certain point intime, the projects.
There were a couple of projectsthat came by that were just too
(03:51):
big.
I just couldn't.
I couldn't handle them myself.
It was just too big.
And so and one was this was myfirst one, but one was the
redevelopment of 88 acres aroundJohns Hopkins Hospital.
It was massive, multi billiondollar project and I knew it was
too much, too big for me, right?
(04:12):
But I had the politicalcontacts and be able to be a
strong person to be able to getthat project done in the state
of Maryland.
And so it went out and foundpartners to be able to do this
project with him.
So when you develop a, find apartnership.
(04:34):
Now there's a couple ofdifferent joint ventures.
The first joint venture I hadwas with the company and I had
the job, and it wasredevelopment of 500 apartments.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Apartment, just a redevelopment, it was just rehab
.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
But it was a very complicated structure, financial
structure and a lot ofpaperwork that had to be done et
cetera, et cetera.
And I wasn't really set up forthat.
We were set up to do theconstruction.
And so my first joint venturewas one of the largest
construction companies inAmerica Whiting and Turner and I
(05:15):
said, look, you guys do thepaperwork, take care of that and
we'll take care of theconstruction.
It was a 50-50 joint venture.
And so I came in, we put oursuperintendents on the project,
we ordered the material, we hadthe subcontractors and we did
that work.
And they did the other side ofthat, the administrative side,
and all that, and it worked outbeautifully, and so that was my
(05:37):
first joint venture which workedout very well and the joint
venture that I bought to themand so other joint ventures are
much bigger- you know, with allthe businesses that you've done
right and all the experiencesthat you've built, what are some
of the things, the struggles inbetween, that you had to
(05:58):
overcome?
The struggles in usuallymanpower in the construction
world anyway there's manpowerbecause it's like a feast of
famine.
You get these big jobs and youhire people and you get all
these people right and at timesI had almost 100 people in my
business.
You know, not a huge companybut 100 people.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
That's quite a lot of people running around, right?
Speaker 1 (06:23):
And you know you're hoping that you have work for
those 100 people all the time,but of course sometimes it drops
down.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
And so now you don't need a hundred, now you need 70.
And so what do you do with the30 people?
Because you're thinking thatmaybe next month this job is
going to come through.
You know what I mean?
Those are the kind of things inbetween, and there's also the
cyclic kind of economic timesthat all countries go through,
and so there are those, thesedown times, you know, and right
(06:53):
now we're most of the world isin high inflation.
So what do you do, doing highinflation, and so, as a business
owner, can you take advantageof that?
Can you take advantage of that?
And you see, a lot ofbusinesses now have taken
advantage of high inflation byraising their prices when they
didn't necessarily have to, andso that's happening all across
the world, where businesses havehad just their costs have
(07:16):
increased because of supplychain difficulties.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
But when?
Speaker 1 (07:21):
those supply chains, difficulties became manageable.
The costs haven't come down,they've stayed up.
In fact they keep on risingthem until people scream.
And when they scream then theystop Right.
And so you know at any point intime, if you have money, you
can make money doing high timesin inflation, but if you don't
(07:42):
have money, it's reallydifficult, very difficult,
because it's so many things thatmost people are at a place
where you know, when things cost10 or 15% more than it did last
year, it's difficult to survive.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
I've actually just seen in an email that the UK are
preparing to increase theminimum wage.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
The minimum wage yeah .
Speaker 2 (08:02):
But it's funny, you speak about economies and you
know the current struggles thatcountries are going through.
Again, the UK also released, Ithink a few months ago, that
they're in recession now.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I mean, I think they've been in recession for
years before now, but it's comeout and it's official.
Do you still think that realestate is a good investment now?
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Of course, you when you say real estate, real estate
is has a lot of differentpieces to it.
Okay, you can't say real estateand say it's good or bad.
You have to say what part ofreal estate, like I would say
office space is probably realbad right now because in in, in
(08:49):
an age where so many people canwork from home, businesses have
gone to the point where theydon't need 50,000 square meters,
right, or you know they need10,000 or whatever.
Everybody's, almost almosteverybody's cutting down,
cutting back in terms of theoffice space needs.
So if you're a developer andyou are in office space needs,
(09:15):
it's not it's not a good placeto be, yeah.
Now, if you're in medical, ifyou're in rental, some.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Well, what kind of?
Speaker 1 (09:27):
rental.
You know if you're housing, youknow that's rental.
But business rentals is notwhat I was going to say.
Storage, what do you call that?
Storage units, you know, foryour computers and things of
that nature.
This distribution is very goodin certain, in certain areas.
This you know because of youknow companies like Amazon and
(09:47):
you know they.
Just all the distributioncenters are doing well and
there's medical centers aregenerally doing pretty well.
So you got to kind of say pickyour field.
So if you're in residential itmight be very good, according to
whatever you're in.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, that's true.
You know when most of us, whenwe start business, we don't have
the first hand experience.
We've never done it before.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Right.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Because I remember coming out of university and
saying, look, I want to registera business and start a pharmacy
.
The only experience I had waswhat I had in me which is Derek
saying that he wanted to dobusiness.
Now, what sort of mindset doyou think an individual needs to
be able to pick themselves upto say, I want to have a startup
business?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
You know, I think that's a good, great question.
That's a great question becauseI've seen a lot of people that
are going to school, that aregoing to MBAs and all that, and
they try to start business.
They can't do it.
Yeah, because I think it takesmore than that, and I'll say
that I was fortunate enough tohave a very poor upbringing and
(10:54):
so a desire burned within me andI think that many business
owners not people who get moneyhanded to them and continue
business ever.
But if you want to start abusiness, you got to have a
hunger in your gut.
You got to have a hunger inyour gut.
You cannot be afraid of 18 hourdays for months on end.
(11:17):
You can't be afraid of thatbecause if you want and the
other part of that is you haveto be not you know there's
benefit in having to check everyweek from an employer, right?
Yes, get a check.
I know I can plan.
(11:38):
Everything is safe when you'rea business owner.
You can't plan.
You might get a big hit, butthat might be the only hit you
get for a couple of months,right?
So you got to think differentlyand you can't be afraid.
You can't have fear.
You have to look forward.
That's the.
You know I'm gonna do this.
(11:58):
No matter what I'm gonna do isI'm gonna get it done.
You know you have to take.
What is that Japanese generalwho, when they were going to war
, right, and they got into theseships and they took these ships
over to the island, the otherisland, where they were gonna
fight?
Speaker 2 (12:14):
And the general turned around and they burnt it.
They burnt the ships to theblind.
It's actually a think and growrich.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
They said you know, we, either we either win or we
die.
There's no option.
And so sometimes when you takethe option away, when you take
the option away from I used totell people you know, I give a
speech and I say, look, how manypeople are gonna make a million
dollars this year.
You know, let's say, a thousandpeople in order.
(12:42):
Maybe one person raise theirhand and he's that person lying
right.
They're not really the reason.
I said I'll tell you what.
What if I told you that If youdon't make a million dollars
this year, you're gonna losesomething very bad, like your
children.
You're gonna use your children.
You're gonna use your childrenor your parents or whatever.
(13:03):
You're gonna lose them.
If you don't make a milliondollars this year, how many of
you now are gonna make a milliondollars this year?
All the hands go up.
I said what's the difference?
What's the difference?
The difference is we know wecan do it.
It's just that we don't feellike doing it.
But when something is given toyou that you have to get it done
(13:25):
and you will not take any otheranswer except to get it done
you're gonna get it done.
And so that's what businesstakes.
You have to have that fearlessattitude.
You have to have that mindsetthat I'm gonna make this happen,
no matter what, and you'regonna run up.
You're gonna wind up seeingadversity.
You're gonna come into itAlmost looks like a hard stop.
(13:45):
You're gonna have hurdles inyour way.
You're gonna have peopletelling you you can't get it
done.
You're gonna have all kinds ofthings happening, but at the end
of the line your mentality isgonna be I'm gonna make this
happen.
It's gonna happen for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Whoa.
Now, yeah, whoa.
At what point did you feel yougot very close to giving up.
And what happened?
What was the time I I can't.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I Can say I've been very discouraged.
I can say I've been verydiscouraged, but and I, and I
can say that I had to stop um Abusiness, right, I had to stop
because I just just had to dosomething else.
I had to, I had to make money.
You know, and sometimes,sometimes you fail, but you
(14:36):
don't fail.
You fall down, but you don'tstay down.
The only, the only, the only.
There's no shame in fallingdown.
The only shame is not gettingup again.
And so you know, I was amartial artist, you know, I was
world champion.
And and years ago.
And you know you get knockeddown like I got teeth knocked
(14:57):
out.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
I got broken hand and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
And you know, but you , you can.
You can get knocked down, butyou can't stay down.
You got to have the attitudeyou're not going to get back up
and I'm going to be successful.
I don't, I don't care what, and, and you can get knocked down
once.
You can get knocked down twiceor three times.
So I I've never, I've nevercome close to quitting my dream.
That's what I'll.
I'll say.
I've been discouraged, I'vebeen you know All kinds of stuff
(15:24):
, but I've never come close toquitting my dream.
If I have a dream that I wantto see happen, I want, that's
what I want to happen, and so Ican.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
That's it you know um Some of us right, yes, uh, we.
At any any point in time,there's a thought in our mind
Are we doing it right?
Are we doing it right?
Are?
We doing it right, because youmove from this business.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Then you add on that business, then you add on that
business.
Yeah, it never stops, yeah, andyou can't know, you can't know.
But you got to take a step down, a path in, and the path will
show you.
You know we can't we can'tpredict, we can't know, but you
know you have an idea and andyou and you and you, all you got
to do is be right 70% of thetime.
Hmm, that's all.
(16:08):
You can't.
You're not going to be right100% of the time.
It's not going to happen.
But you, but you're going tojust along.
You write most of the time rightand you make, you make some
decisions.
I, I can look back on my lifeand, oh my god, how did, why did
I do that?
That was, that was pretty dumb.
You know that was pretty dumb,yeah, but but overall, most of
the decisions have been havingproper and so, yes, you start
(16:30):
down a path and usually you haveto be a left or be a right,
that that path is not quite whatI want, but I have to move,
move a little bit to the left orright, um, so those, those
things are, are going to happen,but you can't know.
It's like All the lights arenot going to be green when you
(16:51):
start a journey.
It's not going to happen.
There's going to be some redlight somewhere and you're going
to, you're going to hit those.
You got to make a left or rightand you got to do whatever you
got to do.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
You know, in your own words, in my own words, you
said yes if I was to spend 90%of my time in life Doing one
thing, then I'll miss out onlife.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yes, so um, that referred to living a
well-rounded life and and um,Not being I I said before not
being afraid of working 18 hourdays.
You know that's.
(17:30):
That's a period in life andsometimes a start of a business.
You have to dedicate yourselffully but there's also family
and so, um, I'm not going toneglect my family, I'm not going
.
I'm still going to have familyand I'm still going to have
exercise, I'm still going to.
So I believe in the world and Istill want to travel.
(17:50):
I still want to see the world.
Certain things couldn't happenat a certain point in time, but
I but I understand that we wantto be holistic beings.
You don't want to say, youdon't want to have a billion
dollars and look around and sayShack said something recently.
Shack says something veryprofound.
Shack said something veryprofound.
The basketball player yeah, hesaid that, um, he was talking to
(18:15):
somebody else and he and Idon't remember who he was
talking to.
But he said to the guy um, youdid it right, you, you you've
gotten all this, uh, attention,you become world champion.
It was a football player, youknow, you got.
You got a ring, um, and youhave your family.
He said I messed up.
He said I live in a hundredthousand square foot house all
(18:37):
alone.
Whoa, you know.
He said I'm alone.
And so, you know, family hasbecome very important to me, and
my wife has shown me howImportant family is.
I grew up in a situation wherefamily was was tough, it was
raised.
Being raised with an alcoholicfather was was tough.
Right, it was just different,different dynamics um, but yeah,
(18:59):
live a well rounded life Umchurch, whatever, if that's you
know, spirituality, family,friends all that is important Um
, I think yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
So when I, when I heard that quote, yes, that you
said Um, then the next questionthat came on my mind was then
how do you?
You know balance.
You know family, business andrelationships, friendships.
You know how do you balance it?
(19:33):
How do you do it individually,like I don't know, I've done
this for so long now.
You don't have to start to doit.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
I don't have to work as hard as I used to work right
so I gotta look with an extratime, but I keep in contact with
my friends and I try to do thaton a daily basis.
My family is important, so Imean, every year we're doing
something.
Every Thanksgiving is like aThanksgiving and family reunion
at the same time, unless for aweek we take our grandchildren
(20:01):
out for almost a month everysummer.
You know just things like that,you know.
And so I like spirituality andso I meditate every day for, you
know, an hour or so in themorning and sometimes in the
evening, and so there's this Ifind space for everything Well
(20:23):
balanced.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah, well balanced.
I'm gonna find space foreverything Very holistic.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
And then we travel, we get to see the world.
We've been in Africa for thepast month, three different
countries.
You know, I mean that's livinga life, man, yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's living a life.
And to me I mean I could besitting home.
I got some friends that sithome, but I think also just
staying healthy, I wanna be ashealthy as I possibly can.
(20:50):
You know, I told them be 72 ina couple of months.
And, man, just I wanna keep ongoing.
I wanna break a world's record.
I'm not in the world, I do.
I wanna break a world.
There's a world's record inrowing that I became aware of in
my age group that I'm talkingabout, right, and I said, man, I
(21:10):
think I can do that, I think Ican.
So I'm gonna start working outin terms of doing this.
You know not, you know therowing machine, yeah, the indoor
rowing, and so what?
You know?
Just a goal, just something todo, just something to keep me in
shape right.
And I mean you look, fantastic,you look amazing.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
I mean, if I get to your age and I look like you,
then I would say hey, god thanks.
Well, that's what I do.
I thank God every day.
You look amazing.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Because it doesn't have to be like this.
You know sickness isn't coming.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
Yeah, you know, but yeah, you're doing fantastic.
My whole round of life isimportant.
Yeah, I've got a very, veryimportant question, okay, right,
and it's important to mebecause I believe it's a
misconception.
You know, there's a lot ofmisconception about having a
woman with her own money.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Her own path.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (21:59):
Her own dreams, aspirations.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Right.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And you, you yourself , as a successful businessman,
is married to a lady who has isalso very successful.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
And I'm sure the time you met her she was as
successful as you were.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
We met and we were both fledglings in our
businesses.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Right, I mean, we weren't, you know, we, we met at
a certain point where she wasgetting started in her business,
I was getting started in mybusiness and we just kind of
grew.
Our businesses grew and we grewtogether.
Our businesses grew together.
But we had similar ideas aboutbusiness and about how to grow
business and about how to besuccessful and about how to
(22:42):
present yourself to the worldand how to and how to sell,
because every, every business isyou gotta sell.
No matter what you got, youknow you gotta sell.
And so, yeah, we having asuccessful wife, I think is a
blessing and I don't know, Iknow some people are intimidated
about that, but you know weboth have our own success, we
(23:04):
both have our own money you know, and we.
There were times when she wastraveling a lot, I was traveling
a lot.
We might be apart from oneanother, almost 100 days a year
apart, but when we came togetherit was fantastic.
Now with together much more.
(23:25):
We might skip 10 days a year orsomething.
You know somebody looking andsaying why don't you go
somewhere and check some placeto go?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
But we just I think, why not?
Because the way I look at it isif you're a successful man and
your woman is waiting for you tocome home every day and you
don't come home and she'sworried, and you know, gloria,
(23:54):
my wife has something to do, Ihave something to do, we have
our lives to live Right, and shehas her dreams and her vision.
Why would I want to get in theway of her dreams and vision?
I don't want her to get in theway of mine.
And so we have freedom to go todo whatever it is that we think
we need to do, and that entailstraveling, and it did entail
(24:17):
travel for quite a bit, but nowit's a little different.
But I enjoyed that.
I enjoyed us being able to talkabout our successes and our
failures and what they mean toeach other, and we just found
that that relationship hasbrought us closer.
Wow, that being able to talkabout those kinds of things has
(24:37):
brought us closer.
Rather than you know, upon Uponand she, you know she had a lot
more because she was in a.
She had a lot more notorietythan I did, you know, in terms
of people all over, and knew herbecause she was a business and
my business was in, you knowcertain area when I was doing
(24:58):
her business was national, so alot more people knew her.
but you know we had to becomfortable with that as a man.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, but thank you so much, thank
you so much for your time.
Thank you, I think you've donefantastic and you know you've,
you've.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
I think I got energized about 15 minutes in A
little bit more yeah yeah, yeah,but I think it's been great.
I think it's been great.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I've learned a lot.
You know I'm on a journey.
You're almost living the futurethat I want to live Right.
You know, so it's a lot oflearning you know, and even for
the people that are listening tous, you're not going to watch
this podcast as well.
I appreciate you Because Ithink when you came in I said
that look, I want to get intorealistic properly, and that's
construction.
So, the workers.
(25:44):
Do you know that projects theywork under me Right, so I want
to learn the ropes yeah, yeah,you know, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
Hope I was helpful.
Yeah, no, thank you so much,thank you.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Thank you so much.
Thank you, derek, take care.
Thank you, pottery barn.
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