Summary

From his perspective, the roadmap is simple: hard work, perseverance and a little luck. His advice is to take on as many work projects as possible, jump in with both feet and learn as much as you can. Build a foundation of knowledge in your field, develop your expertise through experience, set goals and execute on them. Find joy in the journey and success will find you.

I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988 and was recruited by a Wall Street firm for their analyst program. Work and New York were quite different back then: land lines, no social media, no Ubers, Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets (Microsoft Office wasn’t launched until late 1990) and high crime. Wall Street was the epicenter of finance and 100-hour weeks were considered normal. It was an exciting and challenging environment in which to learn the business from a very talented (and mostly patient) group of senior bankers and mentors, many of whom are still friends today. I had broad exposure to a variety of different industries and focused on the finance of and investment in commercial real estate. My big take-away was to take on as many assignments as you could handle and broaden your experience base as much as possible. Those experiences become your building blocks.

In the early 1990s, finance was significantly disrupted by the S&L banking crisis. Disruption creates opportunity and I was offered two very different choices. One was to join a competitive bank’s credit team and the less obvious choice was to join a troubled bank and run their distressed real estate portfolio, offering more hands-on experience but less stability. I chose that path and greatly accelerated and expanded my knowledge base. Ultimately, we turned the bank around, took it public and sold it. From there I joined investor Sam Zell to help take public and grow his mortgage REIT that was ultimately sold to a large financial sponsor and now has nearly $20 billion in assets. That decade of experience converted me from a banker to an investor and gave me the tools to build a private real estate debt business with large private wealth manager that we ultimately spun out as a private credit business focused primarily in Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities (CMBS).

I was fortunate to have a rigorous education both at Penn and Milton that developed my critical thinking and communication skills. As important was a decade spent competitive cycling that culminated in selection camp at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. Both cycling and my education taught me a tremendous amount about discipline, focus, training and setting goals, All key skills for success in any endeavor. My advice here is to choose a single hobby, sport or activity that you can really dive into, excel in and learn from. Much better, I believe, than having a variety of shallow interests.

A number of years ago, I converted our CMBS hedge-fund into a publicly listed mutual fund of which I am the Portfolio Manager as a part of a large mutual fund platform. It’s been terrific for me as I can focus exclusively on investing and managing the portfolio while the parent company manages the capital and administrative sides of the business that are critical to success in this industry. Plus, as a family of mutual funds, it’s great to be a part of a multi-disciplined team here in New York.

The two biggest challenges to being an investor over the past thirty years, in our space, were the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and more recently COVID. In both cases, keeping calm and focusing on the team and portfolio get you through to the other side. The benefit of living through these experiences is that you realize they will eventually pass, you just need to see it through. AI will likely be this generations disruption and we will all need to adapt.

To this day, I love the challenge of uncovering new investments, performing the due diligence and managing the investment process. There is always something new to learn and the market is always willing to throw in a few curve balls along the way to keep it interesting!

I think that most people think that Wall Street is glamorous and like an episode of “Industry” or “Succession.” In reality, it’s just another job that if done right will result in a lot of hard work, long hours and a string of victories along the way.

“There is no substitute for hard work.”

You just need to keep a level head and be calm and thoughtful about things. Make sure your investment thesis remains valid, and if not, modify as needed. Again, it’s helpful if you’ve been through difficult periods because you realize that they do end. Everything goes in cycles, so there will always be light at the end of the tunnel.

It’s what we covered earlier in 1990 when I said “no” to remaining in investment banking and said “yes” to joining a distressed bank that offered greater experience. That yes/no decision made all of the difference and put me on my path.

We all have, such as the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and more recently COVID. I make the analogy to cycling from my racing days and to climbing a mountain that feels like it will just never end and that you may not make it to the top. Keep your head down, keep pedaling, make “mini-milestones” on the way up and before you realize it, you’re coasting down the other side.