06/16/2026
The moment I assume I already know the answer is the moment I stop being a good advisor to the person in front of me.
At 20, I won a national junior college debate championship. I quickly concluded, "I must be a really good communicator." At 23, I joined a great life insurance company and received first-class sales training. I did well and thought, "I'm really good at talking with prospective clients."
At about 27, before I was officially married, I read every book I could find on building a strong marriage and communicating with my future wife. I asked older men I respected for advice, so I felt ready to hit the ground running with the woman I loved. Then we had our first fight, and my attempt to say the right things didn't go so well. You get the drift.
Every time I was sure I had figured out something, life quickly showed me, "You have more to learn." There was never a clean finish line — no moment to dust off my hands and say, "I've got this." I finally realized some lessons only arrive through experience, and that I didn't always need more information — I needed wisdom and discernment.
The people I admired the most didn't seem rattled by not having all the answers. They just kept learning, asking good questions. They assumed there was a part of the picture they hadn't seen or understood yet, and they listened!
Those and many other life lessons, especially the humbling ones, have shaped how I've practiced commercial real estate over the last 25 years. Two clients can look nearly identical on paper — same use, same submarket, same budget — and still need completely different things. The lease clause that sinks one deal is the one that protects the next. So instead of assuming "I've got this," I try to stay more curious — to ask one more question, to treat each client's situation as its own puzzle rather than a copy of the last one. I've learned that overconfidence, or thinking I've somehow arrived, fights against the humility required to be teachable, to keep learning.
I'm not as afraid of things I don't quickly grasp or understand. More recently, I felt overwhelmed and intimidated by AI, but I decided to do more than dip a toe in the water. I leaned on people much smarter than me, and now I find AI fascinating.
What hill are you facing that looks too big to climb? Be courageous, ask for help, and give yourself some grace when you don't figure it out quickly.
If you have a commercial real estate concern, I'll listen, and if you want, I'll offer some advice.
