2021 - Heaps & Leaps of Faith
Life's a cocktail, put in the right mix of ingredients and you'll savor every sip
This year threw me for a loop. In past years I sat down to write my year in review with nothing but tears of pride in my eyes and a relentlessly optimistic aura for years ahead of taking chances and following my heart. This year was its own animal and this review stands to recognize that. 2021 was a bit unpredictable and unnerving - as if we were on the precipice of something much bigger and monumental but still in the waiting room. It was a special year, immense highs and tantalizing lows but it was a year marked by big topographical changes and yet a psychological shift toward foundation building for the future. Let’s unpack what that all means:
My riveting new year consisted of chess with my father-in-law, vaccine shots and endless coverage of a capitol insurrection. The year seemed to start slow and then hit the Tesla Plaid S button and went 0-60 in under 3 seconds! While I provocatively had made some bold predictions of how 2021 would play out, I was dead wrong on most of them and spent most of the year with eyes wide open in astonishment of how fast the world can change and spin you around like a top. I was reminded, we are not always in control of what happens but can control how we respond.
We arrived back in LA after spending the end of 2020 in Texas. We felt like things in America were changing and we didn’t want to be left behind in all the change.
Leaving California
Laurelle and I left our lovely little Brentwood apartment in search of a new experience. We left for a multitude of reasons but a better quality of life, proximity to family and a desire to be part of a new movement all drew us to Austin. It was tough leaving California as Laurelle had to say goodbye to her sister and best friends and I shed a bit of a tear bidding farewell to my close friends and 75 degrees and perpetual sunshine. We knew that Brentwood was a slice of a heaven and we were lucky to have lived it but nothing lasts forever - “better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.” We felt like we were stripping ourselves down to our bones as we sold off many of the things we came to love like our bikes and furniture but ultimately we packed up our apartment and headed for the Lonestar state.
Leaving California on the first day of Passover felt like the new story of the exodus. Austin was pronounced boomtown USA by none other than Elon Musk and we heeded the call. Austin’s population swelled by 1/3 in 2020 and 2021 showed no signs of a slow down. Corporate relocations, Tesla’s new HQ, housing boom, and endless articles undressing Austin as the future and we knew that we were in for a ride of a lifetime. I explained my reasoning for jumping on the Austin bandwagon here. I know you’re supposed to buy the dip but did we buy the Austin rip?
Moving to Austin:
It felt like freshman year of college arriving in Austin. We were warmly welcomed by a few of our veteran friends in Austin and we were joined by the slew of newcomers like us coming from California. There was a starry optimism in the air as everyone collectively said, “lets not turn Texas into California.” There was a jubilation in the air that I hadn’t felt before.
With one car between Laurelle and I, we bonded together to make our new life work for us down in Texas. We moved to central Austin as one of the first tenants in the Korina, a brand new luxury apartment complex at the Grove. With a huge living space, a resort style pool, gigantic fitness center, co-working space and a full park, we settled in nicely alongside many of the other new transplants. The rental experience at the Korina was the first real community vibe I’d ever experienced in an apartment building - meeting our neighbors at the pool, attending happy hours and going to yappy hours with all the dogs in the neighborhood. We felt like Austin had a familial atmosphere unlike anything we’d felt before. It was a micro-culture that was unique and indescribable.
As we got to know our new city, we leaned into Austin pretty hard. I got a new bike to explore (riding with the Breakfast club ATX on Saturday mornings), we picked up pickle ball on the east side, hit all the local golf courses, took boats out on Lake Travis and Lake Austin, went swimming at Barton Springs and other watering holes, hit all the BBQ joints (Franklin’s lives up to the hype), dabbled in breakfast tacos and toured the breweries, coffee shops and the wine country. While we still have a lot of work to do to create community here in Austin, we did our best by choosing to be the facilitator of group Shabbat dinners, organized a wellness retreat for local entrepreneurs and put together regular happy hours.
Mental Health & The Endless Search for Meaning
I struggled a lot this year with my mental navigation. I couldn’t seem to escape what my exec coach calls “the stories we tell ourselves.” Much of that self-imposed stress came from a lack of clarity on my professional purpose and a fear of the unknown.
“A man who does not understand the benefit of suffering does not live a clever and true life.” -F. Robert De Lamennais
I felt like I was suffering but took comfort in knowing that I wasn’t alone as I’d have numerous conversations with close friends about life’s dirty thirty tricks. This year more than ever I felt the constant battle between my ego (things should be better and I should be perceived a certain way) and my soul (faith and that everything will work out just fine). I recall numerous drives where I’d have freak out moments around the regrets I’d made in my career and then followed by a calming sense that everything will work out and I would be ok. Those two ideologies were in constant tug of war for my emotions and it was exhausting. It felt at times that every shower I took was a fearcasting experiment and undistracted downtime would throw me into mental hyperloops. I remember journal entries and notes I wrote to myself about feeling a deep sense of uncertainty and dissatisfaction around my inability to pinpoint my purpose. I would then reorient myself to expounding on my immense luck in life and how grateful I was for the people and fortunes around me. It was exhausting but therapeutic. These were my coping mechanisms but I should have been more proactive and I can’t leave these unaddressed in 2022.
“There are thousands of ways which lead to deception, and there is only one way which leads to the truth.” -Jean Jacques Rousseau
I felt best when I was in a routine. The routine that I often fell back on was morning stretching (feeling more like the tin man these days), morning prayer (Shema & Amidah) followed by journaling or blogging. I completely lost my meditation practice and often found moments of deep solitude while walking my dog first thing in the morning. I began ritualistically reading Tolstoy’s Calendar of Wisdom every morning for a hit of knowledge and direction in an attempt to find a new modus operandi. I tried to counterbalance any negative emotions by reaching deeper into my soulful practice of prayer for longer lasting feelings of gratitude and joy. I was reminded keenly of the one thing by Gary Keller…If you do the ONE thing that’s most important, then everything else matters less. A kiss for Laurelle in the morning always reminded me that nothing else matters more than building a family. It made everything else a lot more palatable.
"It is a great happiness to have what you desire; but it is an even greater happiness not to want more than you already have.” -Menedemus
We never stop searching for meaning, it’s the human condition. This year I started learning with Rabbi Trepp, the University of Texas rabbi. I maintained a deep conviction that there is a higher purpose to life and the key to unlocking it is finding the right teachers, asking the right questions of myself in character self-assessments and learning our faithful traditions.
“God exists only for those who look for him. Start looking: you will find him in you and yourself in him” - Leo Tolstoy
This year, like many others, I spent an exorbitant amount of time thinking about happiness and what truly brings me happiness. I know time in nature (Group Journaling Part 2), focusing on what I have vs. what I don’t, having a strong support network of family and friends, and being firmly rooted to my faith all stand as my happiness bedrock. I was often reminded that “you are as happy as you allow yourself to be.”
“The secret of happiness? Enjoy small pleasures” -Samuel Smiles
Finding my way at work
While at work I felt most confident when I was outside my swim lane, learning from others’ in new areas and building relationships. Whether it was trying to unhinge a production studio to acquire or figure out solar farms in Arizona while at LPC, I felt comfortable in navigating the unknown content without having to focus too much on the existential questions of where will life take me and what will this all lead to in 10 years. I used curiosity as my guiding light and reveled in the chance to say “I don’t know, but lets’ find out.”
I was presented with a number of opportunities that threw me for loops and I tried to do my best to use the lens of “Fuck Yes or Hell No” as a barometer for decision making. I tried to follow my heart and gut but to be truthful, I think I double crossed my gut a few times and only hindsight will have the benefit of teaching me a lesson. I agonized over decisions and referred to others’ to help guide me to make the right decision. I tried reading “The Surrender Experiment” by Michael Singer to get more comfortable with the notion that life is happening for you and you have to surrender to its blessings.
“For every time you regret that you did not say something, you will regret a hundred times that you did not keep your silence.”
This year at LPC Ventures we continued to make technology investments, grow the team and strive for industry wide change. We invested in tenant engagement software for office buildings (Equiem), data analytics software for environmental data (Measurabl), virtual permitting software for municipalities (Camino), and lease management software (Dottid). While 2021 was a record year for VC capital outflows, I tried to remain disciplined with our principal capital and not overly extend our hand where we felt like values were bid up and TAM (Total addressable market) weren’t as large as advertised. We had our first unicorn mark up (Density), saw our first profitable acquisition (Openpath by Motorola) and saw one of our earliest investments (Xeal) hit an inflection point as electric vehicle popularity grew and the real estate industry started to wake up to the implications of climate tech.
As for the team, we were lucky enough to welcome a new and experienced member to the team in Vince C who is going to do amazing things with his insatiable energy for growth and network building. Nothing however brought me more joy this year than watching as Nick R cultivated his own role and learned how to be self-sufficient and maneuver the field.
On the social front, I’m proud that I was able to lead LPC to become an early sponsor and participant of the Project Destined efforts which are leveling the playing field of real estate education to under-represented minorities.
By the end of the year I was able to look back and feel proud of the work we did at Lincoln Property Company. Anything worth doing can’t be done alone, team is everything.
Amidst the change, The Constant remains
I completed my hand written journal that I had begun in 2017 and had captured much of my 20’s and started afresh on a new moleskin - ready to capture my 30s. I wrote more this year than I ever had in the past. Whether it was on the journaling software I built (Emote), group zoom journaling with Evan, Stephen and Benji or it was writing over 50 public blog posts this year, I accelerated my habit and creative art form and it felt fantastic. I used writing both as my expressive voice, observant alter-ego and my coping mechanism for life’s changes. This year more than ever Laurelle and I would find ourselves looking at each other and hoping to slow down time - writing was my way of ossifying the present.
While some traditions lapsed, like Adam & I’s annual brothers trip, new ones began. Stevie, Max, Storm and I went up to Stratton, VT for a boys ski weekend that will continue in 2022 as we pick a new ski mountain to explore.
As for my Philadelphia real estate project, we are nearly complete. We closed a construction loan, weathered some material price increases, set up our condo documents to sell the two town homes and then signed a long term lease with H&R Block for the retail condo that my partner Cliff and I will keep. The project has come a long way from the small 1,200 sqft surface lot it was just a year ago.
My best friends continued their upward career and life marches as Stevie became chief resident at Pennsylvania hospital and then was accepted into GI fellowship at University of Maryland, Benji moved one step closer to becoming a super-agent and finally popped the question to Clancy, my brother Adam picked up even more business on his march toward big law partner while juggling two rugrats at home, Scott & Mike moved back to Philadelphia, my sister Rijon made the jump to NYC, Eddie announced a baby girl coming summer 2022 and so many more exciting life changes.
With my day one LM best friends, we had three more weddings this year and the scoreboard is sitting at 7/10 married and hopefully three more in the coming years to round us out.
Saying bye to my little brother (big brothers / big sisters) in LA was tough. I’d been with him for three years and this year he had his Bar Mitzvah, launching him into religious adulthood. While I’m not in a rush to have kids myself, seeing David mature certainly brought me joy and was a bit of a preview for my future; I can’t imagine the feeling with my own children one day.
"a person becomes happy to the same extent to which a person gives happiness to other people." -Jeremy Bentham
“Just as fire blows out candles, good deeds for the benefit of others destroys a selfish life” - Tolstoy
My parents had an eventful year as they continued to be the best Bubbe and Grandpop to Asher and Hunter (my nephews). My Dad grappled with selling his medical practice, one in which he’d built a devout following over the last 30 years. My mom had a bad fall (she’s fine now) that left me with the unfortunate realization that my parents aren’t indestructible. The highlight with them from the year was when I got them to come down to Austin, breaking out of their COVID bubble, and meet their grandpuppy and eat some BBQ.
Take That Trip
2021 was the year of the travel rebound! We hopped on flights to return to the wedding circuit and get some much needed international travel. This year we went to South Africa (Cape Town, Johannesburg, Kruger National Park), Mexico (Puerto Vallarta) and then local jumps to PHL (3x) > LA (3x) > SD (3x) > NYC (2x) > Salt Lake City (1x) > Seattle (1x) > SF (1x) > Vegas (1x) > Atlanta (1x) for work, weddings and bachelor parties.
Laurelle and I took our proper honeymoon as we headed off to South Africa to see her homeland. We visited the ghosts of her childhood and had a great time hanging out with her extended family in Johannesburg, had a memorable and moving experience in the Kruger National Park on safari and explored the many facets of Cape Town - a city that offers it all - beaches, mountains, wineries, city life and more. I fell in love with the countries’ natural beauty and kindhearted people.
Exploration and curiosity are two of my deepest life values and traveling unlocks them for me. This year we made sure to uphold those values and seek out new experiences in far away places as well as those close by. Laurelle and I both feel strongly that we need to continue to travel before life’s responsibilities overrun our freedom of movement.
The changing economic winds
Inflation raged this year, home prices, equities, crypto all surged and the retail investor made the biggest statement of all with STONKS! The lesson we continue to learn is to never under-estimate the power and willpower of the individual, nor their ability to collectively organize… $GME 🚀🌚🚀, ConstitutionDAO and DOGE.
Certain trends dominated the capital markets conversation like ESG/Climate and Web3. I aligned myself with the climate tech movement at Lincoln Property Company and in the broader real estate ecosystem and dabbled in the web3 realm - buying NFTs, lesser traded tokens at the time like Solana and purchasing fractional ownership of artwork. I remain a believer that the best way to learn is to partake, not to observe. I was also reminded numerous times that “Pessimists look smart, Optimists make money.” I tried to not be a naysayer without trying to understand it first.
As new trends started to emerge post-pandemic, I felt keenly aware that things were moving at a faster pace than ever before. That feeling felt daunting at times but reassuring in others as advancements in battery technology, renewable energy sources, electrification and more expanded my horizons and put me at the forefront of capitalizing on some of these efforts in the near future.
Laurelle, my rock
Laurelle made a promise to herself when she arrived in Austin that she would be in a better mental and economic state at the end of the year than she was in the beginning. She was very sad to leave LA, a place she spent a formidable 7 adult years, and was faced with the daunting challenge of finding friends, community and a new job. As luck would have it, one of her old bosses left to join a thriving cloud infrastructure company, Vultr, and offered Laurelle to join as the global head of channel sales. I saw Laurelle grow and regain a lost confidence in herself and I’m so proud of her as I witnessed her growth on this new rocket ship. She’s also finding incredible girlfriends here in Austin and went from being “so-so” about Austin to absolutely “loving it.”
Laurelle turned 30 this year and we gave her a dual celebration with both a Vegas cabaret at the Mayfair Supper Club and a good ole fashion Austin bash on Lake Travis. She had all her best friends come into town for a weekend celebration as she was showered with love. This birthday meant a lot to her especially after missing out on a big wedding celebration the year before due to COVID.
Laurelle is the best life partner and work from home co-worker. This year we celebrated our one year wedding anniversary and while everyone says the first year of marriage is the most difficult, I don’t think we felt that way at all! We often looked at each other and acknowledged how well we traverse life together. Her more than me, she makes life look easy. Without her, life would look a lot less fulfilling.
Brody and a deepening sense of paternity
This year I felt a deepening sense of bubbling paternity. Caring for an animal and watching Brody get nutured and suffering through his pain hit me at my core. It was the first time I felt like a worried parent and had to learn to acknowledge those emotional patterns. We also were very proud pawrents as Brody graduated Obedience 1 training - and yet he’s still a flipping nightmare of a puppy.
Drink from the Well of Inspiration
“The best way to live joyfully is to believe that life was given for joy. When joy disappears, look for your mistake” - Leo Tolstoy
This year like many others I sought to drink from the well of overflowing inspiration. We are the average of the five people we surround ourselves with and this year like every other was a quest to find the best. I was inspired this year by Cedric B for his tenacious efforts around equal opportunity, Daniel M for his resiliency amidst trauma, Scott M for seizing the opportunity as ‘next man up’, Zander for his relentlessness and self belief, David K for building with emotional intelligence, David B for his courageousness, Nick G for taking a public contrarian stance, Stevie S and Derek F for reminding me about the simple pleasures in life, my in-laws Michael & Suzette (and Nana) for showing me deep family values and providing sage advice. This list is not-exhaustive and I continue to find inspiration from everyone I come across.
This year I drew inspiration from a few books I read as well: A relentless focus on redemption from Unstoppable, A more happenstance cadence to life from The Surrender Experiment, the colorful exploration of ones’ own city from A Moveable Feast, A grateful approach from The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, An ethical approach to business and identifying perverse incentives from Marty Makary, Taking a Texas sized entrepreneurial mindset from Sam Wyly and how to build partnerships from Trammell Crow.
I’ve always been inspired by the idea that happiness comes from giving. This year my giving was lackluster and while I donated a bit to various causes, it pained me to know that I wasn’t giving my time the way I did in the past. This year I joined the childfund and started donating monthly to improve the life for Belin, a seven year old girl living in Bolivia. We have exchanged a few cordial letters and it brings me joy knowing that I can give a little something to a child in need. In 2022 however, I want to make sure I find the time to address volunteering.
So What’s Ahead for 2022
Life seems to feel like it’s going through Moore’s law of exponential acceleration. Just when I thought things couldn’t move any faster, they double down. I don’t see a reversal of that trend in the year to come and I think I need a heartier seatbelt. Laurelle and I both have some exciting challenges ahead in our careers and I’m once again throwing myself into the depths of discomfort in taking on a new role and professional act in my life. I feel more confident in my abilities then ever before and excited to put them to the test.
2022 is likely the year that Laurelle and I buy our first home. The Austin market seems to have escape velocity that’s uncontrollable and we have to decide if we want to jump on the wave or wait for it to crash ashore with rising interest rates, no crystal ball here.
In years past I’ve been reticent to leave myself concrete goals. I’ve taken the approach that life is a bit of a blender and when you throw the right things in, you’ll come out with a delicious mixture worth drinking. So here are my ingredients for a year of success ahead:
“Don’t focus on building a wall, just LAY ANOTHER BRICK” Will Smith - Just focus on your inputs and the outputs will be a masterpiece
“Find a consistent balance of substantive and catalytic” - Continue to find the balance that promotes: create > consume
“fend off negativity, remain solutions oriented and put up blinders” It’s too easy to throw fuel on the fire of concern, stay hopeful and optimistic and solve problems, don’t create them
In the concrete, these are the promises I’m making to myself for the year ahead:
Take no fucking prisoners but emotionally divest from the outcome of my work! Go even harder in my business pursuits then ever before but work after all is part of a virtuous life and the destination is less important than the journey
Family matters most. Judgements and grudges have no place here - family is all we have in the end. Let this set the record straight.
Partnership is everything. Whether with Laurelle, friends or business colleagues, everything I look to do this year should be in service to the mutual benefit vs. an exploitation of ones interests.
“A most dangerous temptation is the temptation to prepare to live, instead of living. The future does not belong to you. Therefore, remember to live the best way you know now. The only perfection necessary is perfection in love, which can be reached only in the present. It’s why we came into this world.” - Tolstoy
With that, 2022, let’s see what you got!