Francis Greenburger on Risk, Real Estate, and Business
Francis Greenburger is the legendary real estate developer who is Chairman & CEO of Time Equities and owner of the literary agency Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, which has represented noted authors such as Dan Brown, James Patterson, Nicholas Sparks, and Nelson DeMille. He is the founder & chairman of Art Omi (previously Omi International Arts Center) and The Greenburger Center for Social and Criminal Justice, and the bestselling author of Risk Game: Self-Portrait of an Entrepreneur.
Podcast Highlights
- Who is Francis Greenburger?
Francis Greenburger grew up in New York City where his parents were upper class but his father as a solopreneur never really made a significant amount of money. The first thing that Francis was blessed with was the confidence of his parents in his ability to achieve his goals. That went together with his natural knack for business. He started working for his father after school when he was 12 years old. His innate qualities gave him the early characteristics and motivations to be an entrepreneur.
One of the things that Francis has said is that if you don’t like risk, you shouldn’t be an entrepreneur. For Francis, risk is just part of the gig.
- Do you see any parallels between cell phones and digital communication and the advent of television?
The evolution of digital communication has changed the nature of communication. It’s also made it more personal with social media and email, there is a lot of interpersonal communication happening now. Humans have a basic need to communicate and now there are more ways than ever.
- Parental Confidence
There are certainly people who have parents who are not encouraging or present. Francis recalls a comment made during a tennis match, where two different players of equal skill are compared, and the observation was that the deciding factor will be self confidence. Having parents that believe in you alongside his mentors empowered Francis and gave him the confidence to face the challenges that all entrepreneurs have to face.
The buy in that someone gets from mentors they respect can be very empowering and confidence building, even when parents haven’t provided that.
- What do you consider risky?
Francis uses the term “intelligent risk” to describe the process of evaluating risks. Intelligent risk is not a gamble, it’s a calculated and measured action with research and analysis behind it. Francis has a theory that if you’re going into a generic marketplace where you are just offering more of the same, it’s very hard as an entrepreneur to compete on price and that’s all you’re really left with. Look for markets that aren’t being addressed and try to find solutions to meet those unmet needs.
Imagine what you could accomplish if you weren’t afraid to fail.
- What would you say are unaddressed needs in the real estate space?
Under occupied office buildings are one such issue. Sometimes an office maybe be under occupied because of a reputation problem from the past but it may have the features that allow you to lower your cost basis, which means you can also rent out the space for less. These can be the ingredients that allow you to be competitive in the market.
- Why did you go into real estate?