Since beginning the TAMU Master of Real Estate program, I’ve learned a great deal. One of my
favorite takeaways though is coming a long way in determining what I want to do
as a professional. For our speaker series class, I was required to write a
short paper about my plans for the future, especially given the things I’d
heard over the past few months. What follows is an excerpt from that paper
including some of the valuable lessons I learned from listening to Mr. Bill
Shown—the managing director of real estate for Silver Ventures.
“I’m most attracted to the prospect of
building lasting, tangible infrastructure that can improve the livelihood of
others and enhance the economy of an area. Much of the reasoning behind this
decision came directly as a result of my deductions from listening to the
speakers in our class.
Over the course of the past 13 weeks, I
encountered few concepts from our class speakers so intriguing to me that I can
recall them purely from memory. Two of these pearls of wisdom came from Mr.
Bill Shown with Silver Ventures. In speaking about the hindrances that faced
the development of the Pearl brewery and his decision to stay with the property
regardless, Mr. Shown emphasized the importance of identifying one’s legacy in
their career. He was initially leery about any development of the brewery but
had grown to realize its potential to positively transform the surrounding area
and even the city of San Antonio. The company he was with had decided to
abandon the deal so Mr. Shown left his firm in order to stay and help lead the
development of the Pearl. The second takeaway I gained from his presentation
had to do with vision. Mr. Shown encountered crossroads where he could pursue
the most “financially sensible” path with the real estate around the brewery,
or perpetuate the entrepreneurial atmosphere and therefore riskier path. Though
his decision may not have been a basic dilemma of ethics over financial gain,
his integrity in maintaining the atmosphere of the area instead of chasing a
bottom line was commendable. In the end, the entrepreneur Mr. Shown supported
brought in a revenue stream that far surpassed the company he initially
considered for the property. These lessons played a decisive role in my
considerations for different roles in the commercial real estate industry. As a
developer, clearly I could hold to my principles and potentially make an even
greater impact in the community.”
