I’m an entrepreneur, and my McGill MBA has given me what I like to call the “liberal arts education for how to survive in the real world.”
To succeed in business you need to master its languages. The McGill MBA taught me the language of accounting, finance and spreadsheets. But it also offered up exciting courses in negotiations, leadership, small business and business law. When I graduated I knew I could go and start any business I wanted. It was an exhilarating feeling.
I chose to study at McGill simply because it was considered the best school in Canada. For both my undergraduate degree and my MBA, I only applied to McGill. I applied from Israel. I was drawn by the opportunity to study at an urban campus setting in a vibrant city like Montreal. I lived in residence during my first year, then Park Ex and later Milton-Parc just east of campus – each with its own unique experience.
Looking back, what stands out from my McGill experience was the international makeup of the student body and the urban setting of Montreal. In business school, I spent intense time working in study groups on campus with classmates from all over the world, developing friendships and sharing a feeling of camaraderie. This taught me to work with people – to sit together and grind out business plans, and then set out on a pub crawl or head to Thompson House.
In my second year of business school, I started studying in the evening so that I could work full time during the day, building on a summer opportunity at a film company. I moved to Los Angeles, California and leveraged my business education and my fondness for spreadsheets to write business plans for dot-com companies and later to consult various small business clients and companies by showing them how to analyze their profit and losses. Soon the opportunity arose to start investing in real estate.
At the time and with the modest means we had, my wife and I took a chance and leveraged our first home to invest in a dilapidated home across the street. At the time we lived in an undiscovered neighborhood. We later shifted to apartment buildings, and also developed an interior design company that has gone on to spearhead national trends and a unique style that has redefined L.A.’s Eastside.
In both real estate investment and managing the marketing and business side of our company today, my training in accounting and finance remain essential. My BA also helped me develop a critical approach to everything, which I think is important.
My advice to students today that want to pursue a career in real estate is to get started early if you can, right after graduation, with what your means allow. Take some risks and try to be at the cutting edge; look where it’s spreading and go beyond that.