Relationships: At the Heart of All that Matters

Getting your head and your heart right is critically important to a life well-lived, as well as the business of commercial real estatte. When your heart and your head are right, all the issues of performance and discipline and success – however you define it – tend to fall into place a lot faster. When your heart and your head are right, in the challenging moments when things aren’t going as expected, you meet adversity in a more focused way and perform better.

The fact is, those challenges will come as we live in a world of tension. We experience joy and celebration, milestones in our business, and growth within our families, but at the same time we encounter loss, physical and emotional challenges, and even business performance that we know isn’t up to our personal standards. It is rarely just the joy we experience or just the challenges; and that’s where we meet the tension. Learning to explore that tension allows us to be present and engaged in all seasons of life. It allows us to celebrate the joys and to truly wade into the tough experiences while being present with those who need us the most.
 
Last year at Foundry, we had a difficult season within our family. People experienced tragic loss and faced significant physical challenges, and many have watched our loved ones experience times of pain and sorrow. These difficulties have been weighing heavily on our minds, a constant drumbeat of the past year.

What makes loss and challenge so difficult is the same thing that makes joy and celebration so meaningful: our relationships with others. I believe that humans were built for relationships. 

Considering all the challenges of the past year, I found myself asking: “Are relationships part of the language at Foundry?” I will submit to you that everything we do has its base in relationships. All our successes and failures have their base in relationships. Everyone is here because of a relationship, or because you were seeking better relationships. 

There are two kinds of relationships, conditional and unconditional.

Conditional, or often transactional, relationships states: “if you do good for me, I do good for you.” When things are going well, we have a good relationship; yet when things go bad, we have a bad relationship. Alternatively, unconditional or authentic relationships are those most of us have with our children, spouses, faith, and our partnerships. Love is typically our response in these relationships regardless of how the other party behaves. Often, these relationships are solidified in times of trials and tribulations. When something is going wrong in one of these relationships, we find ourselves asking “how can we work this out?” and “what can I do to get better for the sake of this relationship?”. These relationships are consistent and dependable.

If only it were so easy to draw the line between conditional and unconditional relationships. Due to tension, relationships – both personal and professional – are often imperfect and messy because people are involved.  

I’m reminded of a quote from President George W. Bush: “Too often, we judge other groups by their worst examples, while judging ourselves by our 
best intentions.”

It is my hope that when people talk about Foundry, they talk about our commitment to relationships. The best associates, the best leaders, the ones we look up to — our best relationships — are the ones who are consistently there for us, especially when we fail. We will often perform our best in these relationships because we believe, and we have experience that informs us, that these people are there for us. Our performance is motivated by gratitude, and no force on the planet is more powerful then one motivated by gratitude.

Can we be a firm that embraces that level of commitment to one another, to our clients, to our capital partners, and to the communities we serve? Can we be motivated by the mission that’s bigger than ourselves?

The money, the success, the awards, the promotions, the business wins… they all go away. None of it lasts. It’s important, but it’s vapor and you can never hold onto it.  Maybe you make enough money to be buried with your boat, but you aren’t going sailing.

Human beings spend way too much time worrying about things that don’t last. When you let go of those things and put them in proper perspective, we perform better because we’re free. When we are free of worrying about loss, we actually treat people the way we want to be treated.

Our unconditional, lasting relationships are just that, and it hurts deeply when they are gone, and we feel an immense amount of joy when they are a part of our lives. After it is all said and done, the only thing that will last are the memories, the experiences, the celebrations, how we played as a team, how we impacted our families, how we impacted communities, the losses, the fights, the laughter… in a word, relationships. 

The better we become at relationships, the more meaning our business will have. It will last longer. It will have an impact. We will be more successful. 

Foundry Commercial’s Mission

To build something different, an alternative that unleashes talent to serve clients and connect capital to markets in unique ways. Foundry Commercial is a place where people have fun working together creating a lasting impact at Foundry and in our communities. 

Guiding Principles

1. We treat others the way we want to be treated and serve our communities.
2. We seek to unlock the most talented and courageous people in the industry.
3. We connect relationships, capital to markets, and talent to client solutions.
4. We play as one team, we have fun together, no silos.
5. We take our associates, clients and partners’ success personally.