Thread by @DanielWeisfield

Why I went from Yale and McKinsey to managing mobile home parks. A thread. 🧵👇

This thread is personal. Trying to shed light on who I am and why I've made certain choices. Inspired by @financeguy725. >> I hope this might help other folks who are aspiring to leave W-2 life and take the #Entrepreneurship plunge. #retwit

I come from a scrappy immigrant family. My mom grew up on a chicken farm in Israel. My grandpa (who's like a 2nd dad to me) moved the fam to America to get a better life. He bought wrecked cars at junkyards, fixed them up in his backyard and sold them at a profit. Pure hustle.

My grandpa taught me how to fix lawnmowers and weed wackers and how to build fences. Took me to junkyards to buy spare parts. "We don't know exactly how we'll do it, but that won't stop us from diving in and figuring it out."

He would always say in a thick Israeli accent: "A dollar is a dollar is a dollar."

Once my grandpa had saved up enough cash from fixing cars, he bought a small #mobilehomepark. And he was happy to use debt. "The price was $300k, but I always say it only cost me $50k, because the property's cashflow covered the mortgage."

Being a poor immigrant kid was formative for my mom. She came to America at age 12. Wanted to fit in by wearing the jeans that the other girls at school had, but her folks couldn't afford them. So...once she had kids, she was focused on "success," stability, and fitting in.

So...like lots of kids from immigrant families, I reached for brass rings. I went to @Yale for undergrad. (Loved it.
Totally transformative experience for a California kid, and it opened tons of doors). Worked hard and graduated magna cum laude.

I even got into @Harvard Law School! Cracks me up now b/c it sounds like a punchline to some joke about Jewish immigrant families. I had no interest in practicing law but dutifully did the JD. Picked @YaleLawSch when I found out it was pass/fail 😀

I then spent several years at @McKinsey advising Fortune 500 companies on their toughest challenges. I was sub-par on the analytical side of the job...but realized that my strength was thinking outside the box and creating opportunities where nothing currently existed.

In other words, what set me apart at @McKinsey was hustling and being scrappy. The stuff I absorbed from my grandpa when we'd drive around to junkyards in Seattle in his rickety pick-up truck looking for spare parts.

When I left @McKinsey I faced my first real career dilemma. Until that point there was a logical progression: undergrad, JD/MBA, elite job at an elite company.

Now I was 31, married with a young kid...and who did I actually want to be? Keep climbing the brand-name ladder, AKA the safe route? Or take a risk and make a bet on myself...like my grandpa had done when he immigrated to the US and started fixing cars in his backyard.

I had an internal tug of war.

I finally decided that I wanted to be like my scrappy immigrant grandfather.

If I passed up the chance to make a bet on myself, I wouldn't respect myself.

If my grandpa could make it in America (with a heavy accent and no money and no connections)...shouldn't I be ten times as likely to make it, with my American accent and fancy degrees and so many other blessings?

So I started Three Pillar Communities with Yoel in 2017. Best professional decision I ever made. Tons of challenges (financial, family, employees, residents, etc.) but we own 100% of every victory and every failure.

We hope/plan to run TPC for the next 30+ years, but if we had to shut it down for some reason, Yoel and I would immediately start (or buy) another company. I can't imagine ever having a "job" again.

So...that's how I left Yale and McKinsey to become a #mobilehomepark entrepreneur. I hope this is useful to someone out there in Twitterland. @moseskagan @abakermont @Keith_Wasserman gratuitously tagging you to piggyback off of your twitter fame. #retwit

By the way - if any of this resonated with you and you want to follow Three Pillar Communities or invest in our deals, you can join our email list here: threepillarcommunities.com/mailing-list

Or...come meet me! I'm about to launch our #mobilehomepark 2022 world tour. RSVP here: lnkd.in/eJrQz4sv