Dare to Dream!
51
In the spring of 2006, I was retained by a gentleman named Sid to consult with him on a project. I want to share the abridged version of Sid’s story with you because Sid is passionate about what he does—and it’s paid off big time! Sid is a very wealthy man—a billionaire. In 1961, when Sid was 40 years old, he found himself unemployed. He had roomed in college with a gentleman named Marriott—perhaps you’ve heard of him. Sid called Marriott, who lived and worked on the East Coast, and told him of his situation. Marriott offered Sid a job, and Sid was off with his family to live in the Eastern States. Sid was an engineer—and a good one at that. Marriott knew that and put Sid in charge of working up changes for the hotels he was building. After working together for a short time, Sid made a proposal to the Marriotts that would have him breaking off on his own and contracting with the Marriotts’ hotel chain. They didn’t bite. Sid decided to set off on his own. Just a couple of years after being flat broke and moving his family across the country, Sid saw the opportunity that awaited him with the expansion in the Washington, D.C. area and decided to get his piece of the pie. In 1963 he started a construction company and began building. Today, Sid’s company is a monolithic, privately held company that builds, owns, manages, rents out, and maintains its expansive portfolio of commercial real estate. As we were enjoying dinner together one evening, Sid told me he never planned to be a billionaire. He said that one day, many years ago, one of his sons told him, “Dad, you’re worth a billion dollars.” He has repeated that success many times over now. So if Sid wasn’t passionate about becoming a billionaire,