Successful people throughout history have been visionaries who reimagined industries and niches within industries. From his own humble beginnings Urs Ledermann has understood this important concept. Although I learned several things from my long talk with him, perhaps none were as interesting to me as his belief that the best way to predict the future is to create it.
Humble Beginnings
I don’t come from a real estate family, and I certainly didn’t study real estate at university. I began my career as a headhunter, finding the perfect employees for large corporations seeking the best talent. I saw there was an open niche in the market at the time, and I wanted to solve this problem.
Although I enjoyed building a business in the headhunting game, I was quite aware of the volatility of the market. Companies have roles they want to be filled, and they bring you in to find the perfect employee. When you succeed, you make a nice commission, but a shrinking economy causes the entire headhunting industry to disappear. If companies aren’t seeking new employees, my entire customer base disappears.
I was in my early 20s and decided that it would be nice to have a house and find a way to balance out my income. I was seeking a source of revenue that would not be as vulnerable to ...
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