664: David Adelman - 664: David Adelman - Campus Apartments CEO and 76ers Co-Owner on Losing a Big Bet, Bar Mitzvah Real Estate Deals, His Grandfather's Holocaust Survival Story, and Building Philadelphia's New Arena

0:02Welcome to the Learning Leader Show. I am your host, Ryan Hawk. Thank you so much for being here. Go to learningleader.com for show notes of this and all podcast episodes. Go to learningleader.com. Now on to tonight's featured leader. David Adelman is the CEO of Campus Apartments, founder of Darko Capital, and co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers. During our conversation, we discuss how losing a basketball bet at age 11 changed his life. Then we talk about investing his bar mitzvah money in real estate, becoming a CEO at age 25, his grandfather's Holocaust survival story and why it gives him so much perspective on struggle, embracing failure, the trade-offs of building something excellent, and what he looks for when hiring leaders.

0:59Ladies and gentlemen, please enjoy my conversation with David Adelman. This episode is brought to you by Insight Global. I love the leadership team and the people at Insight Global. Insight Global is a staffing and professional services company dedicated to being the light to the world around them. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through talent or technical services, Insight Global's team of 30 ,000 people around the world have the hustle and grit to deliver. Hiring can be tough, but hiring the right person can be magic. Visit insightglobal.com slash learning leader today to learn more.

1:45That's insightglobal.com slash learning leader. Can we start when you're 11 years old? This is a crazy story. There's this family friend, Alan Horwitz, I believe. He challenges you to a basketball game. Can you tell me about this? Like what happened when you were 11? Yeah. So, you know, I'm sure you have. Everyone has that kind of friend or family friend that they call uncle, who's not really their uncle, but like becomes like more than family. So I have this crazy uncle Alan growing up and he's the family friend who was just like the cool guy, like always driving like cool cars when you're a kid.

2:22I remember he had a Corvette, and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world. And I'm 11 years old, and we're playing basketball. And I guess as a kid, you're kind of like, I'll beat you. I'll bet you I can beat you. Guys like you or I would probably let the 11-year-old kid win. I don't know. Would you? Maybe. I don't know. He's a really competitive guy. I mean, he's 83 today, and he will kill you for a quarter on the golf course, right? If you're trying to putt or whatever, he loves it. So he's just a high-energy guy. And he just said, I'm going to teach you about betting. He's like, well, what do you want to bet?

2:55I didn't have money. I'm 11. And he's like, how about that baseball glove? And I'm like, okay. And I lose. And I'm like, again, I remember, he's like, how about your football? Right? So I literally, this happens for like 30 minutes. I lose my baseball glove, my football, my basketball. And then I don't know if you remember when you were a kid, but you'd have a bank book that was like your money in it. Right? Okay. And I lose my bank book to him too. And my parents are dying laughing. Like, you know, I don't know that like whatever. And so like I had to go down to his office. So he's the founder of Campus Apartments.

3:30I'm actually sitting in this building, you know, 40 years later. He says, you got to come down here and stack lumber every Saturday and sweep sawdust. And I'll give you one item back. You have to work it off. He's like, it's called working off your debt. And I was like, okay. You know, I didn't know. And my parents were like, this is great. Go do it. and you know each week i went down there i got dirty i pushed a broom with some sawdust i had to uh move some stuff around and i got one thing back and so the story continues that two years later i'm 13 years old i have my bar mitzvah and i have some gift money and my parents like hey do you want to give it to your grandfather he was really good at picking stocks and things like that and i'm like no i want to give it to uncle alan and buy real estate at 13 they're like you want to do what?

4:17Like they thought it was like the craziest thing in the world. And so literally I get in the car with him and he goes, well, what building? And I said, well, what do you own? And you know, where I am in Philadelphia right now is surrounding University of Pennsylvania's campus. Alan was one of the early pioneers in student housing where like, he really thought that was like a dedicated asset class versus a hobby for somebody renting out a duplex to a college kid. Right. And so I drove around and I'm finally like that one, we get out and we look around and he's like, well, why this one? I said, because it's the biggest one you have.

4:50I don't know shit about real estate at the time, but I'm like, okay. And so literally like I hand him my$2 ,000 and I'm a partner in real estate. And like literally he taught me the business from a kid on. Wow. I feel like when you're 13 and you get 2000 bucks, you're like, I want to go buy some video games hell yeah candy jordans yeah music how did you have this kind of foresight this like adult viewpoint of no let me find a way to invest so that this thing can grow like where did you learn that well it's funny because he would also like have these lessons about the value of a dollar yeah and so like it just started resonating with me and like i'm like so it just felt like investing was the right thing my parents were like you got to invest it and you can't blow it on, you know, on candy and, you know, and sneakers.

5:40So like, I knew I was going to have to do something with it. He was one of those entrepreneurs who, you know, never went to college, you know, was doing this from the time he was a kid, a really interesting story. His father died when he was 10 years old, leaving him and his mother, some real estate in a rough part of Philadelphia. And then he was with his mom at the university of Pennsylvania, saw kids waiting outside a broker's office, like a realtor's office. And he's like, mom, Kids are waiting in line for apartments. It's a captive audience here. So he had this epiphany as like a 16-year-old kid.

6:08It was crazy. Wow. Wow. Okay. I love it. And I think going back to your family history, there's even more incredible stories, especially from your grandfather and the Holocaust. Can you tell me the story about your grandfather? Yeah. Thanks for asking. It's just, he was a wonderful guy. And so he really gave me a lot of the values I have today. And I built the Philadelphia Holocaust Memorial, and we named it after him and my uncle, actually. But just a really great guy who in Poland had a wife and two kids, gets rounded up by the Nazis, taken to a prisoner camp. And there's two lines, one for men and then one for women and children, and never saw his wife and kids again.

6:50You know, they were obviously killed, and, you know, he was in a prison camp. And the interesting thing about him is that he wound up escaping from his prison camp. and there was a movie about this called Escape from Sobibor he escaped from the Sobibor prison camp then became a freedom fighter against the Nazis got shot and was in a hospital recovering and there was a woman there with her brother checking on her brother who was injured sees a lonely soldier like in the corner of the hospital unattended and goes over to just like be like you know the humanity like you okay whatever that's my grandmother and so literally meets my grandmother in the hospital and my mother what was born after the war and what was most people don't know this but after they liberated you know america the u.s soldiers came and liberated the camps they didn't know what to do with all these people right they were pulled from around europe to these concentration camps so they set up what was called displaced persons camps like literally like these refugee camps where people live it was not like that sad but it was like until people get their lives together uh so my mom was born in a displaced persons camp.

7:57And her passport still says, like, West Germany, right? There's not West Germany anymore, right? Then they moved to Israel for 10 years and then came to the States. My grandfather became a carpenter here, was a proud member of the Carpenters Union here. So it's funny because I'm building this new arena in Philadelphia that we may talk about. And the Carpenters Union, when I told them the story about him, they found his union membership card from the 60s. So it was pretty wild. Wow, man. When you think about the stories of your grandfather, your grandmother, your parents, how does that impact you and how hard you work and how ambitious you are and how philanthropic you are, how you want to help others and serve?

8:37I can't even imagine with, that's not my family background. My family background is cool and I'm super grateful, but it's certainly not that. How does that impact you as a leader, as a husband, as a dad, as a community leader? I'm just curious the impact that has on you. Yeah, look, a lot to unpack there. But what what I would say is it does a few things. One, no matter what, when I'm getting the crap kicked out of me in business or anything else, like I don't know struggle. Okay. And so what it really taught me was, and I've been through some really like tough business situations and, you know, that's not pressure.

9:13And so I would think about my grandfather, what he went through and I'm like, that guy knew pressure. Right. And, you know, made it through the other side. So like, I'd kind of say, like, I have to stop being a little bitch about it and like, kind of like lean in and let's go. And so I think what it does is one from the philanthropy perspective, you know, particularly in the Holocaust education and things like that, like I want people to know my grandfather's story. I don't do well with, you know, the Holocaust deniers that doesn't sit well with me. And so I feel a duty from a educational perspective and a philanthropic perspective to fund those type of initiatives.

9:47I think it's important for my kids and their kids to know about their grandfather and the others like him and what they went through. This may be a weird question, but as you're growing up, how important was it to you to become a wealthy person, meaning a guy who makes a ton of money? I definitely, you know, so, you know, I have this mentor and Uncle Alan. My father was a psychologist, but like a successful one, like opened up mental health clinics. Like, so I had people in my life that I watched. I had friends and their parents watched that I thought that I respected in business. and for me, you start off if you're in business to say like, well, it's about the money, right?

10:24I want to make money. You know, after you've done okay, it has to be about something else. You're like, why are you still going? And by the way, I have friends who have sold their businesses in their 40s or 50s. They're like, I'm good. I'm out. I would be like, I really though. Do you have, because like I've seen the ones who do that, guys who made a ton of money like you, billionaires, whatever. You can't almost become that if you're able to turn it off. And I mean, there's good and bad parts about that. Like, so like for me, I've seen those types and they're not really able to just chill. They can for like a couple of days.

10:59And then it's like, wait, what am I doing next? What impact am I going to have on the world? Like, how am I going to help people? Like, it just seems as though the people who are able to accomplish those big things, maybe have a big exit, whatever it is, they're not able to chill. It's not a part of their being. Yeah. So I agree with that. I think what I've seen in my experience is the guys or gals who call it quits said, you know what? I'm okay. I'm comfortable. Right. And they've defined what their comfortable is. And, you know, maybe it's two vacations, but like, they've got their budget and they're good.

11:29Or maybe they did well and they have the beach house and they're like, I hit my bid and I'm good. I agree with you. Like, you know, the guys I roll with and the women in business, like, you know, for us, it's like, like, it's not about money, right? Like you either are wired to get up and work hard every day and do it. And it has to be about something else. It can be about the people who work with you or for you and providing great opportunities for them and their families. It could be because you're solving complex problems or like you're creating a business that you're just so excited about.

11:57Okay. And so for me, that's really the energy that I try to convey is that like, do something really amazing and enjoy it. And so back to Uncle Alan, he always said to me, whatever you do in life, it shouldn't feel like work. So, you know, I have never, never said I'm going to work. I say I'm going to the office. And I think that's a real difference in how I think about things, right? This isn't work. Now, am I tired sometimes and I'm run down and like there's some days where I wish the phone would stop ringing? A hundred percent. Did I miss a lot of stuff with my kids if you were talking to them?

12:32Absolutely. Right? And I have deep regret over that. So like, you know, there's good and bad, you know, with success and money comes a price too. I feel like to me, it feels like work, but it doesn't feel like a job because you still work really, really hard, but it's not like a job. It just what you do. So the other part of your story, though, that I wanted to get to you talk about Uncle Alan again. This is crazy to me. I read this. Tell me if this is true. He said, I realized that David would someday run the company because of his ambition. And then you became the CEO at 25. How did this happen?

13:11So what happened was Alan had built this really successful business in Philadelphia. And he enjoyed his life. He enjoyed, for him, who was a self-made guy and came from not a lot of money, I think for him it was like, I'm not going to be greedy. I'm going to build something great. And I'm going to enjoy myself. And so he found that balance that I wish I had and some of my friends had. And so I had this goal, like, as I started to really understand the student housing business and what was happening in the 1990s, no one was really doing it at a large scale nationally at the time. Okay. It was a nascent business.

13:48And I saw this, like, white space of, like, why aren't people doing this everywhere? And so, like, I live my life by this mantra, like, why not me and why not now? So, like, you see all these ideas and I'm like, well, fuck it. I'm kind of like, you know, let's do it. like, why not? Like, cause I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid to fail. And I think if you're not afraid to fail, it's a freedom. Do you draw from failures and your ability to bounce back? Is there, are there examples of times when you went all out, you committed everything you had and you lost and you were able to bounce back? I'm curious where that comes from.

14:24Cause I think it's easier said than actually done. It's sexy for us to say like, yeah, man, let's go. And if we fail, well, we fail. Who cares? But in reality, that's really, really hard to do. So how have you gotten good at that? It's a lot different when you're 33 versus 53 about how much you're willing to risk, right? So I might fail today. You know, I'm not going with chips all in either, right? So I have failures along the way, but I also believe if you don't fail, like you're not trying hard enough, like, and so I'm okay with that. So to answer your question, I think it really comes from the goal of like pushing yourself.

14:59And like, I have this other saying that when I'm mentoring kids, I'm like, embrace the suck. Okay. Like not everything's going to be fun. And some things are hard, but sometimes when you push through them, you get to another side of things. Sometimes you don't and pulling the plug is okay. If it's not working. Are there times when you had to pull the plug when it sucked really bad and you just embraced it? What's the time that that happened? I've had that happen in a lot of businesses where I'm back, you know, one part of my, I've, and I don't know if we're talking about it, but, you know, I spent a good part of my day, you know, kind of backing founders and other businesses and things where I become a partner and, you know, help somebody build their business.

15:33And I've gotten good at understanding like, hey, that business might be a great opportunity, a great idea and the wrong time. And so like, sometimes you have to make that decision of like, hey, you know what, this isn't the right thing. It's time to call it, take our losses. And, you know, look, I think failure today is more financial than, you know, emotional or psychological or what it could be earlier in your career. I like to think about trade-offs as we're building something special. You kind of briefly brought up the thought of your dad, your husband. And so sometimes there are trade-offs.

16:04You miss things as you're trying to build some. How do you... I don't like the word balance. But how do you manage the trade-offs that sometimes it takes of, hey, I'm going to miss out on this business opportunity to be with my family. And or, hey, I'm going to miss out on time with my family because I need to go meet with LeBron James or something to invest in his tequila company. Whatever. How do you think about trade-offs as you're building something special and trying to impact the world in a positive way? Yeah. And so what you're saying is very key is like as you're building something. And so I think earlier in your career, whoever it is, if you aren't willing to make sacrifices and build that foundation for the future, that's okay.

16:44Like being an entrepreneur might not be for you. And so like for me, I made choices along the way to miss certain things, my wife and kids. Now, I look back and I say, were all those things that I missed worth it? Probably not. Okay. You reflect. My daughters are 21 and 23 now. And, you know, I missed a lot of their early growing up and things that I wish I didn't. And the only thing you can do about that is make up for it later on. And so, like, my older one, my 23-year-old, about four years ago, you know, because I try to apologize to them whenever it comes up because I'm like, hey, I'm sorry if I missed that or whatever.

17:19And, you know, my older one's like, you know, we remember this dad more than that dad. And so like the point to that is it's never too late to make a change. But to your only point, like, how do you know? I think when you're building a business or building what you want your career to be. And, you know, for me, my career isn't one thing. It's kind of multidimensional and it's driven by curiosity. And so like sometimes I'm like, hey, I just got to go to this conference and I got to go hear about this. And like now, you know, I'm able to like, so the benefit now is I'm an empty nester. So I'll bring my wife with me where before I left my wife and kids at home.

17:54Right. So at least like I'll be able to like go to do something another day and hang out with my wife for dinner or later, whatever, you know, trying to get my, my youngest daughter is a senior in college. And I'm like, Hey, she's a little more predisposed to business. My older one is a teacher. And I'm like, Hey, do you want to come to this business thing with me? Right. So can I do it where I incorporate them into the mix here? I love that. You spend the bulk of your time around leaders who have sustained excellence over an extended period of time, whether they're professional athletes, they own a sports team like you do, again, do crazy, incredible philanthropic work.

18:32When you think about all of those people, David, this may take a second to think about, but when you think about them, what have you found to be some of the commonalities among those who have sustained excellence over an extended period of time? I think the drive and the goal to succeed. And so in sports, let's just take sports. I'm not going to name names. But when you see the athletes that show up for practice early, stay afterwards, and this is about them making themselves better, doing certain things, putting the time in. When I see business people who have already achieved enormous success and they do other great things, like, you know, case in point, I have two great partners in the Sixers, Josh Harris and David Blitzer.

19:15Josh was the founder of Apollo, an amazing private equity shop. You know, he retires from there. And then, you know, even though he's running sports teams, he goes and starts another unbelievable private equity firm. Right. And he's crushing it. You know, David Blitzer, my partner, you know, he's a really savvy investor. He's the first guy in the country to have owned an interest in all five pro sports leagues. And so it makes me feel better to know that I'm not the only one whose wiring is broken. Right. Because when you see when you You surround yourself with a bunch of people. Is it broken though?

19:44Why broken? It's different, right? It's not conventional, okay? I think it's not, you know, when what we're conditioned to learn is go to work, come home, do these things. I think it's changing now in the startup and founder environment where I think you're seeing people probably conditioned too much to the other side. And we could talk about this. I think too many people think they're slated to be an entrepreneur or founder. And what I advise people is you can be a great entrepreneur, but sometimes you might be better suited to be an entrepreneur in somebody else's business. Isn't the conventional path pretty boring?

20:19To me, it is. To me, it is. I couldn't do it. Have you always been that way since 11, since before that? I've always been that way that I was an underachiever in college, low SAT, low GPA. For me, I just wanted to get in the working world. That was for me. That's what I wanted. So do you think this is a wiring from birth or is it Uncle Alan's influence and others? It's kind of a nature versus nurture question, but I'm just curious because I like to think and have a growth mindset that this is available, but there are some things that you're probably just kind of born with, but I'd be curious to get your thoughts.

20:59I think you have to be born with some of it, but I think you also have to be willing, like the entrepreneurs that I see very successful are the ones that are open to learning. So like, I don't think I'm the smartest guy in the room. And, you know, I continue to want to learn about other people's businesses. You know, it could be the widget business that I know nothing about. And you'll see me like, if I meet somebody somewhere, I'm like, well, tell me about that business. I just want to learn about it. And so like, I think if you have that inquisitive mind, so for me, I look at it, I'm like, how do I solve that problem?

21:31Whatever that problem is. So some guys tell me he's in the widget business and I'll think like 10 things they should try to do. Like, it's not my business, but you know, why not? Just your mind is set up to always be asking questions, to be thinking of potential solutions to problems and then having those conversations with people. Yeah. So part of it is like, I definitely have like ADD and a touch of OCD, which is a weird combination. so i obsess over like really minutiae bullshit things for a short period of time like what like what like it could be anything in like you know so i'm a developer you know my day job's a real estate guy right so i'm building a new arena for the sixers and the flyers in philadelphia okay it's a 1.5 1.6 billion dollar project and like the stuff that i'm texting our guys about to like think about from like you know how the lights should be you know make sure we put up a drink rail.

22:26And so the latest one was literally, I'm like, Hey, we need to make sure that when a guy goes to the bathroom, he's standing at a urinal, we have drink rails. I love it. I love those little right. Because no one does that. Like very few people do it. And I'm like, everyone walks in there with a beer or soda or bottle of water. Like where are you putting it when you're at a urinal? Right. Yeah. And so like it's minutia that I think about, but it drives me, right. It drives me to be great. It drives me to have our teams be great. So I think of like another arena that's a newer one that seems to be different is uh steve balmer's uh with the clippers so would you just like call or text bomber and say hey man can we talk through like some of the cool stuff you did maybe some of the mistakes you made is that like part of your process when you're building an arena so you know we just it's funny we just toured steve's arena and you know his president she was terrific she took us around she answered all our questions like hey lessons learned troubles along the way.

23:18You're two years into it. What's not wearing well, like all of that. So what's really great about sports is as we were narrowing our selection on the architects and the contractors, I spoke to owners of like a handful of the newest football stadium teams, basketball, like just lessons learned about the process, you name it. And for me, like, I am never too embarrassed to say, like, I don't know something. Yeah. One of the things I talk to kids about when I mentor is like most people, I think that's just kids are afraid to say, I don't know, or I don't understand. I don't know, man. I think it's a superpower that it seems like you've got it.

23:52Yes. Everyone's got an ego to a certain extent and you've, you've had sustained excellence over time. So that would, that would maybe lead people to think that like, you know, it all, and obviously you don't like nobody does, especially when you're doing new things that maybe you haven't done before. I think coming at it like a beginner and being curious actually leads to really deep. I mean, this is what this podcast is. It leads to really deep conversations where you're a lot better off because you had zero fear of looking stupid, like no fear. And I get that sense from you that like, why, why does it matter?

24:25I'm just going to ask if I'm thinking it, let's ask. And I bet the people you're asking, enjoy it. They probably like the fact that you're that way. I think so. I like when people ask me questions, we, you know, I say this to groups all the time and our employees, like if you're embarrassed for looking stupid, isn't it worse if you don't know what you're doing down the road because you didn't ask someone how? Like, you know, so to me, it just shows you're listening when you're like, I don't understand that. Could you repeat that? You know, I think curiosity, man, is an ultimate act of love. It especially when you're learning about other people and asking them questions.

24:59That's how you build deep, meaningful relationships with people is just being genuinely into them and genuinely curious about their stories. And in your case, you can be genuinely curious about them, their business, what they're doing, and you could learn for what you're trying to do. Build an arena is a crazy project. I mean, that's insane. It doesn't happen that often. And so to do it, you might as well say, hey, I can be the dumbest guy in the room. I can ask those questions. I think that could, there's a lot of life lessons from that. I think, do you take that into other areas of your life?