Use the Situation to Your Advantage: A Real World Lesson in Strategic Thinking

What do you do when the rules change, and everything seems stacked against you?

In this episode of 10 Keys to Thrive, Jim Krigbaum shares the story of a successful landlord whose development plans were repeatedly challenged by city regulations and community opposition. Instead of continuing to fight the system, he stepped back, understood what truly mattered to the people involved, and completely changed his strategy.

The result is a fascinating lesson in understanding your market, adapting when circumstances change, and turning resistance into an opportunity. By recognizing what people valued most, he transformed a frustrating situation into an outcome that ultimately worked for him and the community.

Jim challenges you to look at your own business and life differently. Instead of fighting every obstacle, ask yourself: How can I use this situation to my advantage?

Sometimes winning isn't about pushing harder. It's about understanding the market well enough to change the game.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Today we're going to talk about a landlord who utilized his knowledge of the market to get what he wanted from city council that had been fighting him every step of the way. Join us and you'll see how to apply the principles to daily activities, whether it's food, whether it's marketing, international trade, understanding the market is a key. Listen to how this individual changed, changed his projectory, changed his plans, and changed his fate based on understanding the market.

SPEAKER_00 0:25

If you're not getting the results you want in your business, your team, or your life, it's rarely a lack of effort. It's a gap in how you think, decide, and lead. So welcome to Ten Keys to Thrive, where practical wisdom meets real world results. Each and every episode gives you simple, proven tools to improve your decisions, strengthen relationships, and drive better outcomes right away. Drawing on decades of global leadership experience, Jim brings practical insights shaped by real-world challenges and results. So here's your host, Jim Krigbaum.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

Welcome back to Ten Keys Surviving Business and Life. I'm your mentor and host, Jim Krigbaum. Today we're talking about a friend of mine who was the largest landowner in a college town. He had apartments that he rented out to students, about 700 doors. He would purchase property close to the university whenever it became available. He was the largest taxpayer outside of the university and one of the large electronics companies that had an operation there. So he had a significant influence. But every time he went to city council to get a building permit, he was challenged by the same 15, 20 people showed up at every meeting to challenge him, people that really wanted to make their influence heard. Most of the time it was only those 20 people, wasn't a lot of other people coming in because it didn't impact other people. But these people made it their mission to make his life difficult, to try and maintain the status quo that they had, which in a lot of cases were low. He'd go in and purchase a building, he'd then renovate it, he'd modernize it, he'd put in sprinkler systems, he'd put in alarms, he'd make it more marketable, but also safer and more in compliance with the codes. And that didn't always make him popular with the city council. Because a lot of times he was changing buildings that were old and had an outside appearance they liked. He tried to maintain the outside appearance as much as possible, but to meet the new codes, a lot of times it was difficult. He also had the ability when something happens, for example, a storm came through and a number of trees fell into people's houses. Those people would then make a settlement with their insurance company. He'd then go to them and say, Hey, I'll buy your property as is. You don't need to take the money that you got the settlement to rebuild your house. You can move, you can do whatever you want to, you can go on vacation with the mun one, whatever. I'm going to, I'll buy your property as is. Because he'd buy it, he'd then knock down the present facilities of the house or whatever that was there, which is already damaged from the storm, and then he'd build his own facilities and build apartments for the students. In one situation, he brought a sorority that got out of business and he was going to change it into apartments. So he's going to tear down the existing building and put up apartments. He filed all his permits, he met all the codes, but then the city changed the codes. The city said you had to have so many parking spots per resident, which was fine because he was able to maximize that and still keep the economics working. It was all a cost and value return situation where he had to figure out how much was he going to make and how much was he going to invest. And he had to get a certain number of units out of this to make that was all fine until the city then said between the rows of cars, you had to put a row of trees. This row of trees then took up a number of parking spots, so he had to cut down the number of units that he could build on this property. He says, that doesn't work. The economics isn't there. And those same 20 people that made an influence because they wrote it and they had a loud voice would then say, That's too bad. You just have to do this. This is the new rules. They changed, but this is the way they are. And he was all bummed out. He's like, you know, I can't fight these people all the time, and then I can't make the economics work if I have to decrease the number of parking spots by putting in these rows of trees. So he went back and he was really disappointed and frustrated. And he's out raking his yard, and a guy came riding by on his bicycle. And a guy came riding by and said, Hey, you were at the city council meeting last night. And he's like, Oh gosh, here he goes. This guy's going to give me a bad time. And he says, I was listening to that, and he says, I just wanted you to let you know that I'm in charge of the homeless project to provide shelter for homeless. So if you ever have facilities or opportunity to house these people, let me know. I'd be happy to take advantage of that. My friend is like, Yeah, I'm not in the business of providing that. I do my own charity work. In fact, he built a home for the employees of the Boys and Girls Club, then he donated it to the Boys and Girls Club. So he's done a lot to support the community, but he just wasn't in the mood. So this guy says, you know, if you can ever have a facility that we can have and use to house the homeless, that'd be great. My friend's like, forget it, whatever. Thanks for talking to you. And then he thought about it. And he was actually driving in his car one day and he pulled over and had to call his wife. He says, I got a great idea. He says, I'm going to donate that facilities, that sorority, to the homeless for one year for one dollar. I'm going to rent it to them for one dollar. He says that they'll be able to live there. Even if I had to go ahead today, it would take me that long to get all the contractors in line and everything else. So he says, I'm not really hurting that much by giving it to them, to letting them use it. So the next day he did that, he signed a contract with them, donated it. It hit the newspaper, and the newspaper said that donated to homeless in the neighborhood went crazy because they didn't want the homeless in their neighborhood. It was fine to have them someplace else, but they didn't want them there. So the next day, they went back to the city council, they changed the regulations, allowed him to build his facilities with the right number of parking spots and some beautiful facilities. But what he did was he manipulated the market. He understood what the demand was, he understood how the people would react and how the people would react to having homeless in their area versus having extra parking spots or having to row trees. So he didn't fight him. He did a passive aggressive move that allowed his perspective to be known. He says, fine, you won't let me build here, I'll just go ahead and I'll rent it to the homeless. And people didn't want the homeless in their neighborhood, so they would rather have the homeless out and have fewer parking spots. So he was able to use the understanding of the market to use the ability to communicate and to have the trust of the people. So he changed the situation, was able to win the people the homeless, rented it for a year. After the year, they moved out. He was able to build his facilities. It doesn't have the rows of trees that the local neighborhood had wanted, but it also didn't have the homeless. And because of the quality in what he builds and the image that he has and the visibility of the house, it's a very attractive facility. So the neighborhood is actually really pleased now that they have these facilities. How can you apply these principles to what you do? How can you understand the market and utilize what they're thinking and their action, even if it's a negative action to you? How can you use it to make a positive? How can you use it to accomplish your goals and your objectives? If you find this interesting, stay tuned to the 10 Keys to Thrive in Business and Life. Pass it on, share, apply these principles to your own situation. Thanks.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

So that's it for today's episode of Ten Keys to Thrive. Head on over to Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. Be sure to head on over to 10keystotrive.com to pick up a free copy of Jim's gift. And join us on the next episode.