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Jon Altschuler: Scattershooting the Industry and the New Year

My ode to Blackie Sherrod includes random thoughts on the Texas economy, parking ratios, and the hottest regional office market.
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It was important to my father that I become a proficient writer, so he encouraged me to read as much as I could. He didn’t care what I was reading, so long as I was reading. As a result I found myself reading lots of Sports Illustrated and Skip Bayless. I remember reading one Bayless column hundreds of times (it was pinned to my wall) that was written on Larry Bird after Bird and his Boston Celtics dismantled the Detroit Pistons in the NBA playoffs (before the Pistons became the Bad Boys). On Sundays I would read the work of Blackie Sherrod, albeit not as enthusiastically. Sherrod was probably 35 years older than Bayless, and I remember his pieces always starting something along the lines of “Scattershooting, some hither while others yon.” It was always a bunch of random thoughts, some on sports. But as I got older I appreciated Blackie’s approach more and more. So here’s a scattershooting attempt of my own:

How much more legs the national economy or Texas economy have, I don’t know. But I would bet my money on the Texas economy to continue outperforming the national one.   

My parents joined us for all of Christmas Day. It was nice. My mother and I didn’t say much. We rarely do. At one point she asked me how long I had been off of Facebook. I estimated eight weeks. She said she could tell. My personality was better. I didn’t respond.

So that you know, I got off Facebook in early October, posting that I would return after the inauguration. My sense then was that I was tired of all of the failed frequent faulty political commentary. Today a good friend remarked that curiosity is so much more intriguing than certainty; I realized at that moment that this is why I’ve enjoyed my Facebook hiatus: I haven’t read all of the proclamations, grounded in self-assured certainty, in weeks. I think my mom’s right—my personality is better. 

Does anyone else sense a pending transit crisis here in Dallas? Right now, at this very moment, I’d double our capacity. Run twice the buses, twice the trains. Amp up the capacity. See if ridership escalates. I’m not certain of it, but my gut tells me it will. In any event, I’m curious to know, and I’m serious. Our transit has two challenges: one, it doesn’t run often enough; two, it doesn’t run far enough. Solving the “often enough” isn’t that difficult. Double the capacity now.

 Like you, I loved this year’s Cowboys team. They approached their work like we all should approach our work: with youthful energy, liking one another, understanding their roles, always trying but rarely pressing. It still concerns me that the coaching staff didn’t manage the clock well. I think doing so is football’s ultimate sign of savvy.

 Have you seen Tom Brady’s Foot Locker commercial? I don’t think he thinks he had anything to do with deflating footballs.

 If someone put a gun to your head and said you had to be successful right now building and leasing a 100,000-square-foot office building, where would you do so? I’d do so in the Dallas Design District.  

 You think you need 6:1,000 parking on your downtown lease, but you don’t—not if at least a third of your employees are under 30.  

 Fearing Rex Tillerson’s appointment as secretary of state because he has too cozy of a relationship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin goes against everything I’ve learned in business since 1994.

 Open office is the way to go, but you need lots of private space. We’ll address that in our next office.

 Speaking of office design, the challenge of many tenants on a multi-tenant floor is how to handle the suite arrival and the balance of the diminishing role of receptionists and waiting areas. I’d be interested to see your best solutions.

 I have four kids and have coached my fair share of youth sports. Take me at my word here: you direct the player with the ball at your own peril. During the game, coaching should be limited to helping players get into the right position. Watch the next game with this rule in mind, and watch how many parents unknowingly force turnovers by their own players simply by addressing them while their player is handling the ball.

 If you had to go back to working with the technology of the year 2000 but could keep one piece of present-day technology, what would you keep? For me, I might keep LinkedIn and relinquish the rest.

 Happy New Year!

 Jon Altschuler is the founder of Altschuler + Co.

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