Meet Michael Cook

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michael Cook. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi MICHAEL, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

Both my parents were extremely hardworking. My dad worked, and retired from, three full-time jobs at the same time. He was a police officer, he worked for the post office, and he did late night security at a Chicago Public school. My mom would take us up to the school a few nights a week when she got off work and we would hang out with my dad. Some times he would shoot baskets with us in the gym or make up a fun games while we wondered the hallways of the empty school. It seemed normal at the time that parents, especially fathers worked really hard for their families.

My brother and have both inherited those genes. After serving the Air Force for eight years, my brother consistently works 2 – 4 full time jobs in IT. While I consistently only work one job, its not uncommon for me to do 12 – 14 hr shifts. Its not just the hours on the job, its the sense of doing whatever it takes to be successful. That was the real message I received from my dad.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

During Covid, I started my own real estate private equity fund. I worked with my wife and a friend from business school and we raised $20m of equity and $30m of debt to purchase 150 homes. We also built a 65 home Build-to-Rent community. In addition to that, I also start a real estate technology company with some friends that I had worked with in the past. We created a real estate model that could predict real estate price appreciation down to the neighborhood and we built a best-in-class acquisition engine to assist investors that wanted to buy single family homes more efficiently.

I am still working with both of those companies today.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Irrational self-confidence, a willingness to learn/fail and a drive to succeed.

Irrational self-confidence: I have always been smart, but there is value in believing that you will always be successful, no matter what you do. It gives you the freedom to try different things. When there is never and I cant, but rather a how can I make this work, the world opens up tremendously.

Willingness to learn: When I graduated business school, I knew I wanted to do real estate, but I had no idea how. I started working at an investment bad and immediately became the dumbest person in my class, as a career switcher with very little Excel skill. In the first year, I fail a lot. I got yelled at, berated, and worked more hours than I thought were possible, but I viewed it as a learning opportunity. Even though the hours and the experience were extremely challenging, the learning I received put in a position to succeed for the rest of my career.

Drive to Succeed: Everyone will say they have this, but it just isn’t true. If you give 50% effort in practice, you don’t have it. If you work your 8 hr job, clock out and check out until the next morning you don’t have it. You have to be doing more than the person next to you to have a chance at being more successful. During Covid, I had just left a job and was sequestered in my home for 3 months. I vowed not to waste that time. I spent the first month working on a business plan and the next two month making hundreds of phone calls and sending thousands of emails, notes, Linkedin request, etc. By the end of that third month, I had a commitment from 25 people to invest in me. Nothing good just comes to you. You have to spend the time going to get it.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

My wife has been the biggest help. She is a Columbia MBA with a fantastic people sense. But more importantly, she can tell me about myself. If I am working too hard or not hard enough, she can see it and reflect it back to me in a way that I can hear it. She has also been a phenomenal judge of people.

As you advance in your career, worked becomes a function of connecting with people more so than spreadsheets and mundane tasks. She helps me with craft my presentations and my interactions with people better.

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cooksquared