Business Advice from my Landlord

and how not to negotiate your lease

My lease is up after four years, and instead of renewing by email, my landlord asked me to stop by his office to talk about the next few years.

When you commit to office space, it’s usually not one or two years.
It’s three or more.

With the economy as it is, I prefer a one-year lease.
The building has good energy.
The characters I meet make coming into the office enjoyable.

The funny thing is, I realized I’d barely spoken to him over the years.

So when I sat down and started talking about AI, I didn’t fully understand why he’d been successful until later when I went on a Tesla FSD ride, listening to Bob Dylan, replaying the conversation.

He reminded me of someone immediately.
Larry Ellison’s younger brother, at least in my mind.
Even the voice matched.

Right away, you know his view of the world is different.

He’s a great talker, but more importantly, an excellent listener.
And you’re not going to get anything out of him that he doesn’t want to share.

That’s fine.
It’s still fun to try.

I told him I was buying a $30,000 computer for AI.

He was curious.
Why pay for something most people think is free?

So I explained what I’m actually using it for.

The routine, dreary tasks.
Reading and filtering emails.

Interpreting headlines.

Researching real estate opportunities.
Pulling city data through APIs and running it through my own logic.

Privacy.
Having your own machine means controlling the rules and the data.

I told him it felt like the 1990s again when everyone was trying to build computers and provide services to businesses that didn’t yet know they needed them.

To start, my focus is interpreting headlines for stocks and real estate investors.
That’s why I want the space.

He still didn’t understand why I needed the computer.

So I said: when you send data to AI over the cloud, they charge you for it.
The more data you use, the higher the expense.

Then I realized most people don’t visualize this.

So I said, imagine AT&T in the old photos: rows of operators wearing headsets, dispatching calls.

Now imagine how many calls each operator can handle in a day.
As your product grows, you need more operators.

You either hire them — or you replace them with chips.

That’s when his eyes lit up.

Then I admitted something else.

I was busy this year.
Next year, I plan to commit much more time.

But the real question is cost versus profit.

So I asked him, based on his experience:
Does this take one year?
Two years?
Is the idea practical?

He paused.

Then he said something simple.

“Eric, I’ve never seen this before.
But yes — it does feel like the ’90s.”

He told me every venture he ever started began the same way.

A pen.
A yellow pad.

Writing out what he knew.
What he didn’t know.
And sitting with it until it made sense.

He couldn’t tell me what to expect.
But he said the opportunity felt real.

And every good business he was involved in made money almost immediately — after the thinking was done.

That was all I was going to get.
But it was enough.

Good businesspeople don’t reinvent themselves every year.
They develop a script early, refine it, and ride that pony.

In his case, literally.
He enjoys his horses.

Just as Larry, his older bro, enjoys the zoo.

AI, friends, family, thought leaders: everyone will give you advice.
Even me.

But the only way to survive in any era is to think things through yourself.

Seek clarity.
Dig deep.

You’ll know when to stop.
Because you can’t go further.

Seize the day,

Eric

PS. Tomorrow I’ll share how I’m thinking about teaching kids to use AI for their benefit