Bonus. Combining Your Passion & What You Do | Brett Kaufman at OSU

When Brett was growing up, he felt a pressure between doing the kinds of things he loved—art, creativity, expression—and doing something with his life that would be seen as successful. His father had imprinted him with a very traditional vision of what success looked like, which led to him eventually working a bank job that he hated.

While working at the bank, he was introduced to real estate financing, and he realized that was much more in line with what he wanted to do. He found a job at a production homebuilder, a multi-generational business that was very set in its ways. Brett didn’t feel energized there either, but felt he was on the right path.

Before he even started Kaufman Development, he established his core philosophy: to combine his passion for work and life, and spend his time doing that every day. Since he was already in the real estate world, he channeled those passions into creating spaces and communities where other people had access to the things that they were passionate about.

This all leads to Gravity. At its core, Gravity is an apartment, office building, and retail space. It is consciously designed to create a collaborative, creative environment. It is first and foremost a place that people want to live, but with the added benefit of attempting to purposefully generate kismet, or fateful encounters.

Brett talks about:

  • Figuring out how to define your purpose
  • Doing our part to change the world
  • Brett’s early life and the lessons he picked up
  • Creating work-life integration
  • Integrating art into work
  • Being fully expressed as a human being
  • Why meditation is one of the most interesting things in the business world
  • Brett’s cliche introduction to transcendental meditation
  • The work of self-improvement
  • Cultivating the people and partners that go into Gravity —  partnerships that allowed you to become what you are
  • Investing in leadership, leadership development

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