25 Years at McShea: Ro Looks Back

Summer 1985: I was on top of the world. I had graduated from Virginia Tech a few years earlier, landed a job as an assistant coach under Jerry Claiborne at the University of Kentucky, and celebrated my two-year anniversary with my beautiful wife. On top of all that, I had been hired by the Catholic University of America as their head football coach. At the time, I was the youngest head football coach in the nation. I even got an article in People magazine: http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20092263,00.html! It didn’t get much better than that.

Fast-forward two years. After two terrible years and a losing record, CU fired me. It shook up my confidence in a big way. I had always planned to work in football, but for the first time the reality of being a coach sunk in. I was in a profession where a bunch of 18- to 22-year-olds would determine whether or not I had a job the next year. My wife and I were thinking about starting a family, and I decided I had to find a career with more stability.

In the meantime, to make ends meet, I took a job selling custom T-shirts to bars and restaurants in PG County out of the back of a friend’s van. It was quite a comedown for a guy who had been featured in People magazine just a year earlier. I wanted something more than T-shirt sales, so my godfather Morgan Wootten set up an interview for me with a big, local commercial real estate firm.

The interview did not go well. The gentleman who interviewed me essentially gave me the “Thanks but no thanks; come back and see me when you get some experience and don’t let the door hit you on the way out” treatment. After the interview, driving up Wisconsin Avenue, I felt as low as I have ever been.

Driving along, I was hit by a powerful thought: “Go see Big Jack.” “Big Jack” was my favorite uncle, and he had just sold his hugely successful phone company and was starting his own commercial real estate firm, McShea. So I turned my car around and went to see him.

Uncle Jack listened to me and said all the right things, gently picking my spirits up and restoring some of my confidence. Then I got the surprise of my life: he called his two sons who were helping him start the firm into his office, pointed at me and said, “We’re hiring Ro.” My cousin Jack Jr. quickly made me an offer which I accepted gratefully, though I was still in disbelief at what was happening.

Uncle Jack then informed me that he liked hiring family members but he would not hesitate to fire them if they did not produce. I had no problem with that; I was just thankful to be given a chance. Then I got another shock when Uncle Jack told me, “That’s not going to be a problem with you. You are made for this business, and you are going to be a star.” Jack McShea is not a man who says things he doesn’t mean, so this was a huge vote of confidence in me. But, still shaken by my recent struggles, I had to ask him, “How do you know?” Jack said simply, “Because I know where you come from. I’ve known your father almost all my life and your mother for many years as well. I have complete confidence in the man that they raised.”

Man, talk about going from the outhouse to the penthouse! I left Jack’s office on cloud nine. That meeting marked the start of a 25-year-journey for me at McShea. This tiny firm went on to become one of the largest independently-owned commercial real estate firms in the region. McShea now attracts talent from all over. As for Jack’s predication about me, I’ll let my record speak to that.

Have a great weekend,

Ro

Read Part 2 here: http://rowaldron.com/2012/04/20/25-years-at-mcshea-part-2/