[quote style=”boxed”]I’m productive because of my love for fitness. I love eating healthy, working out, and being outdoors. This active lifestyle keeps me sharp and healthy. Having a boss that never misses a day of work or comes in with high energy is great for a work environment.[/quote]
Mayer Dahan is an entrepreneur and philanthropist in Los Angeles, California. Mayer is CEO and Co-Founder of Prime Five Homes, a full service real estate company that specializes in building Eco-Friendly, sustainable and modern homes from the ground up. Mayer provides a higher standard of living to the city of Los Angeles, one home at a time.
Where did the idea for Prime Five Homes come from?
My company started with the idea of flexibility. I’ve never been the type to stay in one place or box myself in. It’s important to be open minded so it opens doors of opportunity. This concept has allowed me to successfully open and manage businesses that succeed by doing good work. Our subsidiary, Prime Five Homes is a full service real estate development company that builds Green and sustainable homes. This business has helped me start new businesses in different industries.
What does your typical day look like?
My day starts off with early morning meetings, smoothies and a workout. These meetings consist of day prepping and planning. I have a great team leader who works with my in house office team while I’m out conducting business meetings off site.
How do you bring ideas to life?
As a dreamer, I constantly envision ways to improve myself, my company, and the community as a collective whole. When it comes to bringing ideas to life, I use human power, meaning teamwork. Together, we create a giant “to do” list. We figure out how each thing gets done and we simply just do it. Everyone has great ideas, but it’s all about execution. There’s too much emphasis on talking about what you want to do opposed to just going after it. Chasing my dreams at a lightening fast speed is how they’re brought to life.
What’s one trend that really excites you?
The housing market trends are allowing me to build Eco-friendly, renewable and sustainable homes. The market has finally shifted in favor of these Green practices, and consumers are positively responding to the logical, renewable, less harmful process of constructing and building. As a result of the market shift, I’m able to build homes that benefit the ecosystem without compromising the needs and wants of my consumers.
What is one habit of yours that makes you more productive as an entrepreneur?
I’m productive because of my love for fitness. I love eating healthy, working out, and being outdoors. This active lifestyle keeps me sharp and healthy. Having a boss that never misses a day of work or comes in with high energy is great for a work environment.
What was the worst job you ever had and what did you learn from it?
I worked at Borders at 21 years old, alphabetizing books and putting magazines back on the shelves. I came into work every day at 6 am to put books in alphabetical order. It was a nightmare. Besides being a pro at filing books, I learned that if I didn’t run my own business, I would be organizing and contributing to someone else’s business for the rest of my life.
If you were to start again, what would you do differently?
I’d take more risks. There’s nothing wrong with playing it safe but there’s very little room for success if you don’t do anything more than what you’re doing presently.
As an entrepreneur, what is the one thing you do over and over and recommend everyone else do?
With everyone you work with and people you encounter, be grateful, kind and respectful. Your interpersonal skills are essential to becoming a successful entrepreneur. A company’s success is based on a team working together who’s all motivated and empowered. Don’t ever underestimate the capacity of human power.
What is one strategy that has helped you grow your business? Please explain how.
It’s not necessarily a strategy, it’s more like something you must be- the strategy to be a dreamer. I live in a fantasy world where anything is possible with no limitations. I always start from the ground and figure out how to get to the top.
What is one failure you had as an entrepreneur, and how did you overcome it?
My old habits of playing it safe only resulted in me missing out on numerous opportunities simply because of the element of fear. This clouded my decision making when it came to taking on different contracts or projects. I bit the bullet, did more trial and error and learned way more from my mistakes.
What is one business idea that you’re willing to give away to our readers?
I’m more than happy to share that entrepreneurs should motivate and empower their employees. I present to them the value of giving back and let them know the importance and power of corporate karma. When you do good things, good things will happen. This keeps my team coming back eager and ready to think of new ideas and make them happen.
Tell us something about you that very few people know?
People that know me now are under the impression that I’ve always had everything. Truthfully, that’s not the case. At a young age, the value and discipline of hard work was instilled within me. I was never given an “allowance,” I earned it. I worked for my parents. Nothing was just handed to me. It made me who I am today.
What are your three favorite online tools, software or resources and what do you love about them?
GOOD.is: It’s a social network for social good. What’s great about them is the fact that it has built a strong online community for individuals to learn from each other and just do GOOD things. It’s amazing to see what the entire nation is doing to positively impact our world on a micro level. People recognize that there are influential people all around us and are making changes. They’re extremely receptive and it’s GOOD.
Buffer: It’s easy, fast and effective. I’m able to schedule my social media for weeks at a time and trust that it helps so much. It gives me the flexibility to put out real time content in between scheduled posts. I’m able to strategically implement campaigns through Buffer and it saves me so much time.
Instagram: This app has so much power it’s no wonder Facebook had to buy them. The influence people have on Instagram is insane. People love to see what you see and love it even more when you share them. Through Instagram, I’m able to post business and personal material. I’ve noticed that people are responsive to our behind the scenes photos and collages of my past and recent projects. Ideas, thoughts, emotions come out of Instagram and it cultivates this sense of transparency between the follower and the followee, vice versa.
What is the one book that you recommend our community should read and why?
The 4 Hour Work Week. This book really helps you maximize your time in and out of the office. It helps you create and experience life outside of work.
List three experts who have helped you as an entrepreneur who you think other entrepreneurs should follow. And why?
Elon Musk, he’s an innovator and a dreamer. His imagination is wild and he doesn’t keep it that way, he makes it real.
Haim Saban, he’s a role model, a businessman, and lastly a philanthropist. I aspire to leave behind a legacy as he did.
Mark Cuban, he knows the difference between working smart and working hard. Smart is the way to go, especially these days. He paves the way for entrepreneurs like you and I.
Connect:
Mayer Dahan on LinkedIn:
Prime Five Homes on Facebook:
Mayer Dahan on Twitter: @mayerdahan
Mario Schulzke is the Founder of ideamensch, which he started a decade ago to learn from entrepreneurs and give them a platform for their ideas.