van der Heyden of JLL discusses favorite quote

Name: Deborah van der Heyden Title: Managing Director Company Name: JLL Years in Commercial Real Estate: 25 Who are three women- living or dead - that you would like to have drinks with and why? I would like to have a one on one with Hillary Clinton. As a "Hill-Raiser" supporter of Clinton during the 2008 election, I still remember an event held at 767 Fifth after Barack Obama was nominated by the DNC. The room was full of influential business women and there was palpable anger as Clinton personified—and still does—our shared goal of leveraging our success in business to help buoy a woman to the White House. I was really impressed with how Clinton handled the conversation that day, with her usual calm demeanor and focus on the next step. And, I would like to have another day—even an hour—with my mother who passed away in 1999. After raising four kids and putting them through college, she had finally completed her own degree in 1998, the oldest and proudest graduate in her class, looking forward to pursuing her own dreams. Just a year later, she was gone. After you lose your parent, you think of all of the questions that you would ask them that you never did when they were alive, things about your childhood and their own that only they can answer. What is your favorite quote? "All that is very well, but let us cultivate our garden" from Voltaire's Candide. The work is a satire on optimism and the fatalism of accepting events instead of steering them. Throughout my life, I've always responded to challenges by digging in and pushing through. I don't waste time bemoaning circumstances that I cannot change, but instead take a breath and navigate as best as possible. I like to think I am an optimist, but I wear glasses tinted with realism. Perhaps that has served me well in brokerage where navigating the market for clients requires a practical approach and the ability to shift gears when things do not go perfectly to still push for a good solution. What motivated you to step out on your own? Although I am at JLL, a global company, brokerage tenant representation teams are really run as a "company within a company" as we are independent contractors and a team lead often guarantees the draws of younger team members. While here at JLL, I did step out on my own in 2012 when I divorced my husband and business partner of 20-years. We had different styles of managing people, clients and deals. Overall, it was a very successful partnership as we had very complementary strengths, but I was ready to move on and steer the business according to my own vision. I built a new brokerage team and have worked very hard over the past two years to nurture it, with an incredible group of young professionals that bring their best to the table and really collaborate while leveraging their individual strengths. Languages spoken within my team are Spanish, German, French, Turkish, Mandarin, Cantonese and Tagalog! It is not for the light-hearted to "start over" and launch and fund a new team, but everything is clicking into place. I am proud of each of my team members, but also of myself for having the courage to identify a group of talent and lead it. 2. What was the biggest obstacle in launching your own business and how did you overcome it? 3. What one piece of advice would you give to a woman who is launching her own business in the real estate profession?