Building a Home: It’s About the People
After graduating from UCLA I watched as my peers embarked on exciting careers in various fields: entertainment, finance, startups, etc. I went another direction, joining the family business in hopes of bringing in new ideas and solutions. Unfortunately for me it was 2007, just before the real estate market collapse and subsequent Great Recession. As I entered the industry brimming with energy, the general mood was somewhere between “abandon ship” and “the end is nigh.” Construction was hardly a tempting choice for fresh graduates and I was the only one I knew venturing into that field. As I listened to my friends discuss their new career paths, I often felt that our experiences were worlds apart, leaving us with little in common.
However as time went on, the market got better and we all began establishing ourselves in our various industries. I started to realize that when we would get at the end of a long work week, each of us, regardless of our career path, was often venting over the same types of headaches. A vendor not delivering and throwing a wrench in the plans. Team members not getting along. Trying to get people with different skillsets and different priorities to come together and look for a collective solution.
It became clear that whether we were talking about film production, launching a startup, running a theater, or building a house; the challenges were the same. We were all navigating the same complexities of team-building.
This brought us all to the same question: What makes a team truly successful? The answer came, surprisingly, while watching a UCLA basketball game with friends.
We had just finished watching a massive upset where a team without any individual single star defeated a bigger, more talent-heavy team. We recalled a Ben Simmons quote: “The secret to basketball is that it’s not about basketball,” he says, “it’s about people.” These winning teams had players that knew their roles, trusted each other, liked each other, ignored statistics and valued team success over individual success. In general, we see that teams that value chemistry, teamwork, and relationships are the ones that stand out and find continued success, an idea that gets forgotten in a world driven by metrics and individuals locked in on their individual priorities.
The reason I love our niche in residential construction is that it is so relationships-based. We work closely with homeowners, design teams, and with tradesmen who share our values. Building a home is a process that can take months and even years from start to finish, with a lot of surprises and friction along the way. Just like a basketball team (or any other team), success requires the effort of a lot of people with sometimes polar opposite skillsets. Building a house isn’t just about the materials, design, or even the individual skills of each team member. It’s about how well these individuals come together as a team, identifying a shared goal, trusting each other, and working together. When problems arise, we want to work with people who understand that setbacks are part of the process and focus on problem-solving towards our shared goal rather than resorting to blame. That synergy allows us to create something greater than what any individual could have done on their own.
At Alisal Builders we’ve built our team on these principles. We believe that the best homes are created by teams who are not only skilled but also deeply committed to working together towards a shared vision. When you choose us, you’re not just getting a builder—you’re getting a team that, from the top down, knows how to work together is as passionate about the home as you are.