The son of immigrants chases the California Dream in the world of real estate megadeals.
Nearly thirty, broke, and with a newborn daughter in tow, Martin Sawa quits his dead-end job and vows to fulfill the aspirations of his Ukrainian parents. Thus begins a relentless pursuit of financial success in the high-stakes world of commercial real estate.
Navigating the skyscrapers of San Francisco and the gritty streets of Oakland, Sawa is on the verge of making it. But his world comes crashing down around him when he suffers a devastating personal loss, causing him to reevaluate the meaning of success.
In the years before and after the new millennium, Sawa takes the reader through a time of sweeping technological, social, and political change in California. While grappling with apex predators on nine-figure deals in San Francisco real estate, he rides the entrepreneurial roller coaster of prosperity and ruin. Scrambling between boardrooms and juke joints, between priests and psychics, he sets out to realize the deal of a lifetime.
The Other Side of Success is the unvarnished account of one man's search for meaning as his professional life is constantly challenged by the impact of love, family, religion, and race. In this intimate memoir, Sawa strives to find home in the truest sense, while struggling with the unforeseen costs of making it.
He chased the American Dream. Did his cutthroat journey break him...or see him reach his greatest achievement?
Northern California, 1978. Martin Sawa refused to let poverty define his future. After growing up the son of penniless Ukrainian immigrants, the almost-thirty-year-old impulsively quit his nine-to-five to become a real estate salesperson working solely on commission. Determined to prosper despite his bare trickle of income and deteriorating home life, he set out to mold himself into a major player in San Francisco's high-stakes commercial minefield.
As Sawa pushed his career forward-making bigger deals at each painstaking step up-he had one hand on the prize he'd dreamed of for years. But with stress driving him to alcoholism and poor choices, it took tragedy to force him to confront the true cost of his sacrifices.
Was the financial wealth worth the price of his soul?
Laid out in an intimate and passionate memoir, Sawa's honest appraisal of his wins and losses in a volatile time of technological, social, and political change reveals an intensely personal challenge. Serving as a reminder