I once moved to Budapest for 11 months for a real estate deal that never broke ground.

• 11 months
• One office lease.
• Built a full local team.
• Not a single permit approved.

That was my first full-time plunge into the family business.

Back then, I was mid-MBA, working at an investment firm, and not planning to touch real estate.

But my dad called about a project in Hungary with high potential, international team, complex capital stack.

He needed someone to read the projections and join the meeting.

Next thing I knew, I was on a plane.

The deal looked real. We built out a team, leased space, and bought equipment.

Then the permits stalled…and never got approved.

After nearly a year in Budapest, we shut it down, ate the costs, and flew back to Seattle.

The project never happened.
But it changed everything.

That trip pulled me into the family business.

And that collapse showed me the difference between momentum…and execution.

It also shaped how we operate now:

• Don’t trust forward progress without zoning control
• Don’t scale operations until permits are real
• Don’t assume “great team” means aligned partners

Most people measure deals by what they built.

But sometimes the best education comes from the ones that never went vertical.

What deal taught you the most valuable “hard lesson” that made you a better investor + operator?