David's Open Road

DAVID SCHWARZ

Architect

LEADER INFO:

INTERESTS:

Design Engineering

THEMES DISCUSSED:

Chance Education Failure Fear Risk Regrets Self-Reflection Success Values

TAGS:

apprentice, architecture practice, creating, mental capacity, principles, slave, sticking to your principles

BIOGRAPHY:

Although he knew he wanted to be an architect, David Schwarz was less certain how on how to reach his goal. Unhappy at the architectural firm where he had been apprenticing after college for three years, he opened his own firm. At only 26 or 27, he was ill -prepared for the challenges he faced. "That was a foolish move," he says now. Realizing, also, that in the long run it worked out okay. As he tells the story, he had given himself a year to make the practice work. On the 364 day, when he was reluctantly getting ready to become 'a real person' and find a nine-to-five job, he had an encounter that altered his destiny. Walking through a local bookstore-bar in Boston, he ran into a woman he knew from college. David joined her and her boyfriend for drinks. The boyfriend, it turned out, was on his way to Georgetown to sign a contract with an architect. Since it was such a beautiful day and he preferred to avoid the trip, he offered David the job instead. Rescued at the eleventh hour, he kept his practice and embarked on the next phase of what would become a rewarding career. David attributes his success both to upholding his principles of good architecture and to having the mental capacity to do something constructive about the opportunities that arise from being in the right place at the right time.