Renowned SA real estate dealmaker Marc Wainer shares lessons from a life in property in his new book, Making My Marc
Few South Africans have defined the commercial real estate business like Marc Wainer. Marc founded and built JSE-listed Redefine Properties into one of SA’s largest, and most respected, real estate companies.
Now, his new book, Making My Marc, Lessons from Life in Property, by Marc Wainer with Tudor Caradoc-Davies lifts the veil on the inner workings of SA’s property sector and shares insights into how to survive and succeed in this dynamic, highly-competitive sector.
The book, published by Cape Town based independent publishers Burnet Media, paints a clear and compelling portrait of a man driven by his passion and aptitude for business and the love of his family. It shares Marc’s successes, and his mistakes and setbacks too, taking you through his ups and downs, revealing how he turned challenges to his advantages and, through valuable partnerships, transformed his weaknesses into potent strengths.
This memoir of Marc’s business life, told through career milestones, takes a candid look at the events that shaped him into SA’s doyen of property deal-making, from his childhood as the son of grocers to the present day as Executive Chairman of Redefine Properties.
With mentors playing an invaluable role in Marc’s outlook, approach and achievements, Marc pays this mentorship forward and shares the important lessons he’s learned along the way – lessons that can be applied not only to real estate, but business in general and, in fact, life itself.
The result is a revealing glimpse behind the scenes of some of the biggest deals in SA commercial property and insight into the man who sealed them.
From Hyprop Investments’ acquisition of Canal Walk to Redefine’s monumental battle with Growthpoint Properties over Fountainhead Property Trust, Marc reveals an insider’s perspective on the motivations, strategies and tactics that have made SA business history.
Based on hours of interviews with Marc, as well as interviews with his business partners, colleagues, friends and family members, Tudor Caradoc-Davies has written a riveting account of the risks and rewards that define the life of a born entrepreneur, his roller-coaster rise to the top of South Africa’s property industry, and how he has taken this sector forward into fresh, unchartered territory with his common-sense approach to deal-making.
A must-read for any aspiring property mogul, business leader and proud South African, the book isn’t only an engaging look inside one of South Africa’s largest, most successful, property companies, but also a roadmap to business success and personal fulfilment.
Marc’s story is instructive and filled with lessons about people, deal making, character, leadership and values.
Yet this written business legacy and memoir is ultimately a love letter to those Marc treasures most, his family. Marc closes the book with a note to his grandchildren: “Please remember every dream begins with a dreamer. May the dreams that you dream be the future you find. If you can dream it, you can do it, providing you believe in your own ability and have the passion, perseverance and patience to make your dream a reality.”
In presenting his memoir, Marc is sharing this wish with every reader of this book and giving you valuable tools to see you along the road to achieving your ambitions.