David Halabu's career has been defined by disciplined reinvention. Starting as a trader, he learned to make decisions under pressure, manage risk, and separate emotion from outcomes. After recognizing that the post-financial-crisis environment was fundamentally changing the trading business, he pivoted into alternative investments, beginning with non-performing real estate loans and hard money lending.

His early experiences as an LP during the 2008 financial crisis taught him painful lessons about leverage, control, and capital preservation. Those lessons led him to build expertise in distressed debt, real estate investing, fix-and-flips, rentals, and eventually operating businesses across healthcare, restoration, and other industries. Throughout the conversation, he emphasized that the most valuable lessons came not from successful deals, but from mistakes, losses, and unexpected challenges.

A recurring theme was that every opportunity should be viewed through a risk-reward framework. Whether evaluating an investment, hiring a team member, entering a new business, or making a life decision, David believes in understanding the downside first and making rational decisions rather than emotional ones. He also reflected on the importance of lifelong learning, his experience at Harvard Business School's OPM program, and his realization that he should have set more ambitious goals earlier in life.

Here are the Top 10 Takeaways from the conversation:

Always ask what you can lose before asking what you can gain.
Cut your losses early so you can stay in the game long enough to win.
The lessons from failure are often more valuable than the rewards from success.
Don't fall in love with a trade, an investment, or a business when the facts no longer support it.
If you want to compete at a high level, treat it like a full-time commitment.
Great opportunities often come from recognizing change before everyone else does.
Everything in life can be viewed through a risk-reward lens.
The cost of the wrong person is usually far greater than the cost of finding the right one.
Never lose an opportunity to learn because every setback contains useful information.
Set goals higher than you think are possible because your ambitions often become your ceiling.

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