#228 – Gus Waite: Real Estate, Recovery & the Art of Getting Older

Enter the Lionheart

Lawrence Dunning

Society & Culture, Entrepreneurship, Business, Philosophy

4.9 • 67 Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Gus Waite had a long career in the Manhattan real estate market, at his peak owning an office with over 100 agents. Today, he is an entrepreneur and AI consultant who specializes in transforming modern real estate operations, integrating artificial intelligence and setting up the Independent Broker's Collective. Gus has the perfect blend of practical and spiritual wisdom.

0.00: Introduction

3.00: Cycles of life

7.00: Breaking into New York Real Estate by specialization

11.00 Real estate in the pre-internet years

17.00: Advantages of boutique firms vs the big (private equity owned) companies

24.00: Importance for independent brokers to have local experience

29.00: What does an abundant life look like?

33.00: My attitude with getting older

37.00: Nobody is thinking about you so you might as well live the life you want to live

42.00: Setting up the Independent Broker's Collective

50.00: Recovery from Alcoholism, being 40 years sober and fatherhood

Until next time, love and good vibes.

Podcast Website: https://enterthelionheart.com/

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Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/enter-the-lionheart/id1554904704

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Transcript

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0:00.0	My uncle was before your time, but he was an actor named Ralph Waite. He was on a TV show called The Walton's back in the 70s, and it was a number one show when he was making millions of box. And, you know, he had that life in the 70s. And then that ends. And I remember talking to him when he was 85, and two out of his three daughters died in his lifetime. Wow. One died of leukemia and one died of alcoholism in her mid-50s. And he was in his mid-80s and he said, you know, Gus, when you get old, you had better cultivate the ability to deal with loss because you're going to lose everything. You lose your health. You lose your friends. You lose your importance to other people, you lose your
0:38.1	ambition. I mean, I'm 85, what I'm going to do another TV series? He said, and the gift that
0:44.4	you get in return is really the ability to live in the day.
1:03.5	Yeah. A single theme is too narrow for great minds and daring hearts.
1:08.2	Get ready to enter the Lionheart with your host, Lawrence Dunning.
1:10.8	Gus, thank you so much for joining me.
1:13.6	I'm so impressed by just your positive attitude before we even start talking about your career.
1:15.9	Have you always been this positive in life?
1:19.0	I don't know that I've always been this positive.
1:22.1	I'd say there's a lot of anxious energy
1:24.7	that comes across as enthusiasm, maybe,
1:27.1	is one way to put it.
1:28.9	But I have, listen, I came from a family that just got stuff done.
1:33.5	You know, I mean, my mother was born on the Russian-German border on 1941, and she's 85 years old, and she's a ball of fire.
1:43.4	And the men of my family always made the most of what they had.
1:46.4	And so I've always been blessed just with the, you know, surroundings of really embracing
1:51.8	life and loving it moving forward. Yeah, I really think I was talking to somebody going through
1:56.5	a tough divorce and she was talking about how important attitude is. And I really think it's not the
2:03.3	life we have. When we look back, it's not really the things we went through that's going to
2:08.3	determine what's a good life and what's not a good life. It's really our attitude along the way.
2:12.5	And I really do believe that. Even just the way you personally are so optimistic about AI and embracing it.
2:18.6	And we're both older, a lot of the older generation, they hate change and they see
	...

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