Build Ecosystems, Not Empires – Fearless Legacy Building

Welcome back to A Year of Fearless Ethical Leadership. Throughout my conversations with the Icons of DC Area Real Estate, a defining distinction keeps resurfacing—one that separates enduring leaders from merely powerful ones.

Some leaders build Empires. Others build Ecosystems.

Empires are rigid. They concentrate control, optimize for personal dominance, and depend on constant enforcement to remain intact. Ecosystems, by contrast, are living systems. They thrive on trust, interdependence, and shared purpose. They don’t demand loyalty; they earn it.

This distinction matters because ethical leadership is not about turning down the temperature to remain safe—nor about turning it up so high that trust burns away. It is about sustaining the right level of heat so people, ideas, and institutions can grow.

In The 50th Law, Robert Greene and 50 Cent describe fearlessness as the ability to see and act on the deep connections between things. Fear drives leaders to hoard and fortify. Fearlessness allows them to open systems, distribute opportunity, and create conditions that endure beyond their tenure.

Here’s how the Icons of our region demonstrate that the strongest legacy is built not through empires, but through ecosystems.

1. The Abundance of the Hive

Empire builders operate from scarcity: If I share, I lose.Ecosystem builders operate from abundance: If the system thrives, I thrive.

Matt Kelly, CEO of JBG SMITH, once described the firm’s culture as one where leadership believed that to “share the pie would increase the pie.” By giving young professionals room to run—and equity in the outcome—the organization created a platform that scaled far beyond what any single leader could control.

Similarly, A.J. Jackson of LEO Impact Capital often cites a Stoic principle that captures ecosystem thinking perfectly: “What’s bad for the hive can’t be good for the bees.” When leaders internalize this truth, they stop extracting value and start compounding it.

This is not soft leadership. It is structurally sound leadership.

2. Regionalism: Erasing Borders Without Eroding Trust

Empires rely on walls. Ecosystems depend on permeable borders.

The most effective leaders in our region recognize that today’s challenges—housing, transportation, workforce development—do not respect jurisdictional lines.

Diane Hoskins and Victor Hoskins exemplify this mindset. Their collaborative approach—often summarized as “one plus one equals five”—was instrumental in the success of Amazon HQ2. The achievement wasn’t landing a deal for one county; it was aligning an entire region around shared value.

In the same spirit, Bob Buchanan formed the 2030 Group after recognizing that regional competitiveness requires cooperation, not rivalry. Ecosystems win globally when leaders resist the urge to protect turf and instead strengthen the whole terrain.

3. Community as the Root System

No ecosystem survives in poisoned soil.

Fearless leaders understand that real estate is not just physical infrastructure—it is social infrastructure.

Chris Smith demonstrated this by helping create THEARC in Southeast DC—a campus integrating arts, health, and education. He understood that for a real estate ecosystem to thrive, the human ecosystem had to be nourished first.

Likewise, Catherine Buell, during her tenure with the Amazon Housing Equity Fund, used a $2 billion platform not merely to deploy capital, but to architect a financing ecosystem that allowed private investment to address public housing needs at scale. The result wasn’t disruption—it was alignment.

4. Planting Acorns: The Generational Ecosystem

Empire builders worry about succession. Ecosystem builders worry about regeneration.

Herman Bulls describes real connection—not networking—as doing something for someone else without expecting anything in return. He calls it planting acorns. You may never sit in the shade, but you plant the tree because the forest matters.

Brad Olsen echoes this with his metaphor of ripples: “Be the pebble.” His career was built by connecting people long before there was an immediate transaction, trusting that goodwill compounds.

And Tom Bozzuto captured the ultimate expression of legacy when he said, “The only thing more gratifying than my son succeeding me is if he does it better than I did.” That is not the language of control. It is the language of continuity.

A Call to Build

As you navigate your career, pause and ask:

• Are you reinforcing walls—or strengthening roots?

• Are you guarding territory—or expanding capacity?

• Are you preserving your position—or cultivating the system that will outlive you?

Empires demand constant defense. Ecosystems evolve, adapt, and endure.

Build the kind of leadership that stays warm not because it shouts—but because it sustains life.