Dave Liniger started RE/MAX in 1973, and it has become the largest real estate company in the world with a record year in 2021. He also runs a private equity company, Area15 Ventures, focused on emerging franchisors and high-growth businesses.

Dave’s experience in business and leadership is extensive and diverse—from four tours in Vietnam to owning and running a NASCAR team to building dozens of companies over the years. So he understands what it takes to start and grow a successful business. He believes that may leaders are arrogant, believing that they were the ones to create the success. But the truth is that it’s nonsense. Success isn’t about “me,” it’s about “we.” It wasn’t just Dave who made RE/MAX happen, it was the many people around him and in the company who made it was it is today.

Dave shares about the mistakes he’s also made along the way and how he overcame them. You can make mistakes, but don’t let mistakes make you. And he believes that a leader has to be transparent to his or her team. If you make a mistake, you should own up to it and commit to not doing it again. “We’re human beings, and we make mistakes. Just don’t make the same mistake over and over again.”

Dave provides insight on the importance of creating the right environment in a company. He shares that one of the major functions of a great leader is to create an environment where the individuals on the team can collectively succeed better than they can by themselves—and to achieve their personal goals as well as team goals. And it’s more than just being a good motivator. He believes that motivation is superficial and doesn’t work in the long-term. Instead, create an environment of self-motivation where people can achieve what they want to achieve. Because not everyone has the same goals. 

The conversation shifts to cultivating confidence and courage in the people you lead. Courage comes from experience, and experience comes from confidence—or vice-versa. Dave shares stories of how he learned to cultivate that confidence in the leaders around him, and part of that came by being an encourager. Part of the job of leading is encouraging and praising others. You lead by example, but also by heaping praise on your people. If your employees know they have someone who cares for them personally, they pick up on that.

“I wish I could buy people for what they think they’re worth, and work with them for a while, and then sell them for what I know they’re worth,” said Dave.

Adam and Dave round out this part of the conversation by talking about the difference between a family environment and a team environment in a company. RE/MAX was built as a team, with people relying on each other and their leaders to contribute and make the team better. But Dave shares that you can have team accomplishments with family values. A team that’s accountable to each other but also there for each other when it’s needed most.

Order your copy of Start With A Win: Tools and Lessons to Create Personal and Business Success: