The Other Side of Success

The son of immigrants chases the California Dream in the world of real estate megadeals.

Nearly thirty, broke, and with a newborn daughter in tow, Martin Sawa quits his dead-end job and vows to fulfill the aspirations of his Ukrainian parents. Thus begins a relentless pursuit of financial success in the high-stakes world of commercial real estate.

Navigating the skyscrapers of San Francisco and the gritty streets of Oakland, Sawa is on the verge of making it. But his world comes crashing down around him when he suffers a devastating personal loss, causing him to reevaluate the meaning of success.

In the years before and after the new millennium, Sawa takes the reader through a time of sweeping technological, social, and political change in California. While grappling with apex predators on nine-figure deals in San Francisco real estate, he rides the entrepreneurial roller coaster of prosperity and ruin. Scrambling between boardrooms and juke joints, between priests and psychics, he sets out to realize the deal of a lifetime.

The Other Side of Success is the unvarnished account of one man's search for meaning as his professional life is constantly challenged by the impact of love, family, religion, and race. In this intimate memoir, Sawa strives to find home in the truest sense, while struggling with the unforeseen costs of making it.