Ex-Falcons QB Dils' current pocket is commercial real estate

Growing the Atlanta office of Avison Young, a Canadian firm, I find there are a lot of carryovers from sports.

In football, you can’t avoid difficult situations. You have to figure out a way through. Look for positives, learn from them. A lot of it is mental toughness.

There are economic cycles both in football and commercial real estate.

When I first got out of football in 1989, the Dow Jones industrials average was around 1,000. Now it’s 10 times that. In football, the average salary when I got in was $80,000. Now it’s well over $1 million.

Money made everything more specialized and urgent. Today’s coaches and players don’t get as much time to prove themselves.

Another carryover is processing a tremendous amount of information in a short period of time. A quarterback doesn’t have the luxury of sitting back and getting upset. You have to be able to deal with setbacks.

The economy is never static. You are always moving. Don’t stop moving; inertia is a hard thing to overcome. It’s not an option in sports, but in business, inertia perpetuates itself.

Playing for Bill Walsh in college impacted how I conduct myself in business and manage my staff of 42.

Coach Walsh always told you what you could do, rather than what you couldn’t. He brought people to help you do what you do best.

I try to motivate people from a positive standpoint, and I was fortunate to add many talented people when we merged with Hodges Management and Leasing Co. We went from managing and leasing no square footage to breaking the top five in Atlanta on that basis.

Real estate in Atlanta is very tight-knit. I run into NFL alumni, like Chris Port at CB Richard Ellis, in all parts of the business. Steve Bartkowski is in construction. There are so many players across the city, I’d hate to leave anyone out.

-- As told to Michelle Hiskey