Immigrant Successfully Overcomes Adversity: Monzer Hourani story
Immigrant Successfully Overcomes Adversity:Monzer Hourani, P.E.
story, Founder and Chairman of Medistar Corporation (Real Estate
Developers)
By Howard Edward Haller, Ph. D.
This groundbreaking leadership research by has received
extensive endorsements and enthusiastic reviews from well-known
prominent business, political, and academic leaders who either
participated in the study or reviewed the research findings. You
will discover the proven success habits and secrets of people
who, in spite of difficult or life threatening challenges shaped
their own destiny to become successful, effective leaders. The
full results of this research will be presented in the upcoming
book by Dr. Howard Edward Haller titled "Leadership: View from
the Shoulders of Giants."
The nine initial prominent successful leaders who overcame
adversity that were interviewed included: Dr. Tony Bonanzino,
U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, Monzer Hourani, U.S. Senator Daniel
Inouye, Dr. John Malone, Larry Pino, U.S. Army Major General Sid
Shachnow, Dr. Blenda Wilson, and Zig Ziglar.
The data from the above nine research participants was
materially augmented by seven other successful leaders who
overcame adversity including: Jack Canfield, William Draper III,
Mark Victor Hansen, J. Terrence Lanni, Angelo Mozilo, Dr. Nido
Qubein, and Dr. John Sperling.
Additionally, five internationally known and respected
leadership scholars offered their reviews of the leadership
research findings including: Dr. Ken Blanchard, Jim Kouzes, Dr.
John Kotter, Dr. Paul Stoltz, and Dr. Meg Wheatley.
This is a short biography of one of the principal participants
who generously contributed their time and insight for this
important research into the phenomenon of how prominent
successful leaders overcome adversity and obstacles.
This is Monzer Hourani's story: Monzer Hourani was born in what
was then Palestine, in 1944. He shared that "we are a Lebanese
Christian family, from southern Lebanon. We've been there for
ages. Our family was a major land owner in Palestine . . . . but
when Israel became a state, we were forced out of Israel."
The Hourani family returned to southern Lebanon to rebuild their
lives and try to rebuild their fortune. Unfortunately, civil
war, which began in Lebanon in the late 1950s and continued for
years, would devastate Lebanon in general and the Hourani family
in particular. Monzer commented that "starting in 1958 there was
a civil war in Lebanon.
My mother was killed on my fourteenth birthday, right in front
of me. Unfortunate thing happened, so, it's very tragic in my
opinion." During the civil war, he did not know for weeks
whether his family had survived the various battles.
Monzer said, "I was offered a scholarship to go to Russia, to a
major university, in physics, but I refused it. I really wanted
to come to the U.S., because I liked the west, in fact, I liked
John Wayne."
He applied and was admitted to the University of Texas in
Austin. He spoke primarily French with very limited English. At
the University of Texas "they had a French professor and a
physics professor to do the exams." Monzer arrived in the U.S.
in 1965, studied at the University of Texas, in Austin and
"graduated in 1969 with a degree in Architecture and a second
degree in Structural Engineering, with two degrees."
Monzer Hourani is the founder, chairman, and Chief Executive
Officer of Medistar, a Real Estate Investment Trust specializing
in the building and development of hospitals and integrated
medical office buildings. I initially interviewed Monzer during
a two-day visit with him at his headquarters and at his home, in
a suburb of Houston, Texas. We have also exchanged follow-up
telephone calls since the in-person interviews.
In Houston, Monzer developed large commercial real estate
projects in the late 1970s. He had successfully negotiated with
both Lebanese and European investors to back him in major real
estate projects in Houston. He described being caught in the
major real estate recession in Houston in the 1980s. According
to Monzer, "The recession was more like a depression, and many
developers went broke." The banks that had provided Monzer's
construction loans failed and he could not get the loans that he
needed to complete the buildings that he already had under
construction. Monzer had personally signed for these loans. The
foreign investors told Monzer, "Don't worry about it." And then
not only did they not help, but they demanded their money back.
These events caused Monzer a major business and financial
problem. "During all this time, my partners in the middle of all
this, my foreign partners, asked for all their money back." He
worked hard to turn around the various projects and was
successful, in spite of adversity and obstacles. Then he added,
"I paid them [the investors] back." The Resolution Trust
Corporation was established by the U.S. Congress to resolve
problems with Savings and Loans, as well as Banks. According to
Monzer, the RTC not only refused the remaining loan funds, but
also wanted Monzer to immediately pay off his loans on the
uncompleted projects.
Monzer had "offered my personal real estate and investment lands
as additional collateral to the RTC" and asked them to continue
to fund his loans. Monzer shared that, "My land was taken by the
RTC, then sold at bargain prices to their friends in less than
arms-length transactions," leaving Monzer with a deficit still
owed to the RTC. He had to battle "the Resolution Trust
Corporation, which was full of ignorance, stupidity, and graft,
in my opinion."
His land was taken and sold to others and Monzer was left with
debt. He was then sued for over a quarter of a billion dollars.
Monzer's lawyers advised him to file bankruptcy, but he paid off
his debt without doing so. Monzer said, "In spite of literally
living in hell as a developer, I kept my word."
In the 1990s, Monzer rebuilt his real estate development
business. His firm has "built tens of millions of square feet of
hospitals, high technology-integrated medical office buildings,
and large office buildings."
Many of the major medical office building projects in
development at that time were for HealthSouth. Accounting
irregularities were discovered at HealthSouth which lead to the
arrest, but not conviction, of its chairman, Richard Scrushy and
the near destruction of HealthSouth, as a firm.
Monzer again faced a major financial crisis. Refinancing by a
new financial partner has allowed Monzer and Medistar to
continue to grow. Monzer summed up his journey as a leader: "We
survived the Houston disaster in real estate. We are a
successful Houston developer, which is an endangered species."
Monzer Hourani and his entire team at Medistar are working daily
to serve the medical office building development and
state-of-the-art hospital construction needs of the medical
community throughout the entire United States. Copyright 2006