Abrams: Success, Ethics Go Hand In Hand

NEW YORK CITY-For Robin Abrams, EVP with the Lansco Corp., being chosen to receive the Real Estate Board of New York's Louis Smadbeck Broker Recognition Award was both a surprise and an affirmation of the focus on ethics she has maintained throughout her career. “I tell lots of young people that I work with that everybody has to make decisions on how they want to operate and what their priorities are,” Abrams tells GlobeSt.com. “You can't be everything to everybody, so very early on you have to decide what is most important.”

For Abrams personally, “I felt it was important to be smart, to be persistent and to be proactive, but also to dictate my behavior with the highest integrity and good ethics. You don't have to compromise the way you conduct yourself in order to make money.”

A past winner of REBNY's Retail Deal of the Year Award as well as recognition as a Woman of Influence by Real Estate Forum, sister publication to GlobeSt.com, Abrams sees that level of integrity and ethics in previous winners of the Smadbeck Award. “They have that and other things in common,” she says. “They all have a very strong work ethic. It's a tough business; you create your own luck.”

These qualities, along with persistence and cultivation of relationships, also lay behind the kind of creative deal-making that REBNY honors with its annual Retail Deal of the Year and Most Ingenious Deal of the Year awards. “You have to be a hard worker and creative, and it takes perseverance and relationships to be able to put together an award-winning deal,” says Abrams.

While she's honored to be receiving recognition from REBNY, Abrams would also like to return the favor. “I've given to them in many ways, but they've given back to me in so many more ways,” she says. “Everything I've done with the board has been an experience that allows me to continue to grow as a professional.”

That has included chairing the retail committee and teaching retail courses as part of the association's continuing education program. “I've been able to be involved with the organization, and I hope it's been helpful for them but it's certainly been extremely rewarding and worthwhile for me.” Abrams will be on the dais with her fellow award-winners at the 118th Annual Banquet, scheduled for Jan. 16, 2014 at the New York Hilton.