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2724

THE PAPER E2 / THE WEEK OF

KEN DELEON
Mad, bad and dangerous
to know? Definitely.

ou might recognize him

from audacious ads in
the newspaper and on
the billboards off 101
where
he proudly states the
fact that he is the #1 realtor in the
Bay Areaand soon to be #1 in the
country. You may know him as the
former powerhouse attorney from
Wilson Sonsini. Or, maybe recognize him strutting through Palo Alto

with his wife and four kids. You may

have heard about how he has overcome three life tragedies, or that he
is in the finishing stages of a memoir
to be entitled, Why Do Bad Things
Happen to Sexy People?
The Rasputin of our local real estate scene is Palo Altos own Ken
DeLeon. We sat down with Ken recently to learn more about the man
behind the myth.

FRIDAY MARCH 18-25.2011

THE PAPER E2 / THE WEEK OF

How to Achieve Personal Evolution

(and how to be sexy while doing it)

+ Ken DeLeon
THE FAILURE

1. You should seek

evolution and change.

THE

My goal is to not only

beat the cancer, but
to make my surviving
cancer a net gain...
+ Ken DeLeon
THE SURVIVOR

THE

PHILOSOPHER

THE

DANCER
Dancing in public is one of those
things that can make even the
most fearless adults suddenly as
shy as a mouse. Not Ken. As a
teenager, Ken discovered dancing to be a natural high, so freeing and exhilarating, especially
when you dont worry about the
opinions of others.
Dancing is a celebration of
life and in many ways represents
the height of humanity, he says.
It allows one to find individual
release and euphoria while synchronizing ones rhythmic movements with other dancers.
Kens older sister, Jane, committed suicide at the age of 15.
Ken believes her death was
caused in large part because
she cared too much about what
others thought about her. In his
book, Ken promised himself that
he would not live for societys
approval as Jane fatally did. Instead, he vowed to soar above
the limiting needs for others
acceptance and resolutely trust
in the end result of [his] philosophies.

FRIDAY MARCH 18-25.2011

KENS TOP TEN LIST

Fail often, but fail

forward.

Katharine Gardner
The Paper Writer
kdg@thepaperpage.com

In a five-minute conversation
with Ken, he will probably quote
his favorite philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche. He will also quote
himself a few times, but will
give credit for his brilliance to
some of the other great minds
he has learned fromAristotle,
Socrates, Proust, Kant, Hesse
and of course; Nietzsche.
Ken has incorporated Nietzsches Will to Power philosophy that achievement and
striving and self-betterment are
mans driving force into his
own belief system.
Evolution, not happiness,
is a more profound, true goal
for ones life, he says. So is
living on the edge. DeLeon
cites Nietzsche: For believe
me the secret for harvesting
from existence the greatest
fruitfulness and the greatest
enjoyment is - to live dangerously! Build your cities on the
slopes of Vesuvius! Sail your
ships into uncharted seas!
Live at war with your peers
and yourselves!
Nothing is trivial to Ken
he derives value and meaning from every action and
encounter. His memoir,
and conversation, is filled
with incredible insight
and advice for how to
live a more meaningful
life of self-evolution.

THEPAPERPAGE.COM | O 650.360.2724

2. You should confidently

believe in ones self and
actualize their potential.

SURVIVOR
Ken has had the rare experience of coming face-to-face with
death. Twice in fact.
While many people say to live
each day as if it were your last,
few actually do it. Ken is one of
those few. He knows firsthand
that his life could end at any minute so he truly lives them all to
the fullest.
In 1998, the 26-year-old Ken
was in Florida on vacation, in between law school and starting a
job as an attorney at Wilson Sonsini. While taking a walk with his
father on a beautiful summer day,
Ken was pummeled by a speeding car driven by a driver high on
a cocktail of drugs. While subsequently trapped inside the car for
3 miles, Ken was beaten by the
driver as he pled with the driver
to pull over.
After Ken escaped from this
nightmare and was driven to the
hospital, the doctors told him that
despite his internal bleeding and
numerous broken bones, there
was no damage to his skull, brain
or neck. Most people, they said,
would not have lived through
such a traumatic accident. They
did not know, however, that Ken
is not like most people.
In 2005, at the age of 34, Ken
was diagnosed with lymphoma.
Three months after his diagnosis, Ken wrote, My goal is to
not only beat the cancer, but to
make my surviving cancer a net
gain, that is whatever I lose in this
battle I will more than make up
in greater wisdom and happiness
for myself and as importantly, for
others in conveying whatever future lessons I will learn.
Ken has stayed true to his
word and learned many epiphanies while beating cancer that he
shares with others through public
speaking.

3. You should be
unashamed of ones
desires and emotions.
4. You should live for
ones self and not for
society.

THE

5. You should prefer

action to inaction and
not wait for the perfect
moment.

6. You should seek peers

that provide challenges
and encouragement.
7. You should worship the
full circle of life.
8. You should dance freely
in celebration of life.
9. You should actively live
and not spectate upon
the world.
10. You should eternally be
sexy.

FAILURE
Frequent failure is one of Kens
secrets to success. Ken is constantly taking calculated risks and
learning more from the feedback
of his failures than the benefits of
his successes.
Ken has always sought lessons
from every failure, with one of his
biggest occurring in law school.
Bored by an arcane class on civil
procedure, Ken stopped attending this one class and instead
spent his time reading Greek philosophy. Failing this class in his
first year in law school is when
Ken decided to fail often, but fail
forward. Having always done
extremely well in school, not even
coming close to failing a class,
this experience was a shock to
Ken. Instead of getting discouraged, he used his incredibly positive attitude and philosophical insight to turn the failure into a very
positive thing.
The fear of failing out of law
school pushed him to work harder, and enabled him to graduate
with High Honors and he received
academic awards for getting the
top grade in several of his other
classes. Adversity can be used
as a springboard for developing
and strengthening ones sense of
self, he says.

THE

MOTIVATOR

THE

SEX SYMBOL
His license plate reads, SXY
RLTR. Before you go and accuse Ken of shallowness, let him
explain that in his mind, sexiness
is less about having good genes
and more about living life out
loud.
Sexiness is the outward manifestation of self-love and confidence coupled with a zest for life,
adventure, and personal growth
fueled by change, he says.
Sexy people are pathfinders
who discover exotic and foreign
lands in the search for knowledge and personal understanding, while others never travel beyond their own insular values.

Ken doesnt just want to be successful, sexy, and self-confidenthe wants you to be all of
those things too. Thus, Ken has
recently embarked on a tour of
motivational speaking. He believes that the teenage years are
some of the most crucial to develop your self-confidence, and
has therefore volunteered a lot
of his time to speak at Bay Area
schools.
When Ken is speaking at a
school and asks the students to
list 10 good things about themselves, and 10 bad things, he is
saddened to see that it is always a
struggle for them to list the good.
Ken knows, from his sisters suicide, that lacking self-confidence
can be fatalespecially during
the vulnerable teenage years. If
he saves at least one life through
his guidance and inspiration, he
considers all of his volunteering
to be worth it.