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Standing on the fourth hole at Glen Oaks Country Club last April 3, Darin Ferguson took a phone call that would change his life.

It was a gorgeous spring day, with temperatures in the upper 70s, and Ferguson, founder and president of Ferguson Commercial Real Estate Services, went golfing with his buddies. The 37-year-old hadn’t been feeling well for months, even years, but largely ignored the warning signs of what was now being confirmed.

“You’ve got two masses in your chest,” Ferguson recalls the doctor saying.

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Cancer.

The firm

Ferguson’s commercial brokerage and property management firm celebrated its 10-year anniversary last November. Eight brokers and three full-time employees operate the Clive-based business, which manages about 2 million square feet of property, mostly office and industrial space concentrated on the west and northeast sides of Greater Des Moines. It also owns approximately 100,000 square feet of investment property. Ferguson said the industrial sector is his company’s “bread and butter.”

The firm, which has approximately 150 listings, isn’t the largest or the smallest brokerage in town, but has grown considerably in 10 years. In a typical year, the company generates about $1 million in revenues.

Ferguson, the man behind the firm, has enjoyed a fair amount of success since earning a finance degree with an emphasis on real estate from the University of Northern Iowa in 1994.

There are the major achievements: obtaining Certified Commercial Investment Member and Society of Industrial Realtors designations, finishing an Ironman triathlon, being named “Man of the Year” by the Iowa chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for his fund-raising efforts, being honored as a Forty Under 40 selection by the Des Moines Business Record and in 2008, being named by Golf Digest magazine as the most improved male golfer in Iowa in the high handicap division.

Of his many accomplishments, Ferguson said, he is most passionate about being a father to his two daughters, 15-year-old Madison and 10-year old Macy.

Away from the brokerage’s day-to-day operations – cold calls, signage, listings, fliers and lease expiration dates – Ferguson doesn’t shy away from getting his hands dirty.

Whether it’s working on the motocross track he constructed on his family’s farm near Mount Ayr, training for an athletic competition, racing and jumping his 2005 Honda CRF 250 dirt bike or removing snow from one of his commercial properties, Ferguson’s competitive nature and independent streak shine through.

On the other hand, the young professional understands business and dresses for the occasion. Though these days he may feel more comfortable in his favorite jeans and blazer, he realizes that his colorful custom-made suits are more appropriate when discussing multimillion-dollar deals with lenders.

The Office

Last May, Ferguson relocated his firm to a 4,800-square-foot space at 1840 N.W. 118th St., nearly doubling the size of his office. He said the new site, with its warm, rusty brown walls, large conference room filled with 10 years worth of plans, blueprints and engineering sketches, and a number of private offices, is more conducive to the family-centric atmosphere he has been creating for more than a decade.

“I treat everyone as a family member, an extended family,” he said of his staff, adding that he strives to maintain a laid-back office culture where people want to come to work.

“If they don’t feel comfortable,” he said, “they’re not going to be able to make cold calls, they’re not going to be able to be focused on making deals. And that’s obviously what we need to do.

“I’m a sounding board, which soaks up a lot of my time,” Ferguson said of his management style. “But at the end of the day, it probably saves me a lot of time in other issues.” A two-second question, Ferguson said, could save someone two hours of research.

That’s why, early in the company’s history, Ferguson transformed his weekly Tuesday morning sales meetings to more of a training assembly, using the time to encourage his agents to consider possible scenarios and outcomes.

“After a while, I tried to turn those more into an educational-type session versus a true sales meeting,” he said. “How can you work around this issue? If these numbers were given to your client, what is the true value to the client at the end of the day? Those are everyday scenarios that you’re going to run into, and you need to know them upwards, backwards, sideways,” Ferguson said.

“The bigger you get the more of a challenge it is.”

“With the newer agents, Darin is a fabulous mentor,” said Pat Schneider, who’s been a broker with the firm for nine of its 10 years. “He makes them go through the cold calling; he makes them really work. So by the time they are with him for six months to a year, they pretty much know what they’re doing.

“He’s got a great sense of humor, which goes a long way, especially when you are working with people,” Schneider continued. “Being able to defuse things that maybe at other firms would kind of fester” is another quality she appreciates in Ferguson. “He knows how to cut through a lot of that bull and just get to whatever needs to happen,” she said.

“He’s extremely ethical, he’s extremely loyal,” she said. “He’s not afraid to say ‘I don’t know, but I’ll get you an answer.’ That means a lot.”

The man

In the past six years, Ferguson has faced at least three major life events and has emerged from each experience with a fresh perspective, helping him to grow into the man he is today.

First, in 2003, there was the divorce from his first wife and the ensuing battle for custody of his daughters, which he is still fighting. The lesson he learned: Go into marriage with your eyes wide open.

Next, the stock market crashed, delivering a six-figure blow to Ferguson’s personal portfolio, followed by an economic rut that in 2009 cost the brokerage arm of his business at least $100,000.

“To look at very sizable losses for someone like me, who grew up on free and reduced-price lunch,” Ferguson said, “will make you sick to your stomach. To lose six figures was almost unbearable.”

“He’s a guy that grew up on the South Side, he had a pretty normal childhood and upbringing; his parents are good people that obviously did a good job of raising him,” said Richard Hurd, president of Hurd Real Estate Services and a family friend who has watched Ferguson grow up in the business. “He’s got into the business and worked hard and applied himself and has achieved a high level of success in a relatively short period of time.”

Regardless of the level of financial success, however, Ferguson, like many others during the past 18 months, felt queasy while riding the waves of the financial markets. But that experience has led him to get more involved with his firm’s finances.

“Times like this actually are great for someone like me, because I ignored the numbers for 10 years,” he said, adding that when he took a closer look, he realized some of the expenditures just didn’t make sense.

“I’ve been able to pare things back,” he said. “We’ve always tried to stay lean and mean. If commercial brokerage was easy, then everyone would be doing it.”

“He’s very astute in real estate, he stays kind of ahead of the curve,” said developer Bill Knapp. “I think he’s done a terrific job and pulled together a good team. I have nothing but respect for him.”

“Going forward,” Ferguson said, “I’m hoping that I’m able to maintain that level of level-headedness,” adding that he plans to ask more questions, such as “Do you really need to spend X thousands of dollars for this type of marketing?”

“I always try to justify it; one phone call pays for all of it,” he said. “And at the end of the day, that’s obviously true. But in times like this, you are not going to count on that phone call, where you could in the 1990s.”

Lastly, the diagnosis.

The crisis

About 10 minutes into an interview, Ferguson – a handsome, confident and straight-shooting 38-year-old success story – choked back tears while describing the events surrounding the weekend when he learned he had cancer.

He didn’t talk about the thrill of closing a transaction, the need for speed or the excitement of competition.

Instead, he talked about the heartache of breaking the news to his wife, parents and children. He talked about taking his mother out for dinner that Sunday for her birthday. He talked about the love and support of friends and family who encouraged him to see a doctor. He talked about the months of chemotherapy and radiation treatments that keep the disease in check.

And he talked about the hope that his family has when considering that on May 1, within weeks of Ferguson’s diagnosis, his mother celebrated 30 years of remission from Hodgkin’s disease, a rarer form of lymphoma.

“I don’t talk about it much,” he said.

Ferguson admits that even after the life-changing experience of battling cancer – he went into remission in September – it can be difficult to not once again get caught up in the daily grind and hurried pace required of a successful businessman working to meet the needs of his company and his family.

“Everything I’ve done has kind of been living for the future,” Ferguson said. He said his typical mode of thinking was “I can live without today because in 15 years it’s going to be so much better.”

But Ferguson now has a new appreciation for the simple things: being more purposeful about spending quality time with his kids, chopping down trees on the family farm or even rolling down the window to enjoy the breeze.

“After this, I think Darin is taking more time to do that,” Schneider said, and noted that Katie, his wife since September 2007, has been extremely supportive throughout the entire ordeal.

“That’s a tough thing to go through, and she was with him at every appointment, every step of the way,” she said.

The attitude

Ferguson’s demeanor isn’t too flashy or too self-effacing. The details of his life reflect the complexity of a laid-back guy with a hands-on approach. His Italian sports car, for example, fits his low-profile but fun-loving personality and an understated air of confidence that puts people at ease.

Ferguson’s coyness about revealing the identity of his 2007 Ferrari F430 F1 Spider reflects his unassuming attitude. And his use of the vehicle, which he purchased in 2008 after five years of careful consideration, says a lot about his evolving outlook.

Ferguson hesitated to rack up many miles on the car, only clocking about 300 prior to the diagnosis. But this past summer, he added nearly 3,300 miles to the odometer. “I drove it every single time I could,” he said. “You have to live for now.”

“He is a very bright, articulate, energetic person that puts 110 percent into whatever he’s doing,” Hurd said. “Whether that’s family, business, sports or physical fitness, he is very intense about what he does.”

Hurd continued: “I don’t think his outlook has changed from a perspective of being enthusiastic about what’s in front of him, but I think he probably approaches it perhaps a little differently now.”