Aug 31, 2026 · 1 hr 3 min · 17 segments
David Cohen is the founder of the New York-based high-end residential contracting firm I-Grace. He started the business in 1988 after cutting his teeth for other builders, and quickly found himself in…
David CohenGuest
Dennis ScullyHost
And, and I wanna, I wanna just pause and, and sort of make, make it clear exact.
You, so your, uh, somewhat of a, a mentor passes away from, from the, the AIDS crisis, as you point out.
Suddenly you're working with Mark Hampton, and we'll come back to that, the legendary Mark Hampton and a 15-year relationship you end up having with, with him.
Again, despite your feeling [chuckles] that you weren't entrepreneurial to, to begin with, but we'll, we'll talk more about that.
You, you buy this s- sports car of your dreams and, and join the equestrian club, and then as you say, you're, you're in the middle of a jump on your horse, and, and suddenly you're, you're, you're flat out, and you've broken your back, and you are paralyzed from the waist down.
And at 29, and, and at a time where we, we didn't have the knowledge and the treatments that we, that we have since learned, and, uh, and so suddenly life has taken a, a very dramatic turn for, for you.
I think you described it to me wh- when we spoke about it as sort of a, a, a second childhood is a- is about to be- begin because your, your father has to, to take care of you in such a, in such an intense w- way.
I'm sorry to b- bring back the, the painful memories of all of this, but it's an extraordinary story of how you over- overcome all of this.
I, um, I think that first, you know, I always reflect on the, the dichotomy between the moment when I felt like I was on top of the world driving to the equestrian club to the moment that I hit the ground, you know, with kind of [laughs] a resounding thud, you know?
And, you know, there was that moment where I was just completely stricken, which was instantaneous, and I, I almost felt like there was like, you know, a hubris, you know, that needed to be just kind of ripped, you know, ripped from me.
So, you know, at the time, uh, uh, there were a whole variety of, of different protocols which hadn't been very successful without kind of wading into the choppy medical waters, which I'm not really e- equipped to do.
But long story short, you know, we found somebody who was a maverick at the time.
They, they brought me, you know, they brought me into the city, and I, um, had just the faintest little flicker in one of my, my toes, but no bodily functions, nothing, you know, below the, below the waist.
And, and I wanna, I wanna just pause and, and sort of make, make it clear exact.
You, so your, uh, somewhat of a, a mentor passes away from, from the, the AIDS crisis, as you point out.
Suddenly you're working with Mark Hampton, and we'll come back to that, the legendary Mark Hampton and a 15-year relationship you end up having with, with him.
Again, despite your feeling [chuckles] that you weren't entrepreneurial to, to begin with, but we'll, we'll talk more about that.
You, you buy this s- sports car of your dreams and, and join the equestrian club, and then as you say, you're, you're in the middle of a jump on your horse, and, and suddenly you're, you're, you're flat out, and you've broken your back, and you are paralyzed from the waist down.
And at 29, and, and at a time where we, we didn't have the knowledge and the treatments that we, that we have since learned, and, uh, and so suddenly life has taken a, a very dramatic turn for, for you.
I think you described it to me wh- when we spoke about it as sort of a, a, a second childhood is a- is about to be- begin because your, your father has to, to take care of you in such a, in such an intense w- way.
I'm sorry to b- bring back the, the painful memories of all of this, but it's an extraordinary story of how you over- overcome all of this.
I, um, I think that first, you know, I always reflect on the, the dichotomy between the moment when I felt like I was on top of the world driving to the equestrian club to the moment that I hit the ground, you know, with kind of [laughs] a resounding thud, you know?
And, you know, there was that moment where I was just completely stricken, which was instantaneous, and I, I almost felt like there was like, you know, a hubris, you know, that needed to be just kind of ripped, you know, ripped from me.
So, you know, at the time, uh, uh, there were a whole variety of, of different protocols which hadn't been very successful without kind of wading into the choppy medical waters, which I'm not really e- equipped to do.
But long story short, you know, we found somebody who was a maverick at the time.
They, they brought me, you know, they brought me into the city, and I, um, had just the faintest little flicker in one of my, my toes, but no bodily functions, nothing, you know, below the, below the waist.
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