Thinking out of the box helps Green see big picture.

To see Gary Green's office, there's no question about who his favorite sports team is. There's Willie Mays', Daryl Strawberry's and Nolan Ryan's Mets jerseys, autographed and framed in glass, an array of baseball bats and signed game balls and, of course, that famous photo of one of the defining moments in Mets history; game six of the 1986 World Series, when Mookie Wilson's grounder to first somehow snuck between the legs of Red Sox first baseman, Bob Buckner, allowing the Mets to bring home the winning run.

"The Mets are usually the underdog," said Green, who, although he doesn't have them displayed in his office, happens to also own the pair of cleats and glove that Buckner wore during that fateful misplay. "And for me, it's about rooting for the underdog."

Green says this introspectively, in a way that hints the role of underdog is one that he can relate to. Hearing this, one might be tempted to feel at least a slight sense of puzzlement, perhaps even skepticism. After all, Green doesn't seem like an underdog, rather more like a top dog. Alliance Building Services, a company Green started in the early 1990s and that he has, expanded to include building maintenance, security and courier services for commercial properties throughout Manhattan, has enjoyed consistent growth for over a decade. Its client list has come to include a roster of well-known Manhattan real estate finns including Murray Hill, SL Green, the Moinian Group, W&H Properties and Stellar Management.

Rather than bask in the spoils of a run that has positioned his company as one of the prominent building services firms in the city, Green has committed himself instead to maintaining what he said has been a pace of twenty to thirty percent yearly growth--a lofty goal that he admits becomes exponentially harder to meet as those percentages come to constitute progressively bigger and bigger expansions. Green has met the challenge in many ways, by hiring the right staff, by striving to create a work environment that he feels will attract and retain talent, but also by focusing on raising his own level of experience and knowledge as a leader.

A member of the Young President's Organization, a group in which some of the city's top young executives network, exchange ideas and tap one another's experience, Green has found for himself a group of peers that he says has changed the way he looks at running a company.

"I used to be a tennis player and when you play tennis against someone who is good, there's the strong tendency for you to play a much better game than when you're playing with someone who's not that good," Green said. "It's the same thing here, I want to play with the best. When you're around guys who are as talented and accomplished as the guys in YPO, it elevates your game as well, you become better at what you do."

Having participated in the organization for over a year and half, Green has risen to become a moderator, a position where now he is in charge of determining the topics his group will discuss during a meeting--what could be considered an intimidating task considering the sophistication of the group

"These are guys who are incredibly successful, Rob Lapidus from L&L Acquisitions is in the organization, Barry Gosin and Bruce Mosler were members, and then there's also many people from outside the real estate industry," Green said. "They are stimulated all the time by complex problems and approaches on how to solve those problems, to take them out of the business place and give them a different kind of mental exercise is in some ways more difficult than leading your own organization."

While he is quick to admit the sense of humbleness such talented peers inspire within him, Green has been able to share philosophies and approaches for achieving success that have had a profound impact on the group.

"I think a lot of people, no matter how smart they are, can get stuck in a mode of working where they are just focused on accomplishing the tasks on their to-do list," Green said. "It's a maintenance mode. The key to moving forward, advancing the vision of your company and your personal goals, is to break out of just maintenance mode and dedicate an amount of time to building mode, to realizing your long-term goals. It's as simple as that. I know what it's like because my own nature is to be busy and remain busy. If you can have someone take you away from that and put you in grow mode, it just allows you to propel yourself, and that's what I try to do in the group, get them to focus on that."

One can perhaps better understand now his identification with the role of underdog; Green is the big fish in a little pond who has stubbornly sought bigger waters despite their accompanying obstacles. It's a preoccupation with this manner of challenging himself that has made him accustomed to uphill battles where the prospect of immediate success isn't always certain.

"When I got into this business, I saw that a lot of the building services firms seemed more interested in servicing clients in a way that was convenient for them rather than their client," Green said. "I've done something completely different than that, we've focused on the client, really tailoring our service to their needs. And when you set a very high standard for yourself like that and you try to do something that's new or different, it's a challenge. But it's an exciting and rewarding challenge."