Assign a value to the work and that is his equity being put into the deal.When you sell, you might have proceeds first to pay out your equity, then your partners "equity," then you split the rest of the profit either 50/50 or maybe in proportion to your equity. 

If its true that "we get paid in direct proportion to the complexity of problems we solve", I want our real estate ventures to help communities solve as many problems as we can.Having worked at Amazon the past two years, I'm particularly excited about where they'll announce their HQ2 location.

@Michael Krotchie, that makes a lot of sense, but rent values don't seem to have risen proportionally.

The "promote" just means that after your investors are paid a pre-determined return, you would receive something more than your proportional share of cash flow thereafter.As someone else pointed out above, if you aren't an experienced investor and desire a more passive investment, you could invest as a limited partner (i.e. part of the 90%) in someone else's deal. 

And if you don't have the funds to go it alone most investors of significant proportion are strictly numbers people.

Had it been increased proportionally?

I remember parting with my hard-earned money, thinking that the substantial investment would be proportional to the value received.

@Jacqueline Carrington that's good that it will be proportional to the other lots around it.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."

Make sure you keep things in proportion - a small house does not feel right with a huge kitchen and tiny rooms.