What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

by Stephen A. Schwarzman

To coincide with our launch, the Wall Street Journal had planned to run a major front-page article about our new firm—publicity that would have been a huge boost for our new business. The day before it was supposed to run, the reporter called to tell me his editors were yanking it. He apologized. “The Shearson people heard we were doing it,” he said. “They called us up and said you were fired for a variety of bad reasons. We didn’t feel we could run the piece if Shearson told us on background that you’re a bad guy.” I should have known our launch would rile Shearson. I had wanted out of Lehman because the ethics there had become so awful—the greed, the fear, the gutlessness, the hunger for power, the dishonesty. But this counterattack was a new low. I sat there in our bare office with boxes of office equipment scattered around. How could people be so vindictive? Despite

really?