What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

by Stephen A. Schwarzman

The day after our advertisement appeared in the New York Times, I heard a knock at the door. I opened it to find a guy in leather pants, a black motorcycle jacket, and a little peaked leather motorcycle hat. We were waiting to hear from our familiar M&A clients, but we got the gang leader from The Wild Ones. “Is there a Steve Schwarzman here?” he said. “What are you delivering?” “I’m not delivering anything. My name is Sam Zell. Leah told me I should meet you.” In 1979, we had hired Leah Zell at Lehman. She had been an English major at Harvard and had just gotten a PhD. After talking with her for a few minutes, it was obvious she had an exceptional mind. Though she knew nothing about finance, I had decided to give her a chance. She had proved to be a terrific analyst. This biker was her brother. “What’s with the outfit?” I said. “I left my motorcycle downstairs.” “Where downstairs?” “I chained it up on Park Avenue,” he said. “To a hydrant.” Our first day. This is some future, I thought. He must have thought the same thing looking at me sitting there in my suit in our bare office, the phones silent. “Look, I’m sorry. We just moved in today. We’ve hardly got any furniture yet.” “That’s okay,” said Sam. He sat on the floor, leaned against the wall, against our rolled-up rug, and began to talk. He owned some real estate and wanted to buy some companies, but he didn’t know much about finance. “Why don’t you teach me?” he said. I later found out that I shouldn’t have been misled...

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