What It Takes Quotes

“it’s as hard to start and run a small business as it is to start a big one. You will suffer the same toll financially and psychologically as you bludgeon it into existence. It’s hard to raise the money and to find the right people. So if you’re going to dedicate your life to a business, which is the only way it will ever work, you should choose one with the potential to be huge.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“The best executives are made, not born. They absorb information, study their own experiences, learn from their mistakes, and evolve.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“Regardless of how you begin your careers, it is important to realize that your life will not necessarily move in a straight line. You have to recognize that the world is an unpredictable place. Sometimes even gifted people such as yourselves will get knocked back on their heels. It is inevitable that you will confront many difficulties and hardships during your lives. When you face setbacks, you have to dig down and move yourself forward. The resilience you exhibit in the face of adversity—rather than the adversity itself—will be what defines you as a person.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“time wounds all deals.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“three basic tests. First, your idea has to be big enough to justify devoting your life to it. Make sure it has the potential to be huge. Second, it should be unique. When people see what you are offering, they should say to themselves, “My gosh, I need this. I’ve been waiting for this. This really appeals to me.” Without that “aha!” you are wasting your time. Third, your timing must be right. The world actually doesn’t like pioneers, so if you are too early, your risk of failure is high. The market you are targeting should be lifting off with enough momentum to help make you successful. If you pass these three tests, you will have a business with the potential to be big, that offers something unique, and is hitting the market at the right time. Then you have to be ready for the pain. No entrepreneur anticipates or wants pain, but pain is the reality of starting something new. It is unavoidable”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“So if you’re going to dedicate your life to a business, which is the only way it will ever work, you should choose one with the potential to be huge.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“Success breeds arrogance and complacency, he said. You only learn from your mistakes and when the worst happens.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“If you ever felt overwhelmed by work, I said, pass on some of your work to others. It might not feel natural. High achievers tend to want to volunteer for more responsibility, not give up some of what they have taken on. But all that anyone higher up in the firm cares about is that the work is done well. There is nothing heroic or commendable about taking on too much and then screwing it up. Far better to focus on what you can do, do it well, and share the rest.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“That’s how real life works. If you’re faced with a problem, you don’t panic and declare immediate catastrophe. You call for quiet and give everyone time.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“To be successful you have to put yourself in situations and places you have no right being in. You shake your head and learn from your own stupidity. But through sheer will, you wear the world down, and it gives you what you want.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“But learning the way I did, I saw the intricate ways in which deals can be structured, the subtleties that must be negotiated. Mastery like that takes experience, endurance, and tolerance for pain. And it yields the greatest rewards.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“Here are my simple rules for identifying market tops and bottoms: 1. Market tops are relatively easy to recognize. Buyers generally become overconfident and almost always believe “this time is different.” It’s usually not. 2. There’s always a surplus of relatively cheap debt capital to finance acquisitions and investments in a hot market. In some cases, lenders won’t even charge cash interest, and they often relax or suspend typical loan restrictions as well. Leverage levels escalate compared to historical averages, with borrowing sometimes reaching as high as ten times or more compared to equity. Buyers will start accepting overoptimistic accounting adjustments and financial forecasts to justify taking on high levels of debt. Unfortunately most of these forecasts tend not to materialize once the economy starts decelerating or declining. 3. Another indicator that a market is peaking is the number of people you know who start getting rich. The number of investors claiming outperformance grows with the market. Loose credit conditions and a rising tide can make it easy for individuals without any particular strategy or process to make money “accidentally.” But making money in strong markets can be short-lived. Smart investors perform well through a combination of self-discipline and sound risk assessment, even when market conditions reverse.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“The harder the problem is, the more limited the competition, and the greater the reward for whomever can solve it.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“Every entrepreneur knows the feeling: that moment of despair when the only thing you are aware of is the giant gap between where you find yourself and the life and business you imagine. Once you succeed, people see only the success. If you fail, they see only the failure. Rarely do they see the turning points that could have taken you in a completely different direction. But it’s at these inflection points that the most important lessons in business and life are learned.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“And my exit from Lehman had shown me Wall Street at its worst, everyone for themselves.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“Getting to know Jack and watching him in action reinforced my growing belief that the most important asset in business is information. The more you know, the more perspectives you have and the more connections you can make, which allow you to anticipate issues.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“Graham Allison, a Harvard historian, has warned that this process of rebalancing power from West to East contains a trap. As the United States steps back and China steps up, both powers, and their dependents, will feel unbalanced, out of sync with decades of history, creating a moment when the slightest misunderstanding, resentment, or offense could topple everyone into the trap of war. It happened in the fifth century B.C. when Athens’ rise threatened Sparta. Hence Allison’s name for it, the Thucydides trap, after the Greek historian who wrote the defining history of the Peloponnesian War. It happened in the twentieth century, when Germany threatened the established European order and provoked two world wars. It could happen again if China and the United States cannot find a cooperative, trusting way to manage the shift in political power that must follow the shift in economic power that has already taken place.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“We wanted to be spoken of in the same breath as the greatest names in our industry.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“When Joe and I went to meet Goldman’s real estate team, though, we found they had a different view of the risks of this deal. Goldman wanted to bid as low as possible to avoid overpaying. For me, the biggest risk was not offering enough and missing out on a tremendous opportunity. I wanted to make sure we beat Bankers Trust’s expected bid. You often find this difference between different types of investors. Some will tell you that all the value is in driving down the price you pay as low as possible. These investors revel in the transaction itself, in playing with the deal terms, in beating up their opponent at the negotiating table. That has always seemed short term to me. What that thinking ignores is all the value you can realize once you own an asset: the improvements you can make, the refinancing you can do to improve your returns, the timing of your sale to make the most of a rising market. If you waste all your energy and goodwill in pursuit of the lowest possible purchase price and end up losing the asset to a higher bidder, all that future value goes away. Sometimes it’s best to pay what you have to pay and focus on what you can then do as an owner. The returns to successful ownership will often be much higher than the returns on winning a one-off battle over price.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“We train our professionals to distill every individual investment opportunity down to the two or three major variables that will define the success of our investment case and create value.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“His goal was to ensure that once we had gone public and everyone’s stock had vested, we had a compensation system that was transparent and competitive, benchmarked against our peers. One that would ensure the long-term health of the business. He wanted to reward past and present partners and employees, yet leave enough in the pot for generations to come. It required a lot of analysis, but also a lot of judgment, understanding what people thought and felt and smoothing out any perceived differences.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“You often find this difference between different types of investors. Some will tell you that all the value is in driving down the price you pay as low as possible. These investors revel in the transaction itself, in playing with the deal terms, in beating up their opponent at the negotiating table. That has always seemed short term to me. What that thinking ignores is all the value you can realize once you own an asset: the improvements you can make, the refinancing you can do to improve your returns, the timing of your sale to make the most of a rising market. If you waste all your energy and goodwill in pursuit of the lowest possible purchase price and end up losing the asset to a higher bidder, all that future value goes away. Sometimes it’s best to pay what you have to pay and focus on what you can then do as an owner. The returns to successful ownership will often be much higher than the returns on winning a one-off battle over price. At the price I suggested, I calculated that we would lock in a 16 percent annual yield.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“A classic LBO works this way: An investor decides to buy a company by putting up equity, similar to the down payment on a house, and borrowing the rest, the leverage. Once acquired, the company, if public, is delisted, and its shares are taken private, the “private” in the term “private equity.” The company pays the interest on its debt from its own cash flow while the investor improves various areas of a business’s operations in an attempt to grow the company. The investor collects a management fee and eventually a share of the profits earned whenever the investment in monetized. The operational improvements that are implemented can range from greater efficiencies in manufacturing, energy utilization, and procurement; to new product lines and expansion into new markets; to upgraded technology; and even leadership development of the company’s management team.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“But I’ve always believed that it’s just as hard to achieve big goals as it is small ones. The only difference is that bigger goals have much more significant consequences. Since you can tackle only one personally defining effort at a time, it’s important to pursue a goal that is truly worthy of the focus it will require to ensure its success.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“had reached an important conclusion about starting any business: it’s as hard to start and run a small business as it is to start a big one. You will suffer the same toll financially and psychologically as you bludgeon it into existence. It’s hard to raise the money and to find the right people. So if you’re going to dedicate your life to a business, which is the only way it will ever work, you should choose one with the potential to be huge.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“do, and my experience at Abington with Little Anthony had taught me a lesson I have replicated throughout my life: if you’re going to commit yourself to something, it’s as easy to do something big as it is to do something small. Both will consume your time and energy, so make sure your fantasy is worthy of your pursuit, with rewards commensurate to your effort.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“You’ve got to sell your vision over and over again. Most people don’t like change, and you have to overwhelm them with your argument, and some charm.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“I was never going to settle on offices that were less than perfect. The rewards of having a beautiful space that attracted the best people and gave our clients greater confidence in our abilities would far exceed”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“At Lehman, I had realized that I spent more time at the office than at home, so I wanted a beautiful environment. It made me feel happier. I wanted the same for everyone at Blackstone: warmth, elegance, simplicity, balance, and natural light pouring in from huge windows. When people come to a Blackstone office to work or for meetings, I want them to feel as blown away as I am by the experience.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

“As a baby boomer, I had grown up seeing only growth and opportunity. Success seemed a given. But working through the economic ups and downs of the 1970s and early 1980s, I had come to understand that success is about taking advantage of those rare moments of opportunity that you can’t predict but come to you provided you’re alert and open to major changes.”
― Stephen A. Schwarzman, What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence