Stephen A. Schwarzman - Academy of Achievement

<!doctype html> <html lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> <head><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://www.achievement.org:80/achiever/stephen-schwarzman/","20180630094007","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1530351607"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta charset="utf-8"> <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="57x57" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-57x57.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="114x114" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-114x114.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="72x72" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-72x72.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-144x144.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="60x60" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-60x60.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="120x120" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-120x120.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="76x76" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-76x76.png"/> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="152x152" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/apple-touch-icon-152x152.png"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-196x196.png" sizes="196x196"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-96x96.png" sizes="96x96"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-32x32.png" sizes="32x32"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-16x16.png" sizes="16x16"/> <link rel="icon" type="image/png" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/favicon-128.png" sizes="128x128"/> <meta name="application-name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#000000"/> <meta name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-144x144.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square70x70logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-70x70.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square150x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-150x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-wide310x150logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x150.png"/> <meta name="msapplication-square310x310logo" content="http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/favicon/mstile-310x310.png"/> <link href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007cs_/https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Source+Sans+Pro:400,600,400italic,600italic,700,700italic" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"> <title>Stephen A. Schwarzman - Academy of Achievement</title>  <meta name="description" content="At age 31, Stephen Schwarzman was managing director of Lehman Brothers, one of Wall Street's leading investment banking firms, but after merging Lehman with American Express, he chose to strike out on his own. With one partner, two employees and less than half a million in start-up cash, he set out to compete with Wall Street's reigning giants. From these unpromising beginnings, Schwarzman built America's leading private equity firm, The Blackstone Group, and made brilliant strategic investments in almost every sector of the economy. After completing the largest leveraged buyout in history to acquire some of America's most profitable real estate, he took his firm public in the biggest initial public offering recorded to date, giving ordinary investors a chance to participate in Blackstone's unprecedented success. Schwarzman's investments made him a very rich man, but they also made the American economy more efficient and productive, rescuing troubled companies from insolvency and building small companies into big ones. Although Blackstone and its holdings declined along with the rest of the economy in the global credit crisis of 2008, the firm and its chairman remain major figures in the world financial scene. In addition to his achievements in finance, Stephen Schwarzman is one of his country's leading patrons of the arts and culture; in recognition of his generosity, the main branch of the New York City Public Library now bears his name."/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-schwarzman/"/> <meta property="og:locale" content="en_US"/> <meta property="og:type" content="article"/> <meta property="og:title" content="Stephen A. Schwarzman - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">At age 31, Stephen Schwarzman was managing director of Lehman Brothers, one of Wall Street's leading investment banking firms, but after merging Lehman with American Express, he chose to strike out on his own. With one partner, two employees and less than half a million in start-up cash, he set out to compete with Wall Street's reigning giants.</p> <p class="inputText">From these unpromising beginnings, Schwarzman built America's leading private equity firm, The Blackstone Group, and made brilliant strategic investments in almost every sector of the economy. After completing the largest leveraged buyout in history to acquire some of America's most profitable real estate, he took his firm public in the biggest initial public offering recorded to date, giving ordinary investors a chance to participate in Blackstone's unprecedented success.</p> <p class="inputText">Schwarzman's investments made him a very rich man, but they also made the American economy more efficient and productive, rescuing troubled companies from insolvency and building small companies into big ones. Although Blackstone and its holdings declined along with the rest of the economy in the global credit crisis of 2008, the firm and its chairman remain major figures in the world financial scene. In addition to his achievements in finance, Stephen Schwarzman is one of his country's leading patrons of the arts and culture; in recognition of his generosity, the main branch of the New York City Public Library now bears his name.</p>"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-schwarzman/"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Academy of Achievement"/> <meta property="og:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/schwarzman-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="2800"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="1120"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="<p class="inputTextFirst">At age 31, Stephen Schwarzman was managing director of Lehman Brothers, one of Wall Street's leading investment banking firms, but after merging Lehman with American Express, he chose to strike out on his own. With one partner, two employees and less than half a million in start-up cash, he set out to compete with Wall Street's reigning giants.</p> <p class="inputText">From these unpromising beginnings, Schwarzman built America's leading private equity firm, The Blackstone Group, and made brilliant strategic investments in almost every sector of the economy. After completing the largest leveraged buyout in history to acquire some of America's most profitable real estate, he took his firm public in the biggest initial public offering recorded to date, giving ordinary investors a chance to participate in Blackstone's unprecedented success.</p> <p class="inputText">Schwarzman's investments made him a very rich man, but they also made the American economy more efficient and productive, rescuing troubled companies from insolvency and building small companies into big ones. Although Blackstone and its holdings declined along with the rest of the economy in the global credit crisis of 2008, the firm and its chairman remain major figures in the world financial scene. In addition to his achievements in finance, Stephen Schwarzman is one of his country's leading patrons of the arts and culture; in recognition of his generosity, the main branch of the New York City Public Library now bears his name.</p>"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Stephen A. Schwarzman - Academy of Achievement"/> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/schwarzman-Feature-Image-2800x1120.jpg"/> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180630094007\/http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"WebSite","@id":"#website","url":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180630094007\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/","name":"Academy of Achievement","alternateName":"A museum of living history","potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180630094007\/http:\/\/www.achievement.org\/search\/{search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}</script> <script 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[(max-width:992px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/04/schwarzman-Feature-Image-2800x1120-1400x560.jpg"></div> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <figcaption class="feature-area__text ratio-container__text container"> <div class="feature-area__text-inner text-white"> <h2 class="serif-8 feature-area__text-subhead back"><a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever">All achievers</a></h2> <h1 class="serif-1 entry-title feature-area__text-headline">Stephen A. Schwarzman</h1> <h5 class="sans-6 feature-area__blurb">Chairman and CEO of The Blackstone Group</h5> </div> </figcaption> </div> </div> </figure> </header> </div>  <nav class="in-page-nav row fixedsticky"> <ul class="nav text-xs-center clearfix" role="tablist"> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link active" data-toggle="tab" href="#biography" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Biography">Biography</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#profile" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Profile">Profile</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#interview" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Interview">Interview</a> </li> <li class="nav-item col-xs-3"> <a class="nav-link" data-toggle="tab" href="#gallery" role="tab" data-gtm-category="tab" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever Gallery">Gallery</a> </li> </ul> </nav> <article class="post-3140 achiever type-achiever status-publish has-post-thumbnail hentry careers-financier"> <div class="entry-content container clearfix">  <div class="tab-content"> <div class="tab-pane fade in active" id="biography" role="tabpanel"> <section class="achiever--biography"> <div class="banner clearfix"> <div class="banner--single clearfix"> <div class="col-lg-8 col-lg-offset-2"> <div class="banner__image__container"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <img class="lazyload banner__image" data-src="/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/WhatItTakes_schwarzman-256-190x190.png" alt=""/> </figure> </a> </div> <div class="banner__text__container"> <h3 class="serif-3 banner__headline"> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-takes/id1025864075?mt=2" target="_blank"> Listen to this achiever on <i>What It Takes</i> </a> </h3> <p class="sans-6 banner__text m-b-0"><i>What It Takes</i> is an audio podcast on iTunes produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: music, science and exploration, sports, film, technology, literature, the military and social justice.</p> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="row"> <header class="editorial-article__header col-md-8 col-md-offset-2 text-xs-center"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> <h3 class="serif-3 quote-marks">We're not talking about brain surgery here. This is finance — add, subtract, multiply, and divide.</h3> </header> </div> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar clearfix"> <h2 class="serif-3 p-b-1">King of Capital</h2> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> February 14, 1947 </dd> </div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p class="inputtextfirst">Stephen Schwarzman was born in Philadelphia and grew up in nearby Abington, Pennsylvania, where he attended public schools. From an early age, he worked alongside his father in his grandfather’s drapery and linen business. In high school, he ran track and was elected president of his student body. He studied social sciences at Yale University: psychology, sociology and anthropology, but not economics. As graduation approached, he was still uncertain what he wanted to do for a career. During a homecoming weekend, he met Yale alumnus Bill Donaldson, and after graduating in 1969, he joined Donaldson’s investment banking firm, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. In his six months with the firm, he developed a taste for corporate finance but became keenly aware that he needed more training before he could make a career in the field. After fulfilling his military service obligation in the Army Reserve, he entered Harvard Business School, graduating in 1972.</p> <figure id="attachment_21544" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-21544 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/magnumNYC20932.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-21544 size-full lazyload" alt="1985: Stephen Schwarzman sits between Roger Altman and Francois de Saint Phalle. All made significant profits from their Lehman shares. (© Magnum photos/Erich Hartmann)" width="2280" height="1500" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/magnumNYC20932.jpg 2280w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/magnumNYC20932-380x250.jpg 380w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/magnumNYC20932-760x500.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/magnumNYC20932.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">1985: Stephen A. Schwarzman sits between Roger Altman and Francois de Saint Phalle. Schwarzman was head of the global mergers and acquisitions team, and Altman and de Saint Phalle ran the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers, one of Wall Street’s oldest and most powerful investment banking firms. All made significant profits from their shares when Lehman Brothers was acquired by Shearson/American Express  for $360 million in 1984. In 1985, Stephen Schwarzman founded The Blackstone Group, a global private equity firm, with Peter G. Peterson, Secretary of Commerce under Richard Nixon and former Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext">Schwarzman interviewed with a number of investment banking firms before deciding corporate finance was his true interest. He joined Lehman Brothers, where he developed a formidable expertise in mergers and acquisitions and made a favorable impression on the firm’s new chairman, former Commerce Secretary Peter G. Peterson. By the time of Lehman Brothers’ 1977 merger with Kuhn Loeb, Schwarzman was a rising star in the firm, and at age 31, he became the managing director of Lehman Brothers, Kuhn Loeb, Inc. In his last two years with Lehman, Schwarzman chaired the firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions Committee. Peterson was pushed out of the chairmanship in 1984, and Schwarzman managed the acquisition of Lehman Brothers by American Express. Not long after the merger was completed in 1985, he left the company to embark on a new venture with his former boss and mentor, Pete Peterson.</p> <figure id="attachment_35195" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-35195 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-Schwarzman-Stephen-at-table-laughing.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-35195 lazyload" alt="Stephen Schwarzman speaking to student delegates at an outing in Mount Vernon during the American Academy of Achievement's 1999 Summit in Washington, D.C." width="2280" height="1504" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-Schwarzman-Stephen-at-table-laughing.jpg 2280w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-Schwarzman-Stephen-at-table-laughing-380x251.jpg 380w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-Schwarzman-Stephen-at-table-laughing-760x501.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-Schwarzman-Stephen-at-table-laughing.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Stephen Schwarzman talks to Academy delegates at Mount Vernon during the 1999 Summit in Washington, D.C.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext">Schwarzman and Peterson proposed to build an investment firm of their own, The Blackstone Group. With two employees and only $400,000 of their own money, they set out to compete with industry giants Salomon Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. In the mid-’80s, there was widespread interest in leveraged buyouts, the buying of companies with borrowed money. Schwarzman wanted to start big and raised nearly a billion dollars for Blackstone’s first private equity fund. Private equity funds invest in privately held companies, those whose shares are not traded on the public stock exchanges. In this opportune moment, Blackstone prospered, as Schwarzman applied his expertise in a merger-friendly environment.</p> <figure id="attachment_21543" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignright"><noscript><img class="wp-image-21543 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/img413.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-21543 size-full lazyload" alt="March 2007: Fortune magazine hailed Stephen Schwarzman as "The New King of Wall Street."" width="2280" height="3002" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/img413.jpg 2280w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/img413-289x380.jpg 289w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/img413-577x760.jpg 577w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/img413.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">2007: <em>Fortune </em>hailed Schwarzman as “The New King of Wall Street.” That same year he was named in <em>TIME</em>’s “100 Most Influential People” and donated $100 million to the New York Public Library, on whose board he now serves.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext">In 1991, in the depths of a recession in the real estate market, Schwarzman took the plunge into real estate. Again, he had chosen the perfect moment, acquiring highly lucrative properties at depressed prices. In the following years, Schwarzman and Blackstone invested in a wide variety of industries, including health care, high tech, and communications. At first, most of the group’s investments were concentrated in the United States, Britain, and Germany. In 2004, Schwarzman picked up the German chemical company Celanese, when most investors were avoiding the chemical industry. He took Celanese public in the U.S. at a time when interest in chemical stocks was rising and reaped a windfall.</p> <p class="inputtext">In addition to its private equity operations, Blackstone manages hedge funds and provides restructuring advice to corporate clients. In the 1990s, these consulting and advisory services took Blackstone’s activities farther east, to Japan and India. The firm has assisted in some of the largest mergers ever transacted between Japanese and American companies and, since the late ’90s, has been a principal adviser to Sony on its foreign acquisitions. Under Schwarzman’s leadership, Blackstone has also led the bankruptcy restructuring of troubled businesses such as Enron and Global Crossing.</p> <figure id="attachment_21537" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-21537 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-138.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-21537 size-full lazyload" alt="Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman and CEO of The Blackstone Group. (Courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts)" width="2280" height="1516" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-138.jpg 2280w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-138-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-138-760x505.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-138.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Stephen Schwarzman serves as the Chairman Emeritus and Trustee of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and served as the Chairman of the Board from May 2004 through 2010.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext">In 2007, in the biggest leveraged buyout in history, Blackstone acquired Equity Office Partners for $34 billion, taking possession of 540 office buildings around the United States. The deal was quickly followed by the acquisition of the Hilton Hotel chain.</p> <p class="inputtext">At the height of its success, Schwarzman made the unprecedented decision to take Blackstone public, a first for a private equity firm in the United States. For the preceding five years, Blackstone’s real estate and private equity funds had earned more than 30 percent a year for their participants, primarily institutional investors such as public and corporate retirement funds. Taking the firm public enabled ordinary individual investors to participate in Blackstone’s unparalleled earnings. In the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history, Blackstone entered the market at a value of over $40 billion. This innovative move set off a wave of IPOs by other private equity firms. At the time, Blackstone controlled nearly 50 companies, businesses ranging from orthopedic devices, Gold Toe socks, and Michael’s art supplies stores to Vlasic Pickles and Aunt Jemima pancake mix.</p> <figure id="attachment_21547" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-21547 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/shutterstock_78207004.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-21547 size-full lazyload" alt="Stephen Schwarzman is a board member of the New York Public Library, and he made headlines in 2008 when he committed $100 million to help fund the library’s massive expansion project. It was the largest gift to a cultural institution the city has ever recorded. Schwarzman said that the library was helpful to lower- and middle-class citizens to reach toward the American Dream. The main building has been renamed the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building and holds traditional book collections as well as historically and culturally relevant documents." width="2280" height="1516" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/shutterstock_78207004.jpg 2280w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/shutterstock_78207004-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/shutterstock_78207004-760x505.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/shutterstock_78207004.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Stephen Schwarzman is a board member of the New York Public Library, and he made headlines in 2008 when he committed $100 million to help fund the library’s massive expansion project. It was the largest gift to a cultural institution New York City has ever recorded. Schwarzman said that the library was helpful to lower- and middle-class citizens to reach toward the American Dream. The library’s main building has been renamed the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building and holds traditional book collections and historically and culturally relevant documents.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext">At the end of 2007, it was estimated that Blackstone had access to credit of $125 billion to acquire new companies. Stephen Schwarzman’s management of Blackstone’s investments had made him a billionaire several times over. His personal shares in The Blackstone Group were valued at $7.7 billion, and he was earning well over a million dollars a day.</p> <p class="inputtext">The following year, the collapse of the U.S. housing market brought about an unprecedented contraction of credit and the downfall of many of the country’s largest investment banks, including Schwarzman’s old firm, Lehman Brothers. Although Blackstone had anticipated the subprime mortgage meltdown, it was not invulnerable. The firm continued to post a profit in the first half of the year, but in the third quarter of 2008, it reported losses of over $500 million. As the company marked down the value of its holdings, its own stock price fell to a fraction of its former value. In the midst of this turmoil, Blackstone’s financial advisory business continued to show a profit, as troubled corporations, including insurance giant AIG, turned to Blackstone for counsel.</p> <figure id="attachment_21539" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-21539 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/07053-277.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-21539 size-full lazyload" alt="Stephen Schwarzman and his wife, intellectual property attorney Christine Hearst Schwarzman, attend a gala at the Kennedy Center. (Courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts)" width="2280" height="3406" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/07053-277.jpg 2280w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/07053-277-254x380.jpg 254w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/07053-277-509x760.jpg 509w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/http://162.243.3.155/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/07053-277.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Schwarzman and his wife, Christine Hearst Schwarzman, attend a gala at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext">Schwarzman and his wife, intellectual property attorney Christine Hearst Schwarzman, maintain their principal residence in New York City. An enthusiastic supporter of the arts and culture, Stephen Schwarzman is a longtime director of such major cultural institutions as the New York Public Library and the New York City Ballet. From 2004 to 2010, he also served as Chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. In 2008, he donated $100 million to the New York Public Library to finance the renovation of its main branch building on 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue. The 100-year-old Beaux Arts landmark has been renamed in his honor.</p> <figure id="attachment_21535" style="width: 1050px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><noscript><img class="wp-image-21535 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12BIG-master1050.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-21535 size-full lazyload" alt="May 2015: Stephen Schwarzman, left, the Chairman and Chief Executive of The Blackstone Group, at Commons with Peter Salovey, President of Yale University. Schwarzman gave $150 million for a performing arts center at Yale. (Christopher Capozziello/The New York Times)" width="1050" height="616" data-sizes="(max-width: 1050px) 100vw, 1050px" data-srcset="/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12BIG-master1050.jpg 1050w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12BIG-master1050-380x223.jpg 380w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12BIG-master1050-760x446.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12BIG-master1050.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Stephen Schwarzman in Yale’s historic Commons building with Peter Salovey, President of Yale University. In 2015, Schwarzman donated $150 million to Yale University to establish the Schwarzman Center. He holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Stephen Schwarzman has served as an adjunct professor at the Yale School of Management and on the Harvard Business School Board of Dean’s Advisors.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext">He has also been a generous benefactor of his alma mater, Yale University. In 2015, he made a gift to the university of $150 million to establish a new center for cultural programming and student life. This was the second-largest gift made to Yale in its 300-plus-year history. An even more ambitious project is the creation of Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. Every year, approximately 200 university graduates from the United States, China, and other countries are to be given the opportunity to earn graduate degrees in public policy, economics and business, or international studies. The one-year program, conducted in English, is intended to prepare a new generation of leaders for a world in which China is destined to play an increasingly large role. As the Rhodes Scholars of the 20th century played a major role in aligning the interests of the English-speaking nations, it is Stephen Schwarzman’s hope that the Schwarzman Scholars of the 21st century will build a network of relationships that foster peaceful cooperation among China, the United States and all the nations of the world.</p> <figure id="attachment_38874" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="wp-image-38874 size-full " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-636220559348868665-STEPHEN-SCHWARZMAN-DONALD-TRUMP-MARY-BARRA.jpg"></noscript><img class="wp-image-38874 size-full lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1288" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-636220559348868665-STEPHEN-SCHWARZMAN-DONALD-TRUMP-MARY-BARRA.jpg 2280w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-636220559348868665-STEPHEN-SCHWARZMAN-DONALD-TRUMP-MARY-BARRA-380x215.jpg 380w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-636220559348868665-STEPHEN-SCHWARZMAN-DONALD-TRUMP-MARY-BARRA-760x429.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-636220559348868665-STEPHEN-SCHWARZMAN-DONALD-TRUMP-MARY-BARRA.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">February 2017: President Donald Trump meets with his business advisory council, the Strategic and Policy Forum, for the first time in the White House’s State Dining Room. Seated next to President Trump is the chairman of the council, Stephen A. Schwarzman, and Mary Barra, Chairman and CEO of General Motors. Topics of discussion included tax and trade, regulation, infrastructure, women in the workforce, education, and immigration. In attendance were 17 high-powered executives along with Vice President Mike Pence and the president’s top aides.</figcaption></figure><p class="inputtext">By 2016, Stephen Schwarzman had amassed a personal fortune of more than $10 billion. His income of $734.2 million from Blackstone in that year alone made him far and away the most successful executive in the private equity sector. Shortly after the 2016 election, President-elect Donald Trump named Stephen Schwarzman to chair a new business advisory council, the President’s Strategic and Policy Forum. The Forum draws on the experience of the nation’s leading business executives to assess the impact of government policy on economic growth, job creation, and productivity.</p></body></html> <div class="clearfix"> </div> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="profile" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <header class="editorial-article__header"> <figure class="text-xs-center"> <img class="inductee-badge" src="/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/themes/aoa/assets/images/inducted-badge@2x.png" alt="Inducted Badge" width="120" height="120"/> <figcaption class="serif-3 text-brand-primary"> Inducted in 1999 </figcaption> </figure> </header> <div class="row"> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <dl class="clearfix m-b-0"> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Career</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> <div><a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/#filter=.financier">Financier</a></div> </dd> </div> <div class="col-xs-12 sidebar--chunk p-b-2"> <dt class="serif-7">Date of Birth</dt> <dd class="sans-2"> February 14, 1947 </dd> </div> </dl> </aside> <article class="col-md-8 editorial-article clearfix"> <p class="inputTextFirst">At age 31, Stephen Schwarzman was managing director of Lehman Brothers, one of Wall Street’s leading investment banking firms, but after merging Lehman with American Express, he chose to strike out on his own. With one partner, two employees and less than half a million in start-up cash, he set out to compete with Wall Street’s reigning giants.</p> <p class="inputText">From these unpromising beginnings, Schwarzman built America’s leading private equity firm, The Blackstone Group, and made brilliant strategic investments in almost every sector of the economy. After completing the largest leveraged buyout in history to acquire some of America’s most profitable real estate, he took his firm public in the biggest initial public offering recorded to date, giving ordinary investors a chance to participate in Blackstone’s unprecedented success.</p> <p class="inputText">Schwarzman’s investments made him a very rich man, but they also made the American economy more efficient and productive, rescuing troubled companies from insolvency and building small companies into big ones. Although Blackstone and its holdings declined along with the rest of the economy in the global credit crisis of 2008, the firm and its chairman remain major figures in the world financial scene. In addition to his achievements in finance, Stephen Schwarzman is one of his country’s leading patrons of the arts and culture; in recognition of his generosity, the main branch of the New York City Public Library now bears his name.</p> </article> </div> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="interview" role="tabpanel"> <section class="clearfix"> <div class="col-md-12 interview-feature-video"> <figure> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/EFTuH0wCTIA?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schwarzman-Stephen-2018-MasterEdit.00_08_23_07.Still002-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schwarzman-Stephen-2018-MasterEdit.00_08_23_07.Still002-760x428.jpg"></div> <div class="video-tag sans-4"> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> <div class="video-tag__text">Watch full interview</div> </div> </div> </figure> </div> <header class="col-md-12 text-xs-center m-b-2"> <i class="icon-icon_bio text-brand-primary"></i> </header> <aside class="col-md-4 sidebar"> <h2 class="serif-3 achiever--biography-subtitle">King of Capital</h2> <div class="sans-2">New York City</div> <div class="sans-2">February 20, 2018</div> </aside> <article class="editorial-article col-md-8">   <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>(The Academy of Achievement interviewed Stephen Schwarzman in Washington, D.C. on June 20, 1999, and again, in New York City, on February 20, 2018. Transcripts of both interviews are combined here.)</strong></p> <p><strong>You’ve said that when you were a student, you imagined yourself as being like a telephone switchboard. What did you mean by that?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/7oVZw1jTkV0?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schwarzman-Stephen-2018-MasterEdit.01_01_27_29.Still006-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schwarzman-Stephen-2018-MasterEdit.01_01_27_29.Still006-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/vision/">Vision</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: They’re now obsolete, but in the olden days, what a telephone switchboard would do is take in incoming calls, sort of whip them around, and then connect you with some other place that you were trying to reach. And that’s sort of the way I saw myself. You know, I’m not much of a self-starter — in other words, sitting in a room thinking great thoughts. But if I can see things that are happening, if I can feel what’s going on, then I can do something with them, and I make them go some other place, create something, do something with it. So I need those inputs. I’ve got the processor, and then something magic happens coming out. So that’s what I thought was my basic purpose or skill or whatever.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><figure id="attachment_21536" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-21536 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-085.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-21536 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1520" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-085.jpg 2280w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-085-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-085-760x507.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-085.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Christine Hearst Schwarzman and Stephen Schwarzman meet singer Dolly Parton prior to the 2006 Kennedy Center Honors. Stephen Schwarzman is the Center’s chairman. Dolly Parton was one of the year’s honorees.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>What are the inputs that you take in now for your very special processor?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Now it’s amazing because there are so many inputs through my work life. I get to hear about what’s going on in every part of the world, with every asset class, with different kinds of companies, real estate. I can get a unique overview every week of what’s happening, and that’s also got a political overlay to it. So then, of course, we are now in an Internet world where there are all these other inputs, and television is no longer three network channels. It became four, and now there are hundreds of inputs and more publications.</p> <p><strong>How do you pick what to pay attention to? How do you sort through all that data?</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/IUmDBEsW9aE?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schwarzman-Stephen-2018-MasterEdit.01_13_36_00.Still012-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schwarzman-Stephen-2018-MasterEdit.01_13_36_00.Still012-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/preparation/">Preparation</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: We set up a system that’s terrific here, where, every Monday, each one of our big areas — private equity, where we probably employ about 500,000 people, one of the biggest in the United States; real estate, where we’re the largest owner of real estate in the world and, you know, sort of our capital extension in the debt business — each one of these areas reports and tells you everything that’s going on. I don’t have to pick. It picks itself. And the people in that group describe what’s going on in the world. I’ve only been doing this for over 30 years. So you get these feeds from — it’s raw data, and this is before there was a fixation on data. We get it all the time. What works for me is the way my mind, I realize now, works is I look for changes — not what’s going on; anybody can see what’s going on — that what I’m most interested in are those little imperfections. I call it a piece of white lint on a black dress. Usually people just brush it off. I keep looking at it. What’s it doing there? Why has that happened? What does that mean? Because what I’m looking for — I guess you’d call it some kind of an odd pattern recognition — is something that’s changed from the normal order.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>Can you give us an example?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tigmh4o6B5M?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schwarzman-Stephen-2018-MasterEdit.01_15_11_04.Still014-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schwarzman-Stephen-2018-MasterEdit.01_15_11_04.Still014-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/preparation/">Preparation</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: We were looking at buying some real estate. This is a business example, but there are examples from other areas. We were looking at buying some condominiums in southern Spain in the 2006-2007 era, and we did some analysis and had a meeting. And the team reported that they were building so many units in Spain that you could move most of Germany into Spain and there’d still be extra units. And then somebody commented from our Indian office, which I didn’t even realize we had, that the same thing was happening in India and that raw land had gone up ten times in 18 months, which seemed like an impossible thing. Then that weekend, I was in Florida, in my house there and reading the newspaper, and it said that real estate prices for houses were up 25 percent in one year, with like a one percent growth in population. So you could see a global residential housing boom so strong that it was meant to collapse, which, of course, it did. So we adjusted everything we were doing at the firm to not get caught in that mess. I can go over in more depth exactly what we did. It’s actually not that important except we changed our entire array of where we’d invest, where we wouldn’t invest, and when the subprime crisis happened, where the global financial crisis was triggered, we were positioned in a much different way than almost everybody. And you could see it just with one or two pieces of information. So that’s the way my mind sort of works.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>What do you think is different about you or how your mind works?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/H2lkiowLx64?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schwarzman-Stephen-2018-MasterEdit.01_09_18_09.Still008-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schwarzman-Stephen-2018-MasterEdit.01_09_18_09.Still008-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/courage/">Courage</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I just see connections of things that I think are sensible. One of the differences — when I see something like that and I figure it out, I’ll do it. Part of what I’ve discovered in life is most people don’t like changing what they do. They’re quite happy the way they are. Even if they grumble, that isn’t enough to make them change course. So when I see things that are different than other people see them, they’re always fact-based. They’re not my opinions. I can explain what will happen, and why, and hardly anybody cares. In fact, they say, typically, “That’s interesting,” and then they go back to what they’re doing. I don’t understand why it doesn’t change their behavior. But it certainly changes mine. Because I’m now in a position at my own business, Blackstone, and in other things that I do, where, when I see something that I think is worthy of a real course correction — which involves starting new things, doing new things — I go and do it. I don’t hesitate.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body><p><strong>Where does that confidence come from, that you don’t have that fear of risk or failure?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: It’s not risk. I hate risk. I don’t take risks. Risk is when you’re uncertain about an outcome but you go there anyhow.</p> <figure id="attachment_21546" style="width: 2280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-21546 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/schwarzmans.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-21546 lazyload" alt="" width="2280" height="1514" data-sizes="(max-width: 2280px) 100vw, 2280px" data-srcset="/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/schwarzmans.jpg 2280w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/schwarzmans-380x252.jpg 380w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/schwarzmans-760x505.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/schwarzmans.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">November 2012: Stephen and Christine Schwarzman on the steps of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. Schwarzman committed $100 million in 2008 to go toward the the library’s $1 billion expansion project. It was the largest gift to a cultural institution New York City has ever recorded. Schwarzman said that the library was helpful to lower- and middle-class citizens to reach toward the American Dream. The New York Landmarks Preservation Commission agreed to change the name of the library’s main building to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. The New York Public Library holds traditional book collections and historically and culturally relevant documents.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>But how can you be so certain when you’re doing things that no one else has done before?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Because they’re all logical, and I can explain why they would work. I don’t find anyone who says, “I don’t think it will work.” They just don’t want to do it. The way I think is, whenever I see one of those opportunities, that’s the least risky thing in the world. First, you have no competition. That’s one of the things that makes it very easy to go there. And you know why you’re going. It’s no different than playing basketball, and everybody’s guarding everybody, and all of a sudden somebody guarding you falls down, and you’re ten feet away from the basket. It’s a completely open shot. You take it. You don’t think about it.</p> <p><strong>You’ve put together deals in ways that nobody else has done before. Can you take us through a specific instance, from the germ of an idea to the actual execution?</strong></p></body></html> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/MYyayr0UFJ8?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schwarzman-Stephen-2018-MasterEdit.01_12_05_21.Still009-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schwarzman-Stephen-2018-MasterEdit.01_12_05_21.Still009-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: We bought a company in 2007 with a funny name. It was just acronyms, EOP. It was the largest office company — office buildings — in the world. Nothing close. It was worth about $40 billion. And it was near the top of the real estate cycle. We thought it would be interesting to buy for a number of reasons. But the price of the deal started getting higher. It became competitive. So we did some interesting tactical things to make sure we won. But I was so scared that we were winning — because we could have taken $500 million, I believe, to just go away and let somebody else win. That just made me — I couldn’t sleep at night because it was right on the margin. So we decided to sell half of what we bought because, if you have a huge group of buildings, you can sell them as one or two buildings. You can sell them by city. You can sell them by area. So what we did is we bought at one price — which was around 5.7 percent yield — and we sold them. We thought we could sell them at four-and-a-half. Roughly what that does is it increases the yield on the stuff you have left, so it’s safer. So we decided to do that. And I said, “I don’t want to take one minute of risk. This deal is so risky. So I want to simultaneously sell half the day we buy,” and the seller of the whole company didn’t want to do that. And I said, you know — we said we’d walk. We wouldn’t increase our bid to be the buyer. And they said okay. So imagine buying $40 billion of real estate one day and selling $20 billion of it the same day. The most amount of real estate that was ever sold in history in a year was $10 billion. So we were doing six times what anybody did in one day. And I did that because I was scared because I hate risk.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>What does it feel like when you’re making a deal and you know you might lose billions of dollars?</strong></p> </div>     <div class="achiever__video-block"> <figure class="achiever__interview-video"> <div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-16by9"> <iframe class="embed-responsive-item embed-responsive--has-thumbnail" width="200" height="150" src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007if_/https://www.youtube.com/embed/VffLodwjULg?feature=oembed&autohide=1&hd=1&color=white&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&theme=light" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <div class="embed-responsive__thumbnail ratio-container__image lazyload" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schwarzman-Stephen-2018-MasterEdit.01_12_59_15.Still011-380x214.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schwarzman-Stephen-2018-MasterEdit.01_12_59_15.Still011-760x428.jpg"></div> <i class="embed-responsive__play icon-icon_play-full text-brand-primary"></i> </div> <figcaption class="achiever__interview-video-terms"> <span>Keys to success —</span> <a class="comma-item" href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/keys-to-success/perseverance/">Perseverance</a> </figcaption> </figure>  <div class="achiever__interview-video__copy"> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I don’t want to lose <em>one</em> dollar! You know, part of what makes people is their background. I came from a background where to get spending money or do anything, I had to have jobs. I cut lawns. I shoveled snow. And then I recruited my brothers to do it, and I kept half of the profits. That lasted a few years before they realized they could do it all. I always did things. I sold lightbulbs door-to-door. I sold stationery door-to-door in college so I could get a KLA stereo. I did all kinds of things. When you do stuff like that, you really never want to lose your money because then you just have to keep doing more. That’s a huge effort to knock on somebody’s door you don’t know. You don’t know what’s going to happen. You only do it because you really want to be successful. So I’m not a believer in going backwards. It’s not something I endorse. I only like to go forwards. So I worry about making a mistake, any type of mistake. Part of the culture at our firm — it’s a little different than most — the first rule is don’t lose money. I know this sounds primitive. You don’t have to go to Harvard Business School for this. But if you have a philosophy of trying never to lose rather than how much you make, you always end up making a bunch on interesting things. But if you don’t have a downside, and you only have an upside, and you’re in a growing economy — which is where we operate — and you do it on leverage, you’ll make very, very high returns, and we have — so it’s a pretty simple model.</p> </div> </div>      <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>You’re well known for making huge amounts of money in these big deals that you’ve done. What’s the most you’ve ever <em>lost</em> in a day?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: In a day? You don’t lose it in a day. You lose it over a project. We had one where we lost a billion dollars. We’d bought a significant percentage of a telephone company in a European country, and we were partners with the government, who had the largest share. We had the second. We had a whole transformation project to have that company do much better. It used to be owned by the government. We agreed on it completely, and we would have made a very good return. Then there was an election, and the government basically said, “I’m sorry. I know I told you I wanted to do all these things with you, but I’m not doing it.” And this is a big country with famous people. You go over, and you sat down with them, and you said, “But you told me!” And they said, “Well, things changed.” So we lost almost all of our money on that.</p> </div>     <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> <html><body> <figure id="attachment_21540" style="width: 1280px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-21540 " src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1464168433217020023.jpg"></noscript><img class="size-full wp-image-21540 lazyload" alt="" width="1280" height="853" data-sizes="(max-width: 1280px) 100vw, 1280px" data-srcset="/web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1464168433217020023.jpg 1280w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1464168433217020023-380x253.jpg 380w, /web/20180630094007im_/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1464168433217020023-760x506.jpg 760w" data-src="https://web.archive.org/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1464168433217020023.jpg"><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">March 2016: Members of the Academic Advisory Council at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University, in Haidian District, Beijing, China. Stephen Schwarzman founded the Schwarzman Scholars program in order to give the most talented future leaders the power to change the course of history. An active philanthropist, Stephen Schwarzman personally donated $100 million to this effort and is leading a campaign to raise more to fully endow the program — the single largest charitable effort in China’s history, coming from largely international donors. With the inaugural class enrolled in 2016, the Scholars program gives the world’s best and brightest students the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and professional networks through a one-year master’s degree.</figcaption></figure><p><strong>You’re at the pinnacle of success now, not just in business, but you have heads of state reaching out to you for advice. Is success all that you thought it would be?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Yeah. In fact, it’s more because it’s optionality, and it’s fun. It’s not about financial return. It’s about the ability to create and do and help people and connect the dots, whether it’s in the business world, whether it’s in the philanthropic world, whether it’s in the political world. You just have enormous access and the ability to address issues in a really positive way. So, gee, my life’s never been more exciting. It’s wonderful.</p></body></html> </div>    <aside class="collapse" id="full-interview">    <div class="achiever__interview-copy"> <p><strong>Very few kids set their sights on being investment bankers when they grow up. So when you were about ten or twelve, what kind of kid were you, and what did you want to do?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Wow. That’s a great question. At ten or twelve, all I wanted to do was basically win any sport I played in, and that’s what I liked to do then. Clearly, I evolved somewhat. I didn’t even know what investment banking was, at that age, let alone even in college.</p> <p><strong>As a ten- or twelve-year-old, did you think you might have a shot at a sports career? Were you good?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I was pretty good for a kid. You’re never sure how big you’re going to grow and how strong you’re going to be, but at that age, I was big and strong and pretty well-coordinated, so that was what I enjoyed.</p> <p><strong>What about your family? Were there big expectations in any particular direction?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I was the oldest child, and the expectation was to get everything right, and it was an interesting expectation because it wasn’t drummed into you. It was simply assumed. There wasn’t much reinforcement for doing things in a 100-percent manner, but you were just assumed to do it. That was the standard. No one discussed it; nobody bought into it. It was just part of what was expected.</p> <p><strong>Were both of your parents part of this climate of expectation?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I think my mother was more the pusher, I guess. There’s a classic Jewish mother syndrome, and I certainly had, at a minimum, an acceptable level of pushing, which was, I think, culturally normal, at least where I came from. I think my dad wasn’t so much that way, but he’s a very, very smart fellow, smarter than I am, still. With that as a role model, it was somewhat hard to sort of out-think him because he’d usually have the right answer and still does catch little imperfections in logic. So that was what the family scenario was. It was very much from a place where — major metropolitan city, this happened to be Philadelphia, where it was, in the city — a place where people, typically, in the late ’50s, early ’60s, would move out and go to the suburbs. It was: could you blast your way out of the city and get to the suburbs? It has nothing to do with the child. That’s what the parents do, and my parents made that transition, which was a lucky thing for me.</p> <p><strong>Did your father’s work have anything to do with the financial world? Was there anything around that provided a model of that for you?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Yes, it provided a unique model of something I did <em>not</em> want to do. He worked with his father in a retail business that sold curtains, linens, draperies, handkerchiefs. I started working there, in effect, at the age of five, which he did with his father, and I found it an absolutely horrible way to spend time. I didn’t like waiting on customers; I didn’t like folding merchandise. I didn’t like dusty basements where you had to mark merchandise, and I decided that whatever I did in life, that would not be part of it.</p> <p><strong>Did you ever tell him that?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Of course.</p> <p><strong>Did he take it in good stride?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: He’s got a very amiable, wonderful disposition, and he heard that, and then I would end up back at the store the next year. So I think, during the time when I was a child, you more or less do what you’re told, subject to one or two years of revolution where I decided I had had it. But I don’t think that not going into that environment was heartbreaking for my dad. It was what he did.</p> <p><strong>Sometimes fathers want you to do anything but what they did, but it seems that he just had a sort of comfortable relationship with the issue.</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Yeah, absolutely. He worked with his dad, who was a very dominant personality, and my dad is not a dominant personality, so it would be out of character for him to be that way with me.</p> <p><strong>What did you see yourself doing back then? What did you think you were good at?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I was good at a lot of athletic things. I was good at hitting a softball for long distance. I was good at running faster than anybody else I was with, and I loved the feeling of doing those things well.</p> <p>There were always smarter kids in my class in high school. We had about 900 people in my class. And that’s a good-sized high school. The best I ever did was number 32, and that meant there were 31 people who were actually much smarter than I was. I was trying my maximum. I couldn’t do any better. And some people seemed to be pretty effortless who were better than me. I was good at leading people and mobilizing people, so I did that. I was president of my school and was a really good athlete. We were in a state championship team.</p> <p>So I did the best I could with academics, but academics are interesting. Minds, as you learn when you are older, work differently. And the people who do really well in school are on a track that somebody designed for a definition of what’s good at school. Not everybody’s mind works like that. For me, it was always somewhat difficult. I always wished I was more capable in that area. I was good enough to get into good schools, but it was always like barely.</p> <p><strong>What do you think is different about the way your mind works?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: It’s more practical, creative. I guess you’d now call it more entrepreneurial.</p> <p><strong>How do you feed that creativity? Do you read a lot every day?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I do. I read. I absorb news. I’m endlessly looking for inputs. I love meeting people for not too long because I can get what I need pretty quickly. So I’m constantly creating inputs for myself.</p> <p><strong>Do you have a good memory?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Yeah, I never write anything down, and I could tell you conversations from ten or twenty years ago.</p> <p><strong>Now that’s a gift.</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I’m not sure it’s a gift. It’s what it is. Some people think it’s a little weird, but I can remember important things and who said what, what did they say, how did they say it.</p> <p><strong>Did you have a teacher or coaches who were an influence on you growing up?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I had some amazing teachers and coaches. I had a history teacher in the eleventh grade in American history named Norman Schmitt who was wonderful. He just made American history burst forth, and I was entranced by it. I always liked to study and get good grades, but there were always kids smarter. I might be in the top — oh, I don’t know — six percent of my class, but that meant there were five percent that were smarter, and indeed they were.</p> <p>I also had an amazing track coach, ironically named Jack Armstrong, very much like an all-American boy, and indeed, he was. When we ran competitively, we were second in the country in the AAU junior championships. His teams — as a testament to him, rather than any of the individuals like myself — when I graduated from high school, until that time, he had been 107 and 2 as a record in dual meets, which meant that he went through many different generations of kids, and the kids always mysteriously ended up being enormously capable, which was a testament to him. He would have all kinds of wonderful ways of motivating people. We used to train in the winter as well as the summer. We trained outdoors in the freezing cold, ran sprints and middle distances on frozen parking lots, which is a real challenge as the wind’s whipping and you’re wondering if your legs are going to go out from under you. No matter how miserable you felt, he would be there smiling, and as you rounded the location where he was, he’d say, “You’ve got to make some deposits on training day to make some withdrawals on meet day,” and he was very cheerful because, after a while, you were wondering why were you going through this level of agony.</p> <p>So I realized what I was doing was making these horrible deposits of sort of bashing myself physically, so when it was time to actually compete, it was effortless. So I’ve learned many lessons from great inspirational people. But that seemed totally practical to me, unfortunately, and I hated every minute of it, but I liked the winning when we had meets. That was just an example.</p> <p>But the camaraderie on the team was fantastic. I was the only Caucasian in most of the races that I was ever in because I ran sprints, so that made it sort of a whole cultural experience for me, which I really enjoyed.</p> <p>I was also one of the student leader people. I was usually the president of my school — junior high school president, president of my high school. I was one of those — what do you call them? — student leader-type people.</p> <p><strong>Let’s talk a little about your experience at Yale University. How did you pick Yale?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I went to Yale because when I was interviewing at schools, I saw a kid walking down a street — I can still see him right now — wearing sort of tan chinos, Bass Weejuns, which are a kind of shoe for us midlife-sters when we were young, and a blue long-sleeved shirt with a button-down collar and a corduroy sport coat, and I looked at that kid, and I said, “I want to be that kid.”</p> <p><strong>This role model is walking around the world somewhere and doesn’t know that he changed your life.</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Right. Who knows? So I went to Yale, and I had a real good experience there.</p> <p><strong>What did you study at Yale? What was your major?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Remember, this was the 1960s, when everything was touchy-feely. I was in an interdisciplinary major — which was a new thing then — which was psychology, sociology, anthropology, and biology, which is really sort of the study of the human being. Why do they think what they think? Why do they act the way they act? You studied from all four of those disciplines.</p> <p><strong>So at some point did your father start whispering in your ear, “What are you going to do with your life?”</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: When all fathers do. That’s a normal thing. I’m now a father, and I have a child that’s a junior in college, and I know better than to whisper because when you’re whispering, they’re truly not listening. You have to let them do their own thing.</p> <p><strong>So how did you transition from these interdisciplinary studies to getting involved in the business world?</strong></p> <p>I remember interviewing with a company. It’s fun for me to remember some of these things. It was a company called Pan American Airlines, which, at that point, was the dominant international carrier, subsequently bankrupt, and it was started by Yale graduate Juan Trippe. So they interviewed at school, and I went to interview with them, and I sat down, and there was a very establishment-looking fellow, and he said, “Well, why do you want to work at Pan American?” And I said, “Well, I’ve sort of got an idea.” I said, “The Vietnam War looks like it’s coming to a close, and there’s probably a lot of surplus airplanes around, and why don’t you just buy up a lot of those airplanes and go into the cargo business?” And the guy looked at me like I was completely deranged, which may have been true, and he said, “It’s not your job to think about things like that.”</p> <p><strong>What a response!</strong></p> <p>I listened to that, and I said, “I don’t know anything about business, but I think this company is going to do very badly if that’s the response of their representative to what I thought was a pretty clever idea.” There were companies started around that time, apparently, to do that, like Flying Tiger and other types of things.</p> <p><strong>It’s not a ridiculous suggestion.</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Given the Pan Am name, which was the best-branded name in the airline business. I was 21. What did I know? I thought that was a good thing, but it didn’t sell, and I didn’t go to Pan Am. I had no job when I graduated, and it’s a wonderful story of how I ended up where I went to.</p> <p>I was working at a reunion because I didn’t have much money, and I also had no plans, and I was a senior. I don’t know why I did this, but there was a family at these reunions. This was the 15th reunion, so that meant that the people were 37 years old. There was a family having a picnic in the quadrangle, and I thought they looked really romantic and like a nice family. And I went out and, for no reason — because I didn’t even have any money, really — I bought a <em>Babar the Elephant</em> book, which is a book that my parents used to read to me. I just went over, and I gave the book to this kid. The father looked up and said, “What are you doing?” I said, “I don’t know what I’m doing, but I used to read this as a kid. You look like you have two wonderful children.” And the fellow was a gentleman named Bill Donaldson, and Bill started a firm that was very small then, called Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.</p> <p>I didn’t do anything directly with him at that point, but he had a friend that was sitting with him named Larry Noble, and Larry worked at the admissions office, and Larry sort of befriended me. And you know, as I was looking for a job, he would introduce me to people in New York. At that point, this was a very formal world of finance, and I had had no economics courses. In fact, I didn’t even own a suit. So I bought my first suit, and Larry would send me on interviews. I met the number-two person at one of the New York banks. I had only been in a bank to make a deposit in a passbook, and here I was meeting the number-two person at some giant money center bank. I could remember being almost completely overwhelmed that I went to this man’s office, and he offered me lunch, and it was right in the next room. The idea that, one, you could sort of offer somebody lunch in an office building, and second, that he would do that with me, was pretty overwhelming. The offices were so big, I thought I was on one of those walking belts at an airport, going the wrong way — I could never get to his office, it was so far. But he offered me a job. He’s a very nice man, and he offered me a job and recommended I not take it. And I said, “Why is that?” He said, “I think that you’re too smart and too quick for my type of organization. What you should do is go to an organization that’s very small, comprised of very bright people doing anything.” He said, “It doesn’t matter what they do. It just matters that it’s small and the people are very smart.” He said, “Otherwise, you’re going to be unhappy.”</p> <p><strong>Wonderful advice.</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I went back to this fellow, Larry Noble, and said that was the advice. He said, “Oh, you should go see Bill Donaldson. He has a small investment banking firm.” I went down to see him, and the appointment — he was late, he was doing something else — and I was sitting in the lobby, and at that point, they had nothing but young guys working there and beautiful girls, and I was watching all this, taking it in, and looking at this skyline out of a new building, 140 Broadway, in 1969. Then I went to see Bill for my interview, and he said, “Why do you want to work here?” And I said, “Frankly, I don’t even know what you do here, but I know that everybody I’ve seen is very excited about it, and with all these bright guys and pretty women, whatever they’re doing, I want to do it.” And he gave me a big smile.</p> <p><strong>The right answer.</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: He said, “That’s a good reason,” and offered me a job. I was there for six months, and then I went into the Army Reserves and then back to Harvard Business School.</p> <p><strong>By this point, it sounds like you were set on a career. Was the decision to go to Harvard Business School a decision for banking, particularly?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Well, I learned an interesting thing. People have observed that you only learn truly by failing, and I was, I thought, a complete failure at this job. I had no economics. I had no ability to read a financial statement. I had never had accounting. They gave me an office and a secretary and some annual reports and assignments. I didn’t even know how to approach it. I’m pretty good on my feet. I’m pretty decent at bobbing and weaving, but there’s only so long you can bob and weave when you don’t have a good base. So it became clear to me, without anybody advising me, that leaving myself in an environment where I was intellectually unprepared was a danger not only to me but to everybody that I had anything to do with. So I went to business school, really, just to deal with this complete lack of preparation that I had. I really didn’t like the kind of research-oriented business that DLJ was doing. I found I wasn’t particularly good at that either, instinctively, so I interviewed at a variety of businesses out of business school, investment banks and advertising businesses and I think a consulting business.</p> <p>I’m almost reluctant to tell you some of these stories on tape. I remember going to an advertising firm. They offered me a job, and the compensation was $10,000. So I looked at the fellow who offered me the job, who thought it was a wonderful thing, and I started laughing, and he looked at me and he said, “Too high or too low?” And I said, “The fact that you wouldn’t know is the problem.” The starting salaries at that point in the investment banking business were $17,000; he was at $10,000. Now you know, when you’re off by that percentage, that’s pretty bad. And the fact that he was so unaware of what sort of was being paid competitively, I said, “Well, this is an industry where you can’t make a lot of money if they don’t really know even where they are.” I interviewed at the different investment banking firms and in the corporate finance business, which I sort of thought felt like the right thing. It felt like the right thing because you were helping people. In other words, executives would tell you their problems, and you would come up with a solution. You were both on the same team, and they were helping, you were helping. That seemed like something that wasn’t too complex. You didn’t have to be over-burdened with intellect. We’re not talking about brain surgery here. This is finance — add, subtract, multiply, and divide. It wasn’t until decades later that calculus really came into finance on the trading side. So it seemed a comfortable fit.</p> <p><strong>Was it the relationships part of the business that attracted you?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: When I was at Yale, I figured out what I wanted to do, but I didn’t know it existed. I figured that I wanted to be a telephone switchboard — and we don’t have telephone switchboards, just about, anymore — but I wanted to have coming in enormous amounts of data, I wanted it to go into a central processor, and I wanted some kind of output. But I really wanted the volumes of input, and I didn’t know where in the world I could find a job like that. I didn’t know it was investment banking. I didn’t have any real understanding of investment banking, so I just started looking around, and I guessed Pan Am wasn’t it, and advertising wasn’t it. Consulting was okay, but nobody really listened to you. I mean they do, but usually you’re hired for political purposes as often as real purposes — you know, have one executive’s view be the controlling one, or to convince a board to do something that maybe they don’t want to do. But I was very lucky. As soon as I sort of found this corporate finance field, I said, “That’s it.”</p> <p><strong>You recognized it?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I recognized that that was the model that I already had in my head. That was a fun model because you keep getting all this stimuli — and always changing — and then you need to do something with it. And then you actually make something happen, not just talk about it.</p> <p><strong>You became the managing director of Lehman Brothers at age 31. You must have been pretty good at it. What do you think was propelling you forward?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I think investment banking is pretty easy. The reason why I was probably pretty good at it is that it’s very easy to get the sort of fundamental base for it. After that, it’s anticipating what’s going to happen, figuring out new things, new relationships, solving problems that people haven’t focused on in the right way. I don’t know if that describes it. Here’s just one thing I can remember, just sort of at random, which I was proud of at the time. It seemed pretty simple to me.</p> <p>There was one of these development institutions like the World Bank — it had a different name — and they had a variety of bonds outstanding, and each of those bonds had what’s called covenants, which are really restrictions in them. The bank wanted to do something but wasn’t able to because some of these issues forbid them, and they still wanted to do something, but they couldn’t get those bonds in. They couldn’t call them. They were stuck with it. It was an important initiative, and everybody was real concerned. They didn’t know what to do. So nobody could solve the problem, and I was one of the people working on this, and I remember going home at night, and I often think of things when I’m sleeping. I don’t sleep real deep REM stuff, and I woke up, and I said, “You know what? What’s the problem here? The problem is that these bondholders want to be protected for something. And what’s the worst that can happen to them? The worst that can happen is if you did the bad thing and it didn’t work out, they’d lose their money, right?” So I said, “Why don’t we just take a bunch of money” — because banks always have money — “and just dedicate that money behind those bonds and go ahead and do whatever we want to do. Because the worst that can happen is that they lose their money, and if we assure them that they could never lose their money, then they don’t have to worry. And if they don’t have to worry, they have no cause for damages against the institution for going ahead and doing something.” So I came in with some elaborate sort of proposal to do that for large amounts of money — at that point, large amounts were hundreds of millions; now it would be tens of billions — and everybody just sort of sat there and went, “Geez, no one’s ever done this.” And I said, “Well, so what? Aren’t we addressing the problem?”</p> <p>They all said, “Yeah, but it’s not legal.” I said, “Forget the legal part for the moment. It’s not technically legal, but if we went to all the bondholders and asked them for a vote and said there’s no conceivable way you can lose money because the money to pay off the bonds and their interest is already dedicated, and we got a pretty high percentage of the vote,” I said, “that seems to me like a risk you can take because you’re doing nothing unethical. You’re protecting the bondholders better than they are today, okay? Today, they just have to rely on the general credit of the institution, and we’re making it even better. We’re putting a few hundred million dollars’ worth of cash behind to guarantee the payment. I said, “Who could be unhappy?” So they did that.</p> <p><strong>You didn’t get the Pan Am response. At the end, they bought in.</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Right. They bought in because they had a problem, and they wanted that problem solved.</p> <p>I’ve always found, in investment banking, that there’s real logic to everything, and I don’t understand why somebody else didn’t come up with that. They probably would have, at some point, but you know, I’ve always found — and I really didn’t specialize in doing financings like that. I really did merger things with most of my career, and that’s just another derivation of solving problems. In the merger business, there’s also the ability to sort of go out on a limb and sort of invent things, sort of creatively imagine “What would this company buy?” before they might even think about it. And then sort of go to them and convince them, and then convince the other side to do something, or negotiation, which is — you know, a lot of people don’t like really being in zero-sum games, and you try and make a zero-sum game not a zero-sum game. But you know, that’s your first level of solving of problems. But at the end of the day, if money’s being paid, usually it’s out of somebody’s pocket into somebody else’s pocket. So that <em>is</em> a zero-sum game, at the end of the day, and usually that generates huge amounts of conflict and tension. A lot of people don’t like being in situations like that. And for whatever the series of reasons, that didn’t bother me. I don’t always enjoy it, but it didn’t bother me.</p> <p>It would be normal for the other person to get angry if you were demanding a lot of money or something. That would be a normal response. If I were on the other side, it would just be the opposite. I found that I was pretty well adapted for this stuff, in large part because finance has much to do with understanding what’s on the other person’s mind. And if you can understand what’s on their mind, in effect, that’s the problem to solve. There’s a zone of fairness where you can solve that for that person, and at the same time not disadvantage the other person you’re representing. So that was probably what made me pretty good. You don’t even have to meet with the other people to know what’s on their mind because you say, “Well if I were them, what would I want?”</p> <p><strong>It’s a kind of empathy.</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Whatever.</p> <p><strong>The decisive moment in your career was probably when you left Lehman Brothers to found The Blackstone Group. Was that a difficult decision to make? There was a lot at stake.</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Yes and no. I didn’t view it as particularly bold. One has to understand context, I think, on this.</p> <p>In 1984, Lehman Brothers, where I had worked for my career, had been sold to American Express. I actually was the person handling that transaction. I was 36 years old, or 35; I forget which. I had a non-competition agreement, and as part of my wanting to do that deal, I wanted to leave for a variety of reasons. I didn’t like what ethically had happened with the firm. I didn’t want to be with the people — not all the people, but the leadership people — so I worked out a situation where I joined the former chairman of the firm at Lehman, who had been pushed out, which necessitated the need for the sale. He and I had always worked very closely together. So all we were trying to do by forming Blackstone was sort of re-forming our own working relationship. We didn’t view it — and on this, I’m sure I was sort of colossally naïve — as that big a step. I knew we had always been successful doing almost everything together, commercially, and I didn’t understand why we wouldn’t be. The fact that we had no phone, no office, no company, that small little companies like this were not successful in investment banking; in fact, they didn’t exist at all. There was only one of them that existed, which was a small firm founded by a fellow named Jim Wolfensohn. Jim’s currently the head of the World Bank, but even Jim had never done any large mergers until that time. We just assumed that we would be accepted as the sort of equivalent of a Salomon Brothers or a Lehman Brothers or a Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, and I guess that’s the height of ridiculous hubris. Because we were too silly to understand that people might be worried about that, we went ahead, and it worked out.</p> <p><strong>It sure did! It worked out pretty well.</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Pretty well. I must say, for those who haven’t had the experience of doing startup businesses — at least in the mid-’80s, it wasn’t quite as amusing as apparently it is in 1998 or ’97, on the Internet, where there’s tons of money available now. That was not the case then.</p> <p>In New York, which may be atypical in the United States, people are only happy if someone they know well is failing, particularly when you’re more vulnerable in a smaller setting like we were at Blackstone. I know there were many former colleagues, who were staying at big firms, who were looking at what we were doing, and some were hoping that we’d make it. But, you know, we were somewhat of a threat if we could make it just in a small organization and end up making a good deal more financially than the people who stayed at the large one. That was, in effect, a threat to a system. We were not aware of this, of course.</p> <p>All we were trying to do was pay the rent. We had more modest expectations at the beginning. But we took a number of large leaps at the firm, and part of that is — you asked a question earlier: “What makes someone successful?” And I think that another answer is sort of feeling what’s going on around you, seeing what’s going on around you and taking a big step to take advantage of that. One of those steps, for us, is the second year we were formed, we decided to go forward with a plan we had when we started, to go into the leveraged buyout business, and neither my partner nor I had ever done a leveraged buyout, which one might think would be a liability when raising money.</p> <p><strong>There’s a certain pattern of this in your life.</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: My partner is a very experienced, capable fellow, previously Secretary of Commerce and Chairman of Lehman Brothers. He wanted us to raise $50 million to do our fund and start doing smaller deals, learn, and then raise something larger. I had been over visiting one of the large firms, and I looked at their balance sheet — it actually was a company called First Boston — and at that point in history, they had a billion dollars of equity. I said, “You know what? I think it would be fun to have a billion dollars of equity without all the people.” And I said, “I think we could do that.”</p> <p>I went back and met with my partner, and I said, “We’re going to raise a billion dollars.” And at that time, there were only two other organizations on the planet that had a billion dollars, and he said, “How can we do that? We don’t have any experience.” And I said, “I know we can.” I said, “The time is right.” We’re in the ’80s — it’s sort of 1986. There’s enormous momentum. Leveraged buyouts are becoming very popular. They’re going on the covers of magazines, on the front pages of newspapers. There aren’t enough vehicles to take advantage of this. We’re well-known people. And he said, quite intelligently, “That’s a long way from a billion dollars.” And I said, “I just know we can do this; and, in fact, if we tell people that we want a billion dollars, then if they were going to just give us $10 million for a small thing, they’ll give us $50 million, okay, because we’ll have scaled-up expectations.” And he said, “You know, I’m going to be a good partner, but I think we’re biting off more than we can chew,” and he was probably right. We ended up raising $850 million, going through enormous amounts of difficulty. We subsequently raised another $100 million from one of those investors. So we got to 960, actually, at the end, and it launched the firm in a scale where we always did very big things because that’s what I wanted to do. It’s also what my partner wanted to do. He just didn’t know that that was achievable. And you know, none of us knew, but he was a good enough partner and a smart enough man to also back my vision of what I thought was achievable.</p> <p>Now that’s just an instinct, and one has those types of instincts in my type of business. I don’t know how one describes how you would know that that could happen, but it’s from reading the newspaper, seeing what’s going on, feeling what people are talking about, and just knowing that ought to be possible.</p> <p><strong>Can you recognize that in a young person who’s interested in becoming part of this world?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Oh, sure. Sure. There are certain ways that people think, patterns of thought. In our firm, we’ve gone into a lot of new businesses, and we’re subsequently quite big. We’re one of the biggest investors in what are now called alternative assets — which is leveraged buyouts, real estate, hedge funds, mezzanine debt — in the world, and every time we have one of these new perceptions that there’s a really interesting thing to be done, you just do it. It’s sort of like a basketball player who only shoots when they get a real good sense that they’re in the zone, okay? It’s not like a player who keeps forcing because they’re throwing them the ball, that they’ve got to put it up, they have a cold hand, and they’re throwing up bricks, and they have to keep doing it. This is a game that you play only when you have a really strong feeling. It’s like fishing in a pond that’s been deeply stocked with giant trout. Now, you know that that pond is stocked, but other people don’t necessarily agree with you, and there is a certainty that comes when you just know that things are lining up. You don’t have to be very smart about this, either. We went into the real estate business in 1991. I’d never bought any real estate. I didn’t even understand it. I always felt uncomfortable with real estate because buildings don’t move and neighborhoods change. So, can’t you make a bad decision? Companies can at least change their products. Buildings don’t move. There they are.</p> <p>We were in the recession, and real estate was collapsing. Everybody wanted to sell real estate, and somebody brought us a deal which had a 15-percent yield on it. It was a bunch of apartment buildings and ironically — Little Rock, Arkansas — bankruptcy of a savings-and-loan. I don’t know if it was the same one that was involved with, you know, the more popular things of the time. And we could borrow money off of that 15-percent yield and earn about 23-24 percent, at the bottom of a recession, with apartments that were close to new. And I said, “Well, what can go wrong here? The economy can’t go any worse than it is now. If the economy gets stronger, then rents will go up. It’s hard to borrow money now…” (at that time). And even with the difficulty of borrowing money, we were earning 24 percent on our equity. So I figured when times got better, money would be more available, interest rates would be down further — you could borrow more on the property — and so there was no downside, there was only upside. The present moment we were doing it was really already excellent. So why not just buy as much real estate as you could possibly find? And there was a whole country of real estate to be found at that time. Now to me, this doesn’t go into the blinding insight mode. Anybody, when told those same facts, I would assume, would act rationally and would be buying real estate. In point of fact, the problem was, everybody who would normally be buying real estate had already lost a fortune and was in no position because most of them were either bankrupt or undergoing enormous difficulties with their existing properties. They couldn’t go ahead, and if they went to a bank to borrow money, they were creating bankruptcies for the same banks, so the banks didn’t want to talk to them. And we were sort of there alone with two or three other groups of people who had never been in real estate and saw the same things.</p> <p><strong>As of today, how many companies does Blackstone own?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Well, I’m not sure. It depends on how you define those. We usually have, in our private equity area, like 80 to 120 of them. It depends what we’re selling and how rapidly we’re selling and how rapidly we’re buying. We own hundreds of billions of dollars of real estate. And then we have other companies we have minority interests in and are tactical opportunities — business — and also, in our credit business. So, you know, I’ve never totaled that up. I should. Because that way I could have a snappy answer.</p> <p><strong>You work on such a big scale. What does it feel like to deal with such bigness?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I don’t think about it as big because we operate with small groups of people around the firm, and we have verticals that specialize in doing things, whether it’s owning companies or owning real estate or one business that does sort of both.</p> <p>We have all kinds of activities. And the way I look at them and the way I look at ourselves is that we’re just a small partnership. And every meeting you go to, you basically have a relatively reasonable number of people there that you can talk to. If you could talk to everybody, then there’s a sense of intimacy. And what we do is we use our screens around the world, our video screens, to invite the people in those locations into that intimate conversation.</p> <p>So I don’t accept the concept of bigness. I don’t like the concept of bigness. I like intimacy, and I think everybody at the firm should feel that way. So we run it in a way where people know other people, and where it’s personal and it touches you. The idea of being part of a big thing, where “big” typically means impersonal, that’s a bad outcome.</p> <p><strong>Was there one deal you can think of that you’re particularly proud that you put together?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: We’ve done so much stuff…</p> <p><strong>When you’re beginning to do something like that, do you have a timeline? Or is it just all in your head? “I’m going to do this and then I’m going to do that.”</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: We have teams. So I’m not some lone ranger doing deals here with people picking up pieces. It doesn’t work like that. There was one that’s particularly funny because I actually didn’t want to do it, and it turned out to be enormously successful.</p> <p>There’s a little amusement venue in London that was called the London Dungeon. People take their kids there. It’s by the Tower of London, and you go under sort of an overpass. They sort of built caves, and Middle Ages guys in armor come out with hatchets and almost hit you in the head.</p> <p>One of my partners — in this case, Joe Baratta — wanted to buy this little company. It only cost $80 million. Now for regular people, $80 million is a lot of dollars. But in our world, $80 million is very, very small for an acquisition. And you couldn’t make the London Dungeon bigger. It occupied all the space it could.</p> <p>And so I said, “Joe, why would we ever do this? I mean this is ridiculous. We’re going to own the London Dungeon?” And he said, “But the manager is so terrific that he’s going to find other things to do. This guy is marvelous.” I tried to make it go away, but Joe kept coming back. So at the end, I said to myself, “Well, okay, it’s $80 million. Maybe we’re overpaying, maybe we’re not. The worst that’s going to happen is that the Dungeon’s going to stay full, and whatever cash flow we make from the Dungeon will continue. And if it doesn’t work, we can sell the Dungeon to somebody else.” So I said, “Okay, go ahead.”</p> <p>By the time Joe and the manager of that business bought things — they bought Legoland, which was making no money and now it makes a fortune; they bought Gardaland, which is the largest amusement park in Italy; Madame Tussauds. It was endless. We ended up as the second biggest theme park company in the world. And it didn’t have anything to do with me. It had to do with one of our gifted people, Joe Baratta, who believed in somebody — and I just got beaten down enough, I did it.</p> <p><strong>Is the magic there that you get good people and you believe in them?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Yeah. And you don’t always believe in everybody just for the heck of it. They have to prove it. But Joe is an interesting guy, and he totally believed in the manager. I met him and he was really good. So sometimes you just do things.</p> <p><strong>So today, what’s the hard part about what you do? You win a lot. What’s the discipline part of this job?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Actually, it gets easier and easier as you get older just because you learn what’s necessary. You always have to prepare. In other words, you have to read things, to know what’s going to happen in certain situations. I usually think while I’m sleeping. It’s a little odd, but that’s how my mind processes things. So you have to make sure you have information that you can process. And then you have to assemble great teams of people.</p> <p><strong>What do you mean when you say you think while you’re asleep?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: On almost any interesting issue or problem — “Do we make an investment? Do we do this? How do we handle some other part of my life?” — whether it’s the not-for-profit area — if we have some issue going on somewhere in the world — I’ll know I have to make some decision the next day on that.</p> <p>When I go to sleep — if I’m thinking about that subliminally before I go to sleep — I just continue. So for the whole night, you’re banging around something. Alternatives: What would happen if you went one way versus another way? What feels right? And then when you wake up, you have a sense of where you want to go. Sometimes you need another factor, too, which happens the next day. And if a factor happens one way, it will drive you to Alternative A, and if it happens the other, it’s Alternative B, but you already know what you’ll do in possession of those additional pieces of information.</p> <p><strong>Are there ever nights when you go to bed without thinking?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Not recently, unfortunately. I’ve been very busy!</p> <p><strong>People are interested in high achievers’ personal habits. Do you sleep much? What are your habits?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: My habits aren’t good habits, unfortunately. I sleep —when I’m under a lot of stress — around four hours a night. If I’m not, it’s usually six hours or five hours. That’s sort of my range. That’s much less than you need to be a healthy person according to all of the kind of sleep doctors.</p> <p><strong>Is there a time of day when your best ideas come to you?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: They normally come when I’m sleeping or when I’ve been focused on an issue and some fact comes in that completes a pattern and that’s determinative, and then you go. It’s unpredictable. It’s not keyed to days. It’s keyed to information or reading a person, which is also information, or listening to something and the way it’s described, which is also information. It doesn’t have to be hard information.</p> <p><strong>Does music inspire you or play much of a role in your life?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Well, I got a violin. That lasted for a few months. I have no skills of that type. I like lots of different types of music and I always have. I’m from Philadelphia. You know, Philadelphia was the home of a TV show that I think doesn’t exist anymore called <em>American Bandstand</em>. So when rock and roll started in 1955, I could remember Elvis Presley’s first song. So I was lucky in terms of when I was born. In effect, modern rock and roll started when I was the right age and I caught the whole thing.</p> <p><strong>Right now you’re helping advise the current government, and a lot of people are particularly interested in building infrastructure. Here is something where the public/private partnerships are often mentioned as one way forward. Given that you’re one of the rare minds that puts together these trillion-dollar deals, what would that look like? What’s the win for the taxpayer and the win for the government when you put together a public/private partnership to rebuild bridges, roads, and airports?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: There’s a terrific upside. Politically, some people, for some reason, worry about private capital in situations that need it. I find that hard to imagine. For example, in other countries, like Australia, for example, what they do is they take assets that already are yielding a cash flow — like an airport or a bridge with tolls or something of that type. And what they do there — and other countries do this as well — is they encourage the municipality that owns it to sell it to the private sector. The federal government in those countries gives a bonus to that municipality — usually 15 or 20 percent — even more money if they agree to take that money and reinvest in more infrastructure. So you’re getting a huge amount of money and you’re building new things.</p> <p>In some cases, those things don’t yield a cash flow. Like just a regular road, it’s still got to be fixed up — or a bridge that you don’t charge tolls on, it’s got to be fixed. Where’s the money coming from? So this is a mechanism that’s been wildly successful that’s opposed by one of the two political parties in the United States. And you sort of go, “Well? What’s your problem with that? It works all over the world.” It’s some kind of ideological or emotional thing, and they say, “Well, private capital won’t invest. They don’t want to keep the thing going. They’ll overcharge.” There are ways of dealing with that, obviously. Other countries have done it.</p> <p><strong>Do you think that is the way we should go forward if we want to rebuild?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I think there isn’t enough capital that can just come in from government, unfortunately. The tax base in the United States has changed a lot. We used to have a very vibrant middle class in the United States. Now about half of the people in the United States live paycheck to paycheck. People who are in that position don’t have a lot of spare money to be paying taxes the way it was 40 years ago after World War II.</p> <p>In that generation, there was a very deep middle class, a different type of income distribution. There was much more tax revenue. You could build things. You could do things. Now we’re constrained.</p> <p><strong>You came from a middle-class background yourself.</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Yeah.</p> <p><strong>There is, just as you said, an enormous amount of concern about the weakening of the American middle class. Since you have such a unique perspective, what do you think we could do to strengthen it?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: You can do a lot of things. You can start with education, which is something I’m really focused on, and I’m focused on it because I know that works. We’re in a knowledge economy now, and it’s going to only accelerate in the future. Our schools, as a group, are not preparing students for that. We’ve fallen from when I went to school, quite some time ago, where American schools were at the top of the world, somewhere into the mid-twenties compared to other countries, and that’s just not a statistic. In science, we’re even lower than that. So we’re living off of — people of my generation — off of immigrants that came from other countries to keep us relevant. We’re not preparing our people for the jobs of the future.</p> <p><strong>So what should we do?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Well, it’s really easy to do it. The great thing is that it only takes twelve years. So this isn’t like a problem that can’t be addressed. You have to have computer science in a curriculum for everybody. You have to teach coding to everybody. You have to have matches between employers — like they do in Germany — and people in schools. There’s a whole series of easy things to do, which, for some reason, our system more or less insists on not doing. We’re going to have to learn these lessons from other countries and employ them.</p> <p>Once we make that decision, we’ll be able to very quickly become much more competitive; people’s incomes will go up. The disruption that’s going to happen in the future from artificial intelligence and other advancements — and just the obsolescence of industries and job classifications, if we don’t create self-reliant, mobile, educated people in the United States!</p> <p><strong>Is there a new model to do that? You’re famous for breaking the mold and doing things that haven’t been done. Is there a way to include the private sector in developing new skills, needed skills?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Absolutely. The Germans have figured out how to do that. They don’t have job training centers. They give the money to the companies in each location, and those companies relate to schools. I was just talking with somebody yesterday in an American model where they had three industries where they teach kids in high school what they do. They give them an apprenticeship, and then they hire them after high school, and in good jobs. There are all kinds of models that work, virtually none of which we do as a country. There are a few exceptions, but we haven’t had the call to action in this area with the effectiveness that we should. I’ll tell you one thing. All parents know about it. They want their children to have a great outcome, and that should be a real entitlement in America.</p> <p>I just gave a bunch of money to my high school. Apparently, it’s the largest amount of money ever given to an American high school. I did that because they had sort of expansion issues and modernization issues. But what I was interested in is making sure that people in the United States who are in that top 50 percent could be approached by educators of public schools so that they no longer just thought they were educators. They need the resources. You can’t get it from the tax base. You have to go to your more successful people in your community or your graduates who moved out of your community to support you.</p> <p><strong>You have such a global perspective. Is there anything now, in 2018, that gives you cause for concern? What are you worried about now?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I worry about all kinds of things — some of the geopolitical issues facing the world. Geopolitical is a long name, but issues like North Korea and use of nuclear weapons and having nuclear weapons; divisiveness in democracies — generally, around the world; the U.S., particularly. If you had to check, “Is our country on the right track or wrong track?” I think you’d get some “right” check things, but you’d get a lot of “wrong” checks.</p> <p>Ideology seems to dominate logic, and that’s something I’m not trained for, but apparently, on an increasing level, other people are. That’s not the way to make a productive and fruitful society. These things break in a lot of different ways. I would say there’s a lot to be concerned about, and I am, and I try and deal with some of these things, to make some aspects of them better if I can.</p> <p><strong>Is there something that we can do about divisiveness?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I think divisiveness is either going to get addressed by changing the nominating process for president — I think it’s only going to get addressed at that level. I think we’re going to evolve, at some point, into a unifying type of presence, which is really tough to get when the political process and nominating process have so many people involved, typically, where relatively small amounts of votes can make you the largest vote-getter in a big field.</p> <p><strong>What would you change about the nominating process?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I’d have a lot fewer people because a large number of people means you can have relatively few votes and be double somebody else, everybody else. So you end up winning, but you have a very small constituency. Somehow we’ve gotten off on that approach. I don’t know whether smoke-filled rooms are better or worse. But that kind of arithmetic process where you can have a mayor elected with 18 percent of the vote, and you sort of go, “What happened here?” — that’s not a good outcome.</p> <p><strong>What advice do you have for young people? What should they be doing now so that they’re prepared to make their mark in the world later?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: What I’d say is, “Be as good as you can be.” In other words, you know, “Life is competitive.” I don’t know exactly what people are taught these days, but it is. You want to get the best job. You want to learn the most. So you have to start that with good personal habits. You want to do well on tests. You want to study. You want to have discipline. You should get used to winning and achieving something that you’re capable of. So pick things that you’re good at. If you’re good at athletics, pour your heart into it. If you’re good at science and other things, try and win a science fair. Always try and be at the top of what you do if you have the capability. And find something that you’re really excellent at and have some passion on these things. This isn’t mechanical. You have to believe you really want to achieve these things.</p> <p><strong>Many people see more anxious times ahead. Is that what you see or are people just going to have more options?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: I think they’ll have more options, but they’ll be more anxious if they don’t have adequate financial resources. That’s why we have to bring this together. That’s why we have to do something in the educational world, where everybody has a great shot of success and a better prospect.</p> <p><strong>So you see reason for optimism in 2018?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: In 2018, the reason for optimism is this explosion of knowledge and interconnection in science. People can end up living to a hundred as a matter of course and replacing parts. The impact of the entire semiconductor world — whether it’s computerization or other types of things — and the ability to basically be creative in the world we live in, is pretty remarkable because you can do things remotely. You don’t have to be tethered to any one place. So there are a lot of different ways to make a living in today’s distributed world.</p> <p><strong>With all the choices people have to make in life and business today, do you just have to make a gut-trusting decision at a certain point?</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: Yes, I think that’s right. You don’t even have to have a remarkable gut, as far as I’m concerned. Once you see things line up that way, then the issue is just crushing execution, okay? You go into an execution mode. The important thing, ironically, isn’t the execution. If you have the right vision and the right perception, the rising tide will, indeed, lift all boats. If you happen to have a super-buoyant boat, you’ll do better. If you have a super-fast boat, you’ll go faster, but the tide is going to bring up all the boats. The thing that’s most important is figuring out where those special, special things are going to be happening, and that’s really pretty easy.</p> <p><strong>Mr. Schwarzman, that’s the last word. That’s great. Thank you very much.</strong></p> <p>Stephen Schwarzman: A pleasure.</p> </div>  </aside>  <div class="read-more__toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#full-interview"><a href="#" class="sans-4 btn">Read full interview</a></div> </article> </section> </div> <div class="tab-pane fade" id="gallery" role="tabpanel"> <section class="isotope-wrapper">  <header class="toolbar toolbar--gallery bg-white clearfix"> <div class="col-md-6"> <div class="serif-4">Stephen A. Schwarzman Gallery</div> </div> <div class="col-md-6 text-md-right isotope-toolbar"> <ul class="list-unstyled list-inline m-b-0 text-brand-primary sans-4"> <li class="list-inline-item" data-filter=".photo"><i class="icon-icon_camera"></i>16 photos</li> </ul> </div> </header> <div class="isotope-gallery isotope-box single-achiever__gallery clearfix"> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/shutterstock_78207004.jpg" data-image-caption="Stephen Schwarzman is a board member of the New York Public Library, and he made headlines in 2008 when he committed $100 million to help fund the library’s massive expansion project. It was the largest gift to a cultural institution the city has ever recorded. Schwarzman said that the library was helpful to lower- and middle-class citizens to reach toward the American Dream. The main building has been renamed the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building and holds traditional book collections as well as historically and culturally relevant documents." data-image-copyright="shutterstock_78207004" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/shutterstock_78207004-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/shutterstock_78207004-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/schwarzmans.jpg" data-image-caption="November 2012: Stephen and Christine Schwarzman on the steps of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. Schwarzman committed $100 million in 2008 to go toward the the library’s $1 billion expansion project. It was the largest gift to a cultural institution New York City has ever recorded. Schwarzman said that the library was helpful to lower- and middle-class citizens to reach toward the American Dream. The New York Landmarks Preservation Commission agreed to change the name of the library’s main building to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. The New York Public Library holds traditional book collections and historically and culturally relevant documents." data-image-copyright="schwarzmans" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/schwarzmans-380x252.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/schwarzmans-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/schwarzman2.jpg" data-image-caption="Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Blackstone Group LP, pauses during a Bloomberg Television interview on the opening day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on January 23, 2013. World leaders, Influential executives, bankers and policy makers attended the 43rd annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. (Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg)" data-image-copyright="World Leaders Speak At The World Economic Forum" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/schwarzman2-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/schwarzman2-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65789473684211" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/magnumNYC20932.jpg" data-image-caption="1985: Stephen Schwarzman sits between Roger Altman and Francois de Saint Phalle. All made significant profits from their Lehman shares. (© Magnum photos/Erich Hartmann)" data-image-copyright="magnumnyc20932" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/magnumNYC20932-380x250.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/magnumNYC20932-760x500.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.317157712305" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/img413.jpg" data-image-caption="March 2007: <i>Fortune</i> magazine hailed Stephen Schwarzman as "The New King of Wall Street."" data-image-copyright="img413" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/img413-289x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/img413-577x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="March 10, 2009: Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman and CEO of the private equity firm The Blackstone Group, speaks at the Japan Society in New York, on " the global impact of the financial crisis." (james leynse corbis)" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - March 10, 2009: Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman and CEO of the private equity firm The Blackstone Group, speaks at the Japan Society in New York, on " the global impact of the financial crisis." (james leynse corbis)">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/corbis42-21915791.jpg" data-image-caption="March 2009: Schwarzman speaks at the Japan Society in New York, on “The Global Impact of the Financial Crisis.”" data-image-copyright="USA - Business - Stephen Schwarzman Speaks on The Global Impact of the Financial Crisis" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/corbis42-21915791-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/corbis42-21915791-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/BN-ME611_BLACKS_M_20160120111731.jpg" data-image-caption="January 2016: Blackstone Group CEO Stephen Schwarzman, at his Manhattan offices. (Natalie Keyssar/WSJ)" data-image-copyright="bn-me611_blacks_m_20160120111731" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/BN-ME611_BLACKS_M_20160120111731-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/BN-ME611_BLACKS_M_20160120111731-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66578947368421" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1464168433217020023.jpg" data-image-caption="March 2016: Members of the Academic Advisory Council at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University, in Haidian District, Beijing, China. Stephen Schwarzman founded the Schwarzman Scholars program in order to give the most talented future leaders the power to change the course of history. An active philanthropist, Stephen Schwarzman personally donated $100 million to this effort and is leading a campaign to raise more to fully endow the program — the single largest charitable effort in China’s history coming from largely international donors. With the inaugural class enrolled in 2016, the scholars program gives the world’s best and brightest students the opportunity to develop their leadership skills and professional networks through a one-year master’s degree." data-image-copyright="1464168433217020023" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1464168433217020023-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/1464168433217020023-760x506.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4931237721022" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/07053-277.jpg" data-image-caption="Stephen Schwarzman and his wife, intellectual property attorney Christine Hearst Schwarzman, attend a gala at the Kennedy Center. (Courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts)" data-image-copyright="National Symphony Orchestra 2007 Opening" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/07053-277-254x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/07053-277-509x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="1.4990138067061" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06073-328.jpg" data-image-caption="Stephen Schwarzman and his wife, Christine Hearst Schwarzman, at the annual Kennedy Center Honors ceremony. Schwarzman was chairman of the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from 2004 to 2010. (Courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts)" data-image-copyright="Kennedy Center 2006 Honors" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06073-328-253x380.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06073-328-507x760.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-138.jpg" data-image-caption="Stephen Schwarzman, Chairman and CEO of The Blackstone Group. (Courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts)" data-image-copyright="Kennedy Center 2006 Honors Lunch" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-138-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-138-760x505.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.66710526315789" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-085.jpg" data-image-caption="Christine Hearst Schwarzman and Stephen Schwarzman meet singer Dolly Parton prior to the 2006 Kennedy Center Honors. Stephen Schwarzman is the Center’s chairman. Dolly Parton was one of the year’s honorees." data-image-copyright="Kennedy Center 2006 Honors Lunch" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-085-380x253.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/06071-085-760x507.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.58684210526316" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12BIG-master1050.jpg" data-image-caption="May 2015: Stephen Schwarzman, left, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Blackstone Group, at the Commons with Peter Salovey, Yale’s president. Schwarzman gave $150 million for a performing arts center at Yale.(Christopher Capozziello/The New York Times)" data-image-copyright="12big-master1050" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12BIG-master1050-380x223.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/12BIG-master1050-760x446.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.65921052631579" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-Schwarzman-Stephen-at-table-laughing.jpg" data-image-caption="Stephen Schwarzman speaking to student delegates at an outing in Mount Vernon during the American Academy of Achievement's 1999 Summit in Washington, D.C. (© Academy of Achievement)" data-image-copyright="wp-schwarzman-stephen-at-table-laughing" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-Schwarzman-Stephen-at-table-laughing-380x251.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-Schwarzman-Stephen-at-table-laughing-760x501.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.8" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp2-Schwarzman-Stephen-receiving-Golden-Plate-Award.jpg" data-image-caption="Stephen A. Schwarzman receiving the Golden Plate Award during the 1999 "Salute to Excellence" program." data-image-copyright="wp2-Schwarzman, Stephen receiving Golden Plate Award" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp2-Schwarzman-Stephen-receiving-Golden-Plate-Award-380x304.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp2-Schwarzman-Stephen-receiving-Golden-Plate-Award-760x608.jpg"></div>  </figure> <figure class="isotope-item ratio-container--gallery photo" data-category="photo" data-ratio="0.56447368421053" title="" data-gtm-category="photo" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Achiever - ">   <div class="lazyload ratio-container__image" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#imageModal" data-image-src="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-636220559348868665-STEPHEN-SCHWARZMAN-DONALD-TRUMP-MARY-BARRA.jpg" data-image-caption="February 2017: President Donald Trump meets with his business advisory council, the Strategic and Policy Forum, for the first time, in the White House's State Dining Room. Seated next to President Trump is the chairman of the council, Stephen A. Schwarzman, and Mary Barra, Chairman and CEO of General Motors. Topics of discussion included tax and trade, regulation, infrastructure, women in the workforce, education, and immigration. In attendance were 17 high-powered executives along with Vice President Mike Pence and the president's top aides." data-image-copyright="wp-636220559348868665-STEPHEN-SCHWARZMAN-DONALD-TRUMP-MARY-BARRA" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-636220559348868665-STEPHEN-SCHWARZMAN-DONALD-TRUMP-MARY-BARRA-380x215.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/09/wp-636220559348868665-STEPHEN-SCHWARZMAN-DONALD-TRUMP-MARY-BARRA-760x429.jpg"></div>  </figure>    </div> </section> </div> </div> <div class="container"> <footer class="editorial-article__footer col-md-8 col-md-offset-4"> <div class="editorial-article__next-link sans-3"> <a href="#"><strong>What's next:</strong> <span class="editorial-article__next-link-title">profile</span></a> </div> <ul class="social list-unstyled list-inline ssk-group m-b-0"> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-facebook" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Facebook"><i class="icon-icon_facebook-circle"></i></a></li> <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-twitter" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever on Twitter"><i class="icon-icon_twitter-circle"></i></a></li>  <li class="list-inline-item"><a href="" class="ssk ssk-email" data-gtm-category="social" data-gtm-action="click" data-gtm-label="Shared Achiever via Email"><i class="icon-icon_email-circle"></i></a></li> </ul> <time class="editorial-article__last-updated sans-6">This page last revised on May 21, 2018</time> <div class="sans-4"><a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/how-to-cite" target="_blank">How to cite this page</a></div> </footer> </div> <div class="container interview-related-achievers"> <hr class="m-t-3 m-b-3"/> <footer class="clearfix small-blocks text-xs-center"> <h3 class="m-b-3 serif-3">If you are inspired by this achiever’s story, you might also enjoy:</h3> <div class="centered-blocks"> <div class="isotope-achiever business ambitious analytical extroverted start-a-business " data-year-inducted="1997" data-achiever-name="Ellison"> <div class="achiever-block view-grid"> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"> <figure class="ratio-container ratio-container--square bg-black"> <div class="lazyload box achiever-block__image" data-sizes="auto" data-bgset="/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/ell0-001a-190x190.jpg [(max-width:576px)] | /wp-content/uploads/2016/03/ell0-001a-380x380.jpg"></div> <div class="achiever-block__overlay"></div> <figcaption class="text-xs-center achiever-block__text"> <div class="display--table"> <div class="display--table-cell"> <div class="achiever-block__text--center"> <div class="achiever-block__name text-brand-primary">Larry J. 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Carter Brown</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linda-buck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linda Buck, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-burnett/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Burnett</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-h-w-bush/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George H. W. Bush</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/susan-butcher/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Susan Butcher</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-cameron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Cameron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/benjamin-s-carson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Benjamin S. Carson, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-carter/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Carter</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-cash/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Cash</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-j-clinton/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William J. Clinton</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-s-collins/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/denton-a-cooley/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Denton A. Cooley, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/francis-ford-coppola/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Francis Ford Coppola</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-dalio/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Dalio</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/olivia-de-havilland/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Olivia de Havilland</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-e-debakey-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/michael-dell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Michael S. Dell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-dennis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Dennis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joan-didion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joan Didion</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rita-dove/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rita Dove</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sylvia-earle/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sylvia Earle, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/elbaradei/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mohamed ElBaradei</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/gertrude-elion/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Gertrude B. Elion, M.Sc.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-j-ellison/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry J. Ellison</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nora-ephron/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nora Ephron</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/julius-erving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Julius Erving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tony-fadell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Tony Fadell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-farmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Farmer, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzanne-farrell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzanne Farrell</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sally-field/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sally Field</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lord-norman-foster/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lord Norman Foster</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/milton-friedman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Milton Friedman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-fuentes/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Fuentes</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/athol-fugard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Athol Fugard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernest-j-gaines/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernest J. Gaines</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/william-h-gates-iii/"><span class="achiever-list-name">William H. Gates III</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-gehry/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank O. Gehry</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/murray-gell-mann-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Murray Gell-Mann, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carlos-ghosn/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carlos Ghosn</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/vince-gill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Vince Gill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ruth-bader-ginsburg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ruth Bader Ginsburg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louise-gluck/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louise Glück</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/whoopi-goldberg/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Whoopi Goldberg</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jane-goodall/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dame Jane Goodall</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/doris-kearns-goodwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Doris Kearns Goodwin, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mikhail-s-gorbachev/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mikhail S. Gorbachev</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nadine-gordimer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nadine Gordimer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/stephen-jay-gould/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Stephen Jay Gould, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carol-greider-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carol Greider, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-grisham/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Grisham</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/dorothy-hamill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Dorothy Hamill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/demis-hassabis-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Demis Hassabis, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/lauryn-hill/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lauryn Hill</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-edmund-hillary/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Edmund Hillary</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/reid-hoffman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Reid Hoffman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/khaled-hosseini/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Khaled Hosseini, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ron-howard/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ron Howard</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-hume/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Hume</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/louis-ignarro-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Louis Ignarro, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/daniel-inouye/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Daniel K. Inouye</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jeremy-irons/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jeremy Irons</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-irving/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John Irving</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/kazuo-ishiguro/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Kazuo Ishiguro</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sir-peter-jackson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sir Peter Jackson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/donald-c-johanson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Donald C. Johanson, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-m-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank M. Johnson, Jr.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/philip-johnson/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Philip C. Johnson</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/chuck-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Chuck Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-earl-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James Earl Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/quincy-jones/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Quincy Jones</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/paul-kagame/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Paul Kagame</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/thomas-keller-2/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Thomas Keller</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/anthony-m-kennedy/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Anthony M. Kennedy</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/b-b-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">B.B. King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/carole-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Carole King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/coretta-scott-king/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Coretta Scott King</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-kissinger-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry A. Kissinger, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willem-j-kolff/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willem J. Kolff, M.D., Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wendy-kopp/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wendy Kopp</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/henry-r-kravis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Henry R. Kravis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/nicholas-d-kristof/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Nicholas D. Kristof</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mike-krzyzewski/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mike Krzyzewski</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ray-kurzwell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ray Kurzweil</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/eric-lander-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Eric S. Lander, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-s-langer-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert S. Langer, Sc.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/richard-leakey/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Richard E. Leakey</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/leon-lederman-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Leon Lederman, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/robert-lefkowitz-m-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Robert J. Lefkowitz, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/congressman-john-r-lewis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Congressman John R. Lewis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/maya-lin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Maya Lin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/george-lucas/"><span class="achiever-list-name">George Lucas</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/norman-mailer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Norman Mailer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peyton-manning/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peyton Manning</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/wynton-marsalis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Wynton Marsalis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/john-c-mather-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">John C. Mather, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/johnny-mathis/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Johnny Mathis</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ernst-mayr-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ernst Mayr, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/willie-mays/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Willie Mays</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/frank-mccourt/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Frank McCourt</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/david-mccullough/"><span class="achiever-list-name">David McCullough</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/audra-mcdonald/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Audra McDonald</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/admiral-william-h-mcraven/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Admiral William H. McRaven, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/w-s-merwin/"><span class="achiever-list-name">W. S. Merwin</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/james-a-michener/"><span class="achiever-list-name">James A. Michener</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/marvin-minsky-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Marvin Minsky, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/mario-j-molina-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Mario J. Molina, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/n-scott-momaday-ph-d/"><span class="achiever-list-name">N. Scott Momaday, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/story-musgrave/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Story Musgrave, M.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/ralph-nader/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Ralph Nader</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/peggy-noonan/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Peggy Noonan</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jessye-norman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jessye Norman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/tommy-norris/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Lt. Thomas R. Norris, USN</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/joyce-carol-oates/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Joyce Carol Oates</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Pierre Omidyar</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/jimmy-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Jimmy Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/larry-page/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Larry Page</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/arnold-palmer/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Arnold Palmer</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/rosa-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Rosa Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/suzan-lori-parks/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Suzan-Lori Parks</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/linus-pauling/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Linus C. Pauling, Ph.D.</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/shimon-peres/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Shimon Peres</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/itzhak-perlman/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Itzhak Perlman</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-david-petraeus/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General David H. Petraeus, USA</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/sidney-poitier/"><span class="achiever-list-name">Sidney Poitier</span></a> </li> <li> <a href="/web/20180630094007/http://www.achievement.org/achiever/general-colin-l-powell/"><span class="achiever-list-name">General Colin L. 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