INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
We were so low that people would take advantage of us
People we knew well would just lie to us
One of my favorites was a company we did an enormous amount of work for and really helped save
We then went to see the CEO and he said, ‘I really love you guys but we just don''t make these kinds of investments.&
When you hear an
investment banker recounting the tribulations of raising a private equity fund, your first response might be to get out the metaphorical
small violin in your head
But when I met-up recently with Stephen Schwarzman, The Blackstone Group Chairman, CEO and co-founder, and heard several statements like
the one above, I came to appreciate that he and his co-founder, gentlemen capitalist (and former Commerce Secretary) Pete Petersen, endured
their fair share of indignities and near-fatal setbacks on the road to establishing Blackstone as an alternative investment management
powerhouse.
At 38 years old at the time of Blackstone founding, Schwarzman was already successful and celebrated for having played an
integral role in orchestrating a rescue of Lehman Brothers from a set of risky trades spurred on by its then-trader-CEO Lew Glucksman
But Schwarzman journey from banker to Wall Street entrepreneur to head of a $500-billion-plus asset manager is more interesting and nuanced
On that basis alone, Schwarzman new book easily clears the hurdle rate for the entrepreneurially minded, and especially for those interested
in the unique challenges of scaling a financial services business from scratch.
Feature image by John Moore/Getty Images
