Stephen A. Schwarzman

Stephen A. Schwarzman is the co-founder of Blackstone and the author of What It Takes, the memoir Kyle has catalogued in the wiki. The book traces his path from Lehman through founding Blackstone, and Kyle mines it for operating lessons: the Theory of Masters (Felix Rohatyn’s “masters vs. slaves” advice to train before becoming a master), Risk Management distilled to “Don’t. Lose. Money.,” depersonalizing the investment process into a team decision after the Edgcomb loss (Build a Fund), and assessing Talent as the critical entrepreneurial skill — hiring 9s and 10s over 6s and 7s. Schwarzman frames Failure (the botched deal book, the Edgcomb loss and the screaming investor) as the best teacher, and Education as a lifelong discipline whose object is learning how to think.

The book records his maxims on Sales (selling a vision over and over, raising the funds that founded Sallie Mae and Blackstone), Listening as his edge on Wall Street, and a Culture of meritocracy and intellectual integrity. It also notes the CEOs he recruited to the president’s Strategic and Policy Forum — including Elon Musk, Jack Welch, and Bob Iger — and his citation of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers: The Story of Success for the practice-before-mastery argument.

Context: Stephen A. Schwarzman is an American businessman who co-founded the private-equity and asset-management firm Blackstone with Pete Peterson in 1985, building it into one of the world’s largest alternative-asset managers. He is also a prominent philanthropist.

Where this appears

• What It Takes — author and subject; the memoir is the source for the operating and investing lessons above.