What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence

Trying to be objective as possible here: It’s essentially a biography mixed in with tidbits of advice. For other financial readers, it reminds me of a mix between Michael Lewis’ Liar’s Poker (for the entertaining story) and Ray Dalio’s Principles (for the sage advice). Some complain that it’s not really a biography, that stories are non-chronological (which honestly it is, Steve just jumps from one topic to another - Maybe talking about Blackstone in one paragraph to then talking about personal events in another, but they’re all generally chronological. Sometimes he does do flashbacks); Others say that it’s not really a hand guide of “What it Takes” and, therefore, the book is mislabeled. In my opinion, Schwarzman’s What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence, is a good mix between a traditional biography, in-depth business stories that are engaging, and valuable pieces of advice here and there. Honestly, what else is it supposed to be? I haven’t heard Schwarzman is planning on writing another book, so this was the single piece of writing to capture all of his life. Simply put, I loved it. I started it over the Thanksgiving holiday and finished it that Sunday. I honestly had a difficult time putting it down. Some say Schwarzman is pompous throughout the writing, and I have to concur - to a certain degree. One has to remember that Steve grew up fairly humble in Philadelphia, helping his parents run their linens store as a kid before they were able to move to a better part of the city and, in-turn, send Steve to a better public high school in the district. Having done very well academically and attending States for Track, he would attend Yale since he was rejected by Harvard. That was 1965. Later on in the book, Steve references things that most people wont be able to experience in their life: Meeting heads of state, taking flights to places like Egypt for an important dinner, and quite literally creating his own University. While I can see the point of view as this coming off as pompous, if I had Steve’s life, I would have written the book the same exact way. Not many people get to experience such unique events, so it makes sense to document them. Besides, Schwarzman quite literally worked for it all himself. Who wouldn’t want to talk about their successes when they grew up poor and is now one of the wealthiest people alive? If you’re looking for a great business book that’s engaging, easy to read, filled with good advice, and reaffirms that the American Dream is alive, then Steve Schwarzman’s What It Takes, is it.

This book is amazing! I learned a lot! I am sharing the parts that moved me to my soul… Steve Schwarzman: 1- He is a man (he/him). 2- He is White. 3- He is Jewish. 4- He was born & raise here in the U.S. 5- He went to Yale and Havard School of business. 6- He worked at Wall Street. 7- He is very ambitious like me. 8- He launched his company 9- He had the ambition goal of raising $1 Billion 10- He sent out over 500 letters without responses 11- “Wall Street loves to see people fail” ! WHAT? 12- Finally, his 1st investments of $450 million came from a foreign country (Japan). If, Steve was a Black man, many people including me would have argued that nobody in the U.S. willing to invest in his company is racism. As a very ambitious Black startup CEO & Founder that is currently having hard time raising funds, for my patented AI powered Dental Chips, it is obvious that as Steve Jobs said “If it was easy, everybody would have done it” being an entrepreneur is not for everybody. - He requested funding from JPMorgan, who accepted, but refused to underwrite: waoh! Unbelievable!!! - After Blackstone was established, Steve refused $100 million funding to another Jewish man like him in the name of Mike Bloomberg! Really! - My most learning words: “Steve he said (Steve’s dad). “I am a very happy man. We have a nice house. We have two cars. I have enough money to send you and your brothers to college. What more do I need?” “It isn’t about what you need. It’s about wants.” “I don’t want it. I don’t need it. That will not make me happy.” I shook my head. “I don’t understand. This is a sure thing.” Today, I understand. You can learn to be a manager. You can even learn to be a leader. But you can’t learn to be an entrepreneur” Today in 2024, successful entrepreneur Stephen Schwarzman is worth over $38 Billion because his needs and wants met! Despite refusing to fund $100 Million Mike Bloomberg’s needs and wants, he is worth $106 Billion. Steve wrote that if he invested Michael Bloomberg’s $100 million funding request, he would have made in 2019 (year of the book), Blackstone would have made $8 billion in profit! Lesson here: I personally sent a SAFE NOTE to Steve and he still did not yet response to me my letter. Rules for work and life #16: “If you see a huge, transformative opportunity, don’t worry that no one else is pursuing it. You might be seeing something others don’t. The harder the problem is, the more limited the competition, and the greater the reward for whomever can solve it,” Thank you so much Steve for your amazing book! Edited on Dec 28,2024: Wow, on Dec 27, 2024, Bill Gates asked to meet with President-Elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago! It's described in this book how he refused to join the "small cabinet" of Very important American CEOs back in 2021. Mr. Schwarzman, what is your opinion here!

As I always do, I got into this autobiography looking for those by-the-roadside gems of advice you can only glean from living through it. And I got plenty. Learning from the 35,000ft finance view, I greatly appreciate lessons in business interpersonal relationships and investment tips & tricks. I especially loved the deal making advice borne of decades of mega deal experience. Learning about identifying market cycles, when to get in on bottomed-out market cycles, how Blackstone evaluates each deal (a rigorous process I must say), among others. At the end of the book, there’s a list of 25 lessons for business & life. If you don’t read anything else in this book, hit that list. It literally summarizes the most pivotal parts of the book. If you’re looking for a fireside chat w/ a brilliant mind, keen to learn about an entrepreneur’s life & worldview, pick this up. Be ready to bear w/ a few chapters of philanthropic work, working w/ Trump & China that may bore some.

If you are looking for a very readable book that will give you insights into how Steve Schwarzman built a half trillion dollar investment business, the China equivalent of the Rhodes scholarship, and became the confidant of US presidents, all starting from a middle class upbringing in Philadelphia, this is it. You will take away lessons that you can apply in your business or personal life. If you are looking for a detailed history of Blackstone and private equity, you will find some elements here, but this is not what this book is about really. In full disclosure, this review is written with a direct and personal perspective, as I have known Steve through work at Blackstone, informing how I think about the book. It is genuine – written in the same voice as Steve’s weekly talks at Blackstone’s Monday morning meetings, except the book describes many of the most interesting episodes in his life, rather than just the last seven days. Steve’s book captures what made Blackstone succeed. When I joined the firm, I was struck by how we were a market leader in private equity, real estate, hedge fund capital, and restructuring, even though the various businesses were separately run. What did they have in common that made them succeed? I learned over the years that it was Steve’s focus on hiring 9s and 10s, a culture of integrity and performance, and providing a meritocratic environment free of politics. “What it takes” covers all of these topics in detail - for example providing detailed advice on how to interview to find the best employees. The book is structured as a series of anecdotes. This makes the book a much easier read than a traditional biography would have been. In addition, each chapter has a lesson, in total it amounts to 25 rules for success, each of which is brought to life by a corresponding experience in Steve’s life. One of them is to go for very ambitious goals, not small ones. “Worthy fantasies”, as Steve calls them. Steve’s recent projects, including the MIT AI institute, Oxford’s new humanities center, or Schwarzman Scholars each are examples of the theme of setting extremely ambitious goals, and going for it with everything you have. I highly recommend “What it takes” to anyone curious about Steve’s life or interested in learning about the ideas and lessons that made him succeed.

"If it were easy everyone would do it." "The more difficult or complex the issue at hand, the less competition there will be to solve it." -Steven Swarzman, the Founder and CEO of Blackstone. Reading through the reviews of this book, I was intrigued to see why there were several comments stating "This is more of a life accolades type of book than it is life lessons..." and so on. So I decided to make my own informed and educated opinion on it. This book is what most individuals would call a Biography with several helpful real-world bits of Ivy-League University advice you should strongly consider before hopping into any industry, large or small. The book itself exemplifies exactly what the titles brings to the table; What it takes to start an enormous idea that will carry enormous amounts of struggle and setback, and, in most cases, why a large amount of people would give up in their pursuit of greatness. To eliminate any preconceived notion of your typical "wealthy person" stereotype, Steven did, in fact, start from scratch with very little help, personal capital, and a vision to transform the way financial institutions conducted business; that is the essence of the story. He also had A LOT of grit. Now I don't want to spoil the book for you and create a biased environment, but if there is any wealthy business figure you should embody a personality trait from, it's 100%, without a doubt, Steven. I can understand why some people would read the book and get taken back when there's no complete set of "business rules" or "this is exactly what every entrepreneur should do and how they should act." Steven explains that every single venture out there is going to have a unique set of challenges and a multitude of ways to approach and overcome those challenges. The purpose of the book wasn't written as a "one size fits all" dialogue from the author to you, the point of it was to show you exactly what he did to become the world's most respected and innovative financier, how his persistence and resilience played key factor in overcoming all odds, the rewards and massive network that came as a result of it along with constructive and SIMPLE pieces of advice you can use immediately to form your own successful organization. The biggest components that I took away from this book is that whatever endeavor you decide to pursue, no matter how big or how small, you always need to have the ability to show conviction in your dream (aka know how to sell your product/service), build a team of 10's that can help you grow and tap into unknown markets, always show integrity even when it doesn't benefit you, lastly, NEVER become complacent and NEVER give up. These last two bonus components are extremely important to take it: First: Your network determines your net worth. You'll see this first hand when you begin reading the text. Everyone Steven has met and introduced himself too have played a vital part in career and he treats every individual with dignity and respect. In return he was able to accomplish some of the largest deals in business history. Second: Always give back to enrich and support the generations ahead. Want more? Purchase the book and find out for yourself! :)

Exceptional lessons on excellence which come down to a few core principles: set big goals, deliver value for others and fix there problems, show up with consistency, and have tenacity not to quit at the first, second, third, or fourth road block. Yes there is also some self promotion in there but he’s earned a few pats on the back.

Great story and it was great to hear how Schwarzman grew up, was raised and how these principles formed him for the rest of his life. Quite the success story. it was actually a relief as my partner and I are currently raising our first private credit fund, to hear the challenges and the road story that developed into something quite remarkable. For us this was a book of inspiration.

I like to read about people who have boot-strapped their way up in life and the battles they faced along the way. I lost interest when he glibly mentions spinning off the advisory business for $100 million in the first year or two. I enjoyed reading his rules for success at the end of the book. May pick it up and finish it later.