Blog Archives

Lessons from Steve Schwarzman - Chairman and CEO of Blackstone

Steve Schwarzman

Steve Schwarzman is the co-founder and Chairman and CEO of Blackstone, which is the largest alternative asset management firm in the world. Schwarzman has built a financial colossus and extraordinarily successful asset management firm that is by far the global leader in alternative investments.

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Mastery in Charleston

Charleston Gary Carmell Bob Weir

I have a myriad of reasons for writing my blog week in and week out. One of them is that it can serve as a quasi-diary of my life so that I have something I can turn to remember what was happening in my life and when.

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What Is Your Story? Creating A Story Where You Are The Hero

Bob Weir Grateful Dead

Marc Andreessen said something in an interview that I have thought a lot about over the years. I have been a big fan of Joseph Campbell who was an expert on myths and deconstructing the hero’s journey into its most important components and structure.

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Stressless Stress for Commercial Real Estate Investors

Stress-Free-Investing

“When clouds appear, wise men put on their cloaks.” – Shakespeare

Hyman Minsky famously said that stability creates instability. Good times sow the seeds for bad times because people believe that stability will be the norm and growth will continue uninterrupted.

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Inverting James Taylor: The Fan

Gary Roneet James Taylor

Every couple has its idiosyncrasies. One of those in my long relationship with Roneet was her insistence every night that we sleep with the portable standing floor fan on no matter how cold it was inside the house. I am pretty sensitive to being cold at night so when she would insist that the fan be on,

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Turn and Face the Strange(r) - My Hippie Uber Driver

Hippie Uber Driver

In David Bowie’s song Changes, the protagonist tells himself to “turn and face the strange”. Change is inevitable and in order to drive change or adapt to it, one has to go outside of the comfortable and familiar and take risks.

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Sorry Jack: Strong Economic Headwinds - Now What?

strong economic headwinds

Last week was one of those data weeks that corroborated the bond market’s view that the world is facing some strong economic headwinds. The news on the international front was particularly dismal with Chinese exports dropping by 20%, and German factory orders contracting as well.

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The Art of Improvisation - Liberating Your Artistic Genius

Improvisation

I want to continue focusing on books that resonated with me. A while back I was doing a mental exercise and thinking about some of my most memorable experiences. I was trying to determine if there was some sort of common thread weaving throughout all of them.

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Hope Is Not A Strategy - Don't Discount Liberal Arts!

hope is not a strategy

This will be my last blog post related to Andrew Carnegie. All good things must come to an end. When I started at CWS out of college my first boss asked me what my major was and I told him political science. He had an engineering background and kind of snickered and asked what I planned to do with that degree and if I considered “opening up a political science store.” I laughed it off and gave the standard retort that I thought it would help me be a better writer and think critically.

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In Sickness and Health

sick

It was a year ago that Roneet and I, along with her parents went on a trip of a lifetime. We took a five-week cruise that stopped in 11 countries in Africa and Asia. I am so glad that we took that trip as we were able to spend such a glorious time together and I ended up with such beautiful memories and hundreds of pictures to remind me of our special time.

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