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Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel
-The traits that make Sam Zell one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs also make him one of the most surprising, enigmatic, and entertaining mavericks in American business. Self-made billionaire Sam Zell consistently sees what others don't. From finding a market for overpriced Playboy magazines among his junior high classmates, to buying real estate on the cheap after a market crash, to investing in often unglamorous industries with long-term value, Zell acts boldly on supply and demand trends to grab the first-mover advantage. And he can find opportunity virtually anywhere--from an arcane piece of legislation to a desert meeting in Abu Dhabi. -If everyone is going left, look right,- Zell often says. To him, conventional wisdom is nothing but a reference point. Year after year, deal after deal, he shuts out the noise of the crowd, gathers as much information as possible, then trusts his own instincts. He credits much of his independent thinking to his parents, who were Jewish refugees from World War II. Talk to any two people and you might get wild swings in their descriptions of Zell. A media firestorm ensued when the Tribune Company went into bankruptcy a year after he agreed to steward the enterprise. At the same time, his razor-sharp instincts are legendary on Wall Street, and he has sponsored over a dozen IPOs. He's known as the Grave Dancer for his strategy of targeting troubled assets, yet he's created thousands of jobs. Within his own organization, he has an inordinate number of employees at every level who are fiercely loyal and have worked for him for decades. Zell's got a big personality; he is often contrarian, blunt, and irreverent, and always curious and hardworking. This is the guy who started wearing jeans to work in the 1960s, when offices were a sea of gray suits. He's the guy who told The Wall Street Journal in 1985, -If it ain't fun, we don't do it.- He rides motorcycles with his friends, the Zell's Angels, around the world and he keeps ducks on the deck outside his office. As he -I simply don't buy into many of the made-up rules of social convention. The bottom line If you're really good at what you do, you have the freedom to be who you really are.- Am I Being Too Subtle?--a reference to Zell's favorite way to underscore a point--takes readers on a ride across his business terrain, sharing with honesty and humor stories of the times he got it right, when he didn't, and most important, what he learned in the process. This is an indispensable guide for the next generation of disrupters, entrepreneurs, and investors---
235 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 212 reviews
August 7, 2017
My husband suggested that I read this book. He's an entrepreneur in real estate. He loved the story of Sam Zell's journey and his approach to business. I felt like I was listening to my grandfather telling me war stories of the business world. I didn't feel any connection to Zell and I was frankly, bored. I know I could have quit reading the book earlier, but I read most of it and quit on the last chapter. A few good takeaways: 1) give your employees the power and space to talk to you, 2) honesty and integrity + relationships is what builds business, 3) keep a sense of humor.
December 21, 2017
There are parts of Sam Zell's story and life that I found truly fascinating and was excited to learn more about, and then there were other parts that left me rather bored and underwhelmed.
The Good:
The beginning of the book was probably the most engaging. Sam recounts how his parents narrowly escaped Poland just before the German invasion in 1939. After a circuitous, twenty-month long journey, Sam's family landed in the United States and rebuilt a successful life. Sam seemed to inherit a healthy serving of his father's chutzpah, perspicacity and intuition, which he applied to the world of real estate investing, ultimately taking him from owning run-down apartment buildings in college towns to presiding over multi-billion dollar global companies and portfolios.
The Bad:
Sam Zell admits that he is a great salesman and, in a way, he tells his life story much like a masterful salesman giving a well-honed sales pitch. The "sale" here is that he wants us to view him as he views himself: a business rebel, an iconoclast, a gruff but fair leader, a shrewd opportunistic investor, etc. He is very good at highlighting his strengths, glossing over his weaknesses, and painting a very optimistic view of everything.
The problem is that this book seems to lack any serious introspection or true examination of Sam's flaws as a human being. For instance, he has been married three times, but other than a few generic comments, he doesn't delve into any of these moments in his life.
Sam mentions not liking to talk much about his current family or personal life. That's a shame because those are the types of details I'd be more interested in to really get a holistic picture of Sam Zell the three-dimensional human, not just Sam Zell the billionaire business magnate.
Also, he keeps talking about what a rebel he is because he wears jeans to the office, rides motorcycles, sends out annual musical gifts where he changes the lyrics to popular songs, and makes irreverent t-shirts that he hands out at business meetings. Maybe times were way different then, but this all just struck me as so lame. Okay Sam, compared to a room full of bankers, you're a real James Dean.
The Good:
The beginning of the book was probably the most engaging. Sam recounts how his parents narrowly escaped Poland just before the German invasion in 1939. After a circuitous, twenty-month long journey, Sam's family landed in the United States and rebuilt a successful life. Sam seemed to inherit a healthy serving of his father's chutzpah, perspicacity and intuition, which he applied to the world of real estate investing, ultimately taking him from owning run-down apartment buildings in college towns to presiding over multi-billion dollar global companies and portfolios.
The Bad:
Sam Zell admits that he is a great salesman and, in a way, he tells his life story much like a masterful salesman giving a well-honed sales pitch. The "sale" here is that he wants us to view him as he views himself: a business rebel, an iconoclast, a gruff but fair leader, a shrewd opportunistic investor, etc. He is very good at highlighting his strengths, glossing over his weaknesses, and painting a very optimistic view of everything.
The problem is that this book seems to lack any serious introspection or true examination of Sam's flaws as a human being. For instance, he has been married three times, but other than a few generic comments, he doesn't delve into any of these moments in his life.
Sam mentions not liking to talk much about his current family or personal life. That's a shame because those are the types of details I'd be more interested in to really get a holistic picture of Sam Zell the three-dimensional human, not just Sam Zell the billionaire business magnate.
Also, he keeps talking about what a rebel he is because he wears jeans to the office, rides motorcycles, sends out annual musical gifts where he changes the lyrics to popular songs, and makes irreverent t-shirts that he hands out at business meetings. Maybe times were way different then, but this all just struck me as so lame. Okay Sam, compared to a room full of bankers, you're a real James Dean.
October 7, 2017
"The tool kit I use to achieve my end includes the gifts I've been given. There are people who draw. There are people who can sing. And there are people who can dance. I can make money. I see opportunity and convert it into something tangible. The business of making money just comes naturally to me." (Sam Zell, Am I Being Too Subtle?, Page 209)
Written by Billionaire Sam Zell. Some of it was biographical and some of it was business advice. It was cool to get to know this man. He thinks differently. He thinks out of the box. He leverages what he has and he is not as brash as I thought. He actually believes in making a difference and making a difference is what he wants his legacy to be.
The business advice he shares is invaluable, not to just those in real estate, but to those in all kinds of professions and businesses. We could all learn a tidbit or two from this man, especially in the areas of being an entrepreneur and taking risks.
Written by Billionaire Sam Zell. Some of it was biographical and some of it was business advice. It was cool to get to know this man. He thinks differently. He thinks out of the box. He leverages what he has and he is not as brash as I thought. He actually believes in making a difference and making a difference is what he wants his legacy to be.
The business advice he shares is invaluable, not to just those in real estate, but to those in all kinds of professions and businesses. We could all learn a tidbit or two from this man, especially in the areas of being an entrepreneur and taking risks.
May 21, 2017
Really enjoyed this book.
I had heard of Sam over 25 years ago after reading an article about him in Forbes. Later, I bought Equity Office Property's stock in my IRA over 15 years ago and enjoyed the dividend as well as the stock's performance.
Sam's success has common themes among super-performers like:
He understands his psychology and plays to his strengths and weaknesses.
Believes that value in a company cannot be unlocked without delegation to great people.
Understands that sometimes the best deal is the one that you pass on.
Consumes an enormous amount of information while retaining the ability to focus on the essential and discard the rest.
Uses this information to develop a thesis on macro-level events and then take action when they setup according to his views.
Has a fanatical drive to measure and control risk.
Sam's Jewish heritage and parents have had a big influence on him. While he was the typical American son, rebellious and driven in ways that his father was not, his love for his father is as deep as his father's was for him. And, ultimately, he is his father's son returning to his heritage throughout his life feeling profoundly grateful to be blessed with his father's wisdom.
I especially appreciated the fact that Sam openly discussed his business failures, not just his successes.
Too many business books showcase the wins without the losses and, as anyone in business will tell you, its the failures that teach the most. Equity Office Properties was a major win but the deal with Tribune began to crater less than a year after the ink dried on the contract. He goes into detail on all of them which is a huge win for anyone running a business or thinking about running a business.
I made ample use of a highlighter and post-it notes while reading this biography and highly recommend it to anyone in business.
I had heard of Sam over 25 years ago after reading an article about him in Forbes. Later, I bought Equity Office Property's stock in my IRA over 15 years ago and enjoyed the dividend as well as the stock's performance.
Sam's success has common themes among super-performers like:
He understands his psychology and plays to his strengths and weaknesses.
Believes that value in a company cannot be unlocked without delegation to great people.
Understands that sometimes the best deal is the one that you pass on.
Consumes an enormous amount of information while retaining the ability to focus on the essential and discard the rest.
Uses this information to develop a thesis on macro-level events and then take action when they setup according to his views.
Has a fanatical drive to measure and control risk.
Sam's Jewish heritage and parents have had a big influence on him. While he was the typical American son, rebellious and driven in ways that his father was not, his love for his father is as deep as his father's was for him. And, ultimately, he is his father's son returning to his heritage throughout his life feeling profoundly grateful to be blessed with his father's wisdom.
I especially appreciated the fact that Sam openly discussed his business failures, not just his successes.
Too many business books showcase the wins without the losses and, as anyone in business will tell you, its the failures that teach the most. Equity Office Properties was a major win but the deal with Tribune began to crater less than a year after the ink dried on the contract. He goes into detail on all of them which is a huge win for anyone running a business or thinking about running a business.
I made ample use of a highlighter and post-it notes while reading this biography and highly recommend it to anyone in business.
October 5, 2017
Didn’t actually finish the book. Hated the writing style and was interested in the story but it was just so meh-ly written. Got bored after a while and wondered why I was forcing myself to read this. Might interest real estate developers a bunch more than me but all in all the sentence structures suck and made me put it down.
June 21, 2017
Excellent book. Jam packed with insights and advice to apply not only to business but one's life outlook and approach as well.
February 27, 2025
I listened to the audiobook. It was awesome because Sam Zell narrated it. Incredible book with his story and lessons learned along the way.
January 26, 2025
Great book. Sam was a game changer , always not taking himself too seriously .
April 20, 2019
An autobiographical account of an old-school entrepreneur and property mogul. Talks a fair bit about building relationships, negotiations, audacity, and risk-management. A very different take about business than the one that tech entrepreneurs typically have. Had much food for thought (though I did zone out a bit among the details of deal-making in the final few chapters). Highly recommended.
In particular, I loved this quote describing the dangers of taking on distressed assets: "Gravedancing is an art with many potential upsides. But one must be careful while prancing around not to fall into the open pit and join the cadavers. There’s often a thin line between the Dancer and the danced-upon."
In particular, I loved this quote describing the dangers of taking on distressed assets: "Gravedancing is an art with many potential upsides. But one must be careful while prancing around not to fall into the open pit and join the cadavers. There’s often a thin line between the Dancer and the danced-upon."
September 12, 2017
Not the most disciplined writing. A lot of repetition of "I believe" "I've always said", etc. In general the theme of the book seems to be "why am i so great". As a result not a lot of real reflection on what could have been learned from a 40 year career as an investor.
That said, some very memorable stories and concise history of the equity business. Instructive for any real estate investor.
Very readable -- got through it on two 2-hour train rides.
That said, some very memorable stories and concise history of the equity business. Instructive for any real estate investor.
Very readable -- got through it on two 2-hour train rides.
September 5, 2017
Some stories that I would categorize as "okay". I enjoyed the chances he took and the way he navigated getting his first rental units off of the ground.
July 31, 2019
One of the most transparent business books about an interesting and highly intellectual entrepreneur. This is one of the best autobiographies that I have read about entrepreneurship and finance.
November 23, 2019
به نسخه صوتیش گوش دادم. با صدای خودش بود. صداش به درد این کار نمی خوره.
October 23, 2022
Na faksu je već ušao u nekretnine, vodio je brigu o pae soba/stanova za neke ljude, a zauzvrat je dobijao besplatan smještaj. Onda se to samo sirilo i do kraja faksa je vec vodio ogroman portifolio rentalni jedinica samo sto je sada umjesto besplatnog smjestaja dobijao pravi novac za to. Onda je naravno krenuo da zaradjeni novac investira u nekretnine u manjim studentskim gradovima jer nije bilo velike konkurencije. Posto je tek zavrsio studije, znao je sto studenti zele bolje od ostalih investitora. Nakon odredjenog broja poslova, prosirio je carstvo i na komercijalne nekretnine, kampove itd.
Postao je najveci igrac u toj bransi. Kasnije je ulazio i u druge branše.
Na kraju je prodao svoj nekretninski portifolio Blackstone korporaciji 2007e.
Blackstone i blackrock su kompanije za koje kazu da drze cijeli svijet danas, a da nitko nije ni cuo za njih.
Zell je predvidjao krize i balone, nakon njih je kupovao sve po dobrim cijenama-grave dancer.
2008 su ga zvali svi i zeljeli da ulazu s njim ali objasnio je da su sada drugi parametri, banke su nudile odgode i slicno, tako da nakon 2008 nije ubirao plodove iako je i tu krizu predvidio. Zbog odgoda, nitko nije bio prisiljen da prodaje.
Pratio je trendove, primjetio je da se ljudi sve manje žene, sve duze i duze se ceka na brak i shodno tome je portifolio gradio sve vise u gradovima koji zive 24/7 jer je racunao da takvim ljudima, stanovi u takvim gradovima najvise trebaju i da ce tu moci ubirati najvece rente. Uvedeni su drugi parametri za stanove, vise nije bilo samo koliko kvadrata vec koliko je udaljeno koraka od prodavnice, javnog prijevoza itd.
Rentalna industrija prati puls nacije.
Devedesetih se širi globalno.
Nije isao u Evropu jer Evropa ima najstarije stanovnisto i vec tad su se iz poreza isplacivale mirovine. Pitanje je, sa tako malo radnika, od kuda ce pare doci??
Zato se okrenuo Mexicu, Brazilu,Kolumbiji, Indiji koje imaju mladju populaciju i cije vlade su tad bile propoduzetnicki orijentirane. U takvim klimama ce isplivati sve vise srednjeg sloja i njima ce trebati uredi, kuce itd.
Postao je najveci igrac u toj bransi. Kasnije je ulazio i u druge branše.
Na kraju je prodao svoj nekretninski portifolio Blackstone korporaciji 2007e.
Blackstone i blackrock su kompanije za koje kazu da drze cijeli svijet danas, a da nitko nije ni cuo za njih.
Zell je predvidjao krize i balone, nakon njih je kupovao sve po dobrim cijenama-grave dancer.
2008 su ga zvali svi i zeljeli da ulazu s njim ali objasnio je da su sada drugi parametri, banke su nudile odgode i slicno, tako da nakon 2008 nije ubirao plodove iako je i tu krizu predvidio. Zbog odgoda, nitko nije bio prisiljen da prodaje.
Pratio je trendove, primjetio je da se ljudi sve manje žene, sve duze i duze se ceka na brak i shodno tome je portifolio gradio sve vise u gradovima koji zive 24/7 jer je racunao da takvim ljudima, stanovi u takvim gradovima najvise trebaju i da ce tu moci ubirati najvece rente. Uvedeni su drugi parametri za stanove, vise nije bilo samo koliko kvadrata vec koliko je udaljeno koraka od prodavnice, javnog prijevoza itd.
Rentalna industrija prati puls nacije.
Devedesetih se širi globalno.
Nije isao u Evropu jer Evropa ima najstarije stanovnisto i vec tad su se iz poreza isplacivale mirovine. Pitanje je, sa tako malo radnika, od kuda ce pare doci??
Zato se okrenuo Mexicu, Brazilu,Kolumbiji, Indiji koje imaju mladju populaciju i cije vlade su tad bile propoduzetnicki orijentirane. U takvim klimama ce isplivati sve vise srednjeg sloja i njima ce trebati uredi, kuce itd.
December 15, 2022
This is a fantastic fantastic book, a must read for aspiring business entrepreneurs.
#1. This book is a metaphor for life. You can't be successful without being in the game.
#2. Entrepreneurship is not work but a a game to be played, and to be won - in which fun & curiosity are the main incentives.
#3. Always be willing to play - When you see a problem to solve, own it - say- let's go. Don't only manage risks - tale them.
#4. An idea meritocracy is the number 1 way for running a business - culture is everything.
#5. Running a serious business doesn't mean being always serious; be the first person in the room to laugh at yourself, have fun, and never take yourself too seriously
#1. This book is a metaphor for life. You can't be successful without being in the game.
#2. Entrepreneurship is not work but a a game to be played, and to be won - in which fun & curiosity are the main incentives.
#3. Always be willing to play - When you see a problem to solve, own it - say- let's go. Don't only manage risks - tale them.
#4. An idea meritocracy is the number 1 way for running a business - culture is everything.
#5. Running a serious business doesn't mean being always serious; be the first person in the room to laugh at yourself, have fun, and never take yourself too seriously
April 30, 2024
Highly recommend. Some great lessons and Sam Zell is super interesting.
July 14, 2024
Great story on how Sam Zell built his Empire. Lots of nuggets of wisdom, in doing deals.
July 2, 2025
Overall, a fantastic book. This was an easy read by a genuine opportunist. Sam is eccentric, but he’s often right. I would read it again.
My parents imbued Julie, me and our younger sister, Leah, with their passionate and enduring gratitude for the United States. Every year for the rest of their lives, they celebrated the date of their arrival with a toast to America. My sisters and I grew up keenly aware of how fortunate we were to be in this country, where opportunity was not defined by birth or religion or anything other than drive, and where there were no limits on how much you could achieve or how far you could go. Page 17
I entered my teen years with what I look back on as an unusual maturity and perspective, and it often made relating to and sharing ideas with my friends a challenge. Someone once told me,
"Sam, you were born old," and I think that is true. My friends' world experiences seemed narrower than mine. Page 26
People always want to know whether I am "self-made." Usually when they ask the question, they mean were my parents rich? The answer is no, my parents weren't rich. When they got to the United States they had about the equivalent of $10,000 today.
As I was growing up, my father reestablished himself as a successful entrepreneur. And by the time he died, my parents were wealthy, partly because of my father's business and partly because of my own. But the question is still interesting, because they actually left me with so much more than money. It was an inheritance of intelligence, curiosity, drive, resilience, and self-determination. They instilled in me a commitment to learning and an understanding of how to apply it in real life, to challenge convention-to leave when others stay, to be aware of risk and prepare for it. I certainly feel "self-made" in one sense, but in another I recognize the incredible contribution of my parents in shaping my values and success. Page 28
From the beginning, Bob and I believed in creating a meri-tocracy. EGI was entrepreneurial, based on transparency, initia-tive, creativity, trust, and the alignment of interests. We paid people enough salary to live comfortably, but all of their ups came from participation in the investments. In other words, the real money was in the deal residuals, the percentage of profits each deal earned, not from salary. There was no cherry-picking of projects, and rewards were found in each year's accomplish-ments, not in deal-by-deal allocations. Virtually everyone on the team had a piece of everyone else's deal, so while we always had a healthy level of lighthearted internal rivalry, everyone also went out of their way to make sure the other person's deal suc-ceeded. That basic principle has never changed over the decades. Page 62
The fact that Bob and I had dry powder and could make quick decisions positioned us well to cut deals with Arthur. It was my introduction to the value of speed and certainty, and we would eventually gain a reputation for this powerful combination in winning deals— even when we weren't offering the highest price. Page 67.
I realized that the basics of business are straightforward. It's largely about risk. ****If you've got
a big downside and a small upside, run the other way. If you've got a big upside and a small downside, do the deal. Always make sure you're getting paid for the risk you take, and never risk what you cannot afford to lose. Keep it simple. A scenario that takes four steps instead of one means there are three additional opportunities to fail.***** Page 75
This has always been a fatal flaw in U.S. real estate: the volume of development has been related to the availability of funds, not to demand. The industry has a long history of overbuilding when there's easy money, without regard for who will occupy those spaces once they're built.
At the same time that construction cranes were dotting the horizon of every major city, the country was just starting to tip into a recession. Supply was going up and prospects for demand were not good. I was certain that we were headed toward a massive oversupply and a crash was coming.
That's when I just said, "Stop." I was done. Page 78
In general, the buildings I chose had a few common denom-inators. First, they had to be available below replacement cost. If I could set rents based on a $10,000-per-unit purchase price, and the sunk costs of new development were $20,000 per unit, a new building would be priced out of the market.
Second, they had to be good-quality, well-located proper-ties, which usually perform better than market throughout economic cycles. Tenants tend to stick in the up cycle, and upgrade to nicer space in the down cycle as rental rates fall. So better assets provided more stable cash flow, and that gave us downside protection.
Many of the properties I chose also had deferred mainte-nance. While the structures were good, repairs and upgrades had been neglected. So there was room for improvements that would help us lease more space, often at higher rents, thereby improving the value of the asset. Page 80.
Years later, people would ask me, "How did you know when and what to buy?" But all I basically did was create a massive arbitrage-a fixed-rate instrument in an inflationary environ-ment. I essentially took on $4 billion of nonrecourse debt at an average interest rate of 6 percent in an environment with inflation of 9 percent or higher. That means I was already making 3 percent returns the second the deal closed —without doing a thing to the assets. Sure, we picked some terrific properties, but every one didn't have to be Class A. Overall, it was the creation of an enormous amount of nonrecourse, fixed-rate debt (in some cases three to four hundred basis points, or 3 to 4 percent) below inflation. When we started, my estimate was that we could make $50 million (equivalent to about $250 million today) in five years.
What I didn't envision was that the country would elect Jimmy Carter. As a result, everything he did raised inflation. So we made a lot more. Page 81
Sam was known as the Grave Dancer. However, he stated that the Grave Dancer was like Rip Van Winkle in that he hibernates from one real estate cycle to the next. Page 83
Competition is great—for you. Me, I’d rather have a natural monopoly, and if I can’t get that, I’ll take an oligopoly. Page 88
Companies absolutely need engaged owners. It's an owner who is willing to give up short-term benefits for long-term gains. It's an owner who uses vision to steward a company and guide management. And it's an owner who brings in resources-additional capital, financial expertise, banking rela-tionships, whatever it takes-to help a company and its management team succeed. Page 94.
I’m a professional opportunist. Page 99
Liquidity equals value. Page 104.
Sam would create custom t-shirts when he was pitching for an IPO. He wanted to create a memory that would last.
The Jacor story was all about seeing micro opportunities in macro events. In this case, the macro event was legislation similar to the impact of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 on NOLs. But I find implications for opportunity everywhere-in world events, economic news, and conversations. I've always been on the lookout for big-picture influencers and anomalies that will direct the course of industries and companies.
But first-mover advantage requires conviction. While the rest of the radio industry was deliberating about what the telecom bill meant and how it would be implemented and whether it was a good change or a bad change, we moved and bought up every station we could find. Page 111.
The most reliable measure of our buildings value remained - and had always been, in my opinion-replacement cost. Replacement cost mattered more to me than rents or comparable prices or vacancies or economic growth or stock price. This was because replacement cost determined the price of future competition. Page 133.
In emerging markets, a big clue to national stability is whether a country is on the verge of investment-grade rating. Early on, I came to the conclusion theres no other time in the life of any country when it's more disciplined and more transparent than when it's a year or two away from reaching investment-grade sta-tus. The ranking translates into an immediate benefit for a coun try, so it's on its best behavior. Investment grade strengthens the country's currency, leads to increased demand for investment opportunities from foreign direct investors, boosts world confidence in the economy-because the country has demonstrated discipline within the political system—and rewards the country with a lower cost and greater access to capital. We invested in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia when each was on the verge of investment grade, and we benefited from this impact firsthand. Some emerging markets will check all the boxes-strong population growth, growing middle class, verge of investment grade, great leadership, and hunger for capital-and then be missing the one ingredient that enables you to monetize your investment: scale. Without scale, you don't have liquidity. You have no optionality. In essence, you're stuck. Africa is a great ex-ample. I think many countries, such as Botswana, have poten-tial, but the upper and middle classes are too small for me to get involved. Chile is another example. It has the institutions and leadership, but only 17 million people-no scale.
Of all the corners of the world, I believe Latin America has some of the best investment opportunities for the next decade at least. The creation of the Mercado Integrado Latinoamericano (MILA) in 2011, which combined the stock exchanges of Colom-bia, Peru, and Chile, and Mexico a few years later, infused the region with liquidity and will continue to accelerate its growth.
India is also interesting but has a history of disappointing international investors. It's a hard place to do business, but we believe there is opportunity there as well. Page 171-172.
I often say I am the chairman of everything and the CEO of nothing. I stick to what I'm good at-vision, direction, strategy.
That's where I add the most value. I spend almost my entire day listening to other people. I ask questions, I probe, I raise pos-sibilities.
My world, the Equity world, stretches well beyond the private investment firm I started nearly fifty years ago. It includes all of the various Equity-named companies I've started since-five in all—as well as the companies I chair or influence with a significant ownership stake. I pick great people to run them. I don't involve myself in the day-to-day, but I stay close to those who do.
I believe in the radius theory of business, where your ability to succeed is ultimately limited by the number of people between you and the decision. That's because the farther from you the decision is made, the less you control the risk. History shows that businesses get buried when they don't delegate enough-but also when they delegate too much. Page 179.
There's a baseline IQ level needed to work at my firm, but I don't need rocket scientists. After that, what best predicts your success in my world is drive, energy, attitude, judgment, convic-tion, and passion. And an ability to cut to the center of an issue.
I'd trade another twenty IQ points for those qualities any day.
I've had a number of brilliant people working for me who didn't make it because they couldn't grasp how to think about a deal. Page 182.
By now you know I'm a great believer in aligned interests-skin in the game. From the very first deals we did at EGI, I have spread the opportunity-both the risks and the rewards. We co-invest, side by side, and I often provide a "promote" to my peo-ple, allowing them to share in profits on a portion of my invested capital. That means I put my money behind theirs (say $150,000 of my money to $30,000 of their money), and if our investments or funds achieve their minimum target metrics, my people get returns based on the aggregate ($180,000). In effect, we're all invested in each other's success. It's not only about motivation; it's a mandate to collaborate. Deal opportunities and challenges are discussed, questioned, and probed by the team at large because everybody has a piece of everybody else's deal. There isn't anything that turns me on more than the fact that I've created thousands of jobs and seemingly limitless opportunity for my employees. And that I've made hundreds of millionaires. I don't just pay lip service to the idea that you can prosper on my team. Page 184
My employees feel like fast decision making and autonomy are the oxygen that makes our business thrive.
One of their projects was creating my "business card" —a little red book of Samisms that I feel have particular meaning.
"Trying to be right 100 percent of the time leads to paralysis" goes one. "Conventional wisdom is nothing other than a reference point" is another. And my favorite, "Am I being too subtle?" Of course, each is accompanied with a cartoon. Page 187
The United States was built by entrepreneurs who were largely immigrants. By nature, the immigrants who came here were self-selective. They chose to take the enormous risk of leaving their homelands and everything they knew for the unknown. For an idea. They came here and started businesses and innovated. They were a primary engine behind creating a world power. Page 193
My definition of "win" is not binary. It is not a zero-sum game. Negotiation that leads to a winner and a loser rarely leads to a successful transaction, or another one down the road.
That's how it's been throughout my business career. Sometimes my team argues with me-they can't believe we're leaving money on the table. But I want to create an environment where everyone wants to keep playing. Page 220
"Your responsibility is to maximize the skills you were given. But whatever you decide to do, invest everything you have in it-excel. What I've done is not the example I wanted to set; it's the way I've done it that I hope you emulate, through focus, effort, and commitment." Page 227.
My parents imbued Julie, me and our younger sister, Leah, with their passionate and enduring gratitude for the United States. Every year for the rest of their lives, they celebrated the date of their arrival with a toast to America. My sisters and I grew up keenly aware of how fortunate we were to be in this country, where opportunity was not defined by birth or religion or anything other than drive, and where there were no limits on how much you could achieve or how far you could go. Page 17
I entered my teen years with what I look back on as an unusual maturity and perspective, and it often made relating to and sharing ideas with my friends a challenge. Someone once told me,
"Sam, you were born old," and I think that is true. My friends' world experiences seemed narrower than mine. Page 26
People always want to know whether I am "self-made." Usually when they ask the question, they mean were my parents rich? The answer is no, my parents weren't rich. When they got to the United States they had about the equivalent of $10,000 today.
As I was growing up, my father reestablished himself as a successful entrepreneur. And by the time he died, my parents were wealthy, partly because of my father's business and partly because of my own. But the question is still interesting, because they actually left me with so much more than money. It was an inheritance of intelligence, curiosity, drive, resilience, and self-determination. They instilled in me a commitment to learning and an understanding of how to apply it in real life, to challenge convention-to leave when others stay, to be aware of risk and prepare for it. I certainly feel "self-made" in one sense, but in another I recognize the incredible contribution of my parents in shaping my values and success. Page 28
From the beginning, Bob and I believed in creating a meri-tocracy. EGI was entrepreneurial, based on transparency, initia-tive, creativity, trust, and the alignment of interests. We paid people enough salary to live comfortably, but all of their ups came from participation in the investments. In other words, the real money was in the deal residuals, the percentage of profits each deal earned, not from salary. There was no cherry-picking of projects, and rewards were found in each year's accomplish-ments, not in deal-by-deal allocations. Virtually everyone on the team had a piece of everyone else's deal, so while we always had a healthy level of lighthearted internal rivalry, everyone also went out of their way to make sure the other person's deal suc-ceeded. That basic principle has never changed over the decades. Page 62
The fact that Bob and I had dry powder and could make quick decisions positioned us well to cut deals with Arthur. It was my introduction to the value of speed and certainty, and we would eventually gain a reputation for this powerful combination in winning deals— even when we weren't offering the highest price. Page 67.
I realized that the basics of business are straightforward. It's largely about risk. ****If you've got
a big downside and a small upside, run the other way. If you've got a big upside and a small downside, do the deal. Always make sure you're getting paid for the risk you take, and never risk what you cannot afford to lose. Keep it simple. A scenario that takes four steps instead of one means there are three additional opportunities to fail.***** Page 75
This has always been a fatal flaw in U.S. real estate: the volume of development has been related to the availability of funds, not to demand. The industry has a long history of overbuilding when there's easy money, without regard for who will occupy those spaces once they're built.
At the same time that construction cranes were dotting the horizon of every major city, the country was just starting to tip into a recession. Supply was going up and prospects for demand were not good. I was certain that we were headed toward a massive oversupply and a crash was coming.
That's when I just said, "Stop." I was done. Page 78
In general, the buildings I chose had a few common denom-inators. First, they had to be available below replacement cost. If I could set rents based on a $10,000-per-unit purchase price, and the sunk costs of new development were $20,000 per unit, a new building would be priced out of the market.
Second, they had to be good-quality, well-located proper-ties, which usually perform better than market throughout economic cycles. Tenants tend to stick in the up cycle, and upgrade to nicer space in the down cycle as rental rates fall. So better assets provided more stable cash flow, and that gave us downside protection.
Many of the properties I chose also had deferred mainte-nance. While the structures were good, repairs and upgrades had been neglected. So there was room for improvements that would help us lease more space, often at higher rents, thereby improving the value of the asset. Page 80.
Years later, people would ask me, "How did you know when and what to buy?" But all I basically did was create a massive arbitrage-a fixed-rate instrument in an inflationary environ-ment. I essentially took on $4 billion of nonrecourse debt at an average interest rate of 6 percent in an environment with inflation of 9 percent or higher. That means I was already making 3 percent returns the second the deal closed —without doing a thing to the assets. Sure, we picked some terrific properties, but every one didn't have to be Class A. Overall, it was the creation of an enormous amount of nonrecourse, fixed-rate debt (in some cases three to four hundred basis points, or 3 to 4 percent) below inflation. When we started, my estimate was that we could make $50 million (equivalent to about $250 million today) in five years.
What I didn't envision was that the country would elect Jimmy Carter. As a result, everything he did raised inflation. So we made a lot more. Page 81
Sam was known as the Grave Dancer. However, he stated that the Grave Dancer was like Rip Van Winkle in that he hibernates from one real estate cycle to the next. Page 83
Competition is great—for you. Me, I’d rather have a natural monopoly, and if I can’t get that, I’ll take an oligopoly. Page 88
Companies absolutely need engaged owners. It's an owner who is willing to give up short-term benefits for long-term gains. It's an owner who uses vision to steward a company and guide management. And it's an owner who brings in resources-additional capital, financial expertise, banking rela-tionships, whatever it takes-to help a company and its management team succeed. Page 94.
I’m a professional opportunist. Page 99
Liquidity equals value. Page 104.
Sam would create custom t-shirts when he was pitching for an IPO. He wanted to create a memory that would last.
The Jacor story was all about seeing micro opportunities in macro events. In this case, the macro event was legislation similar to the impact of the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 on NOLs. But I find implications for opportunity everywhere-in world events, economic news, and conversations. I've always been on the lookout for big-picture influencers and anomalies that will direct the course of industries and companies.
But first-mover advantage requires conviction. While the rest of the radio industry was deliberating about what the telecom bill meant and how it would be implemented and whether it was a good change or a bad change, we moved and bought up every station we could find. Page 111.
The most reliable measure of our buildings value remained - and had always been, in my opinion-replacement cost. Replacement cost mattered more to me than rents or comparable prices or vacancies or economic growth or stock price. This was because replacement cost determined the price of future competition. Page 133.
In emerging markets, a big clue to national stability is whether a country is on the verge of investment-grade rating. Early on, I came to the conclusion theres no other time in the life of any country when it's more disciplined and more transparent than when it's a year or two away from reaching investment-grade sta-tus. The ranking translates into an immediate benefit for a coun try, so it's on its best behavior. Investment grade strengthens the country's currency, leads to increased demand for investment opportunities from foreign direct investors, boosts world confidence in the economy-because the country has demonstrated discipline within the political system—and rewards the country with a lower cost and greater access to capital. We invested in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia when each was on the verge of investment grade, and we benefited from this impact firsthand. Some emerging markets will check all the boxes-strong population growth, growing middle class, verge of investment grade, great leadership, and hunger for capital-and then be missing the one ingredient that enables you to monetize your investment: scale. Without scale, you don't have liquidity. You have no optionality. In essence, you're stuck. Africa is a great ex-ample. I think many countries, such as Botswana, have poten-tial, but the upper and middle classes are too small for me to get involved. Chile is another example. It has the institutions and leadership, but only 17 million people-no scale.
Of all the corners of the world, I believe Latin America has some of the best investment opportunities for the next decade at least. The creation of the Mercado Integrado Latinoamericano (MILA) in 2011, which combined the stock exchanges of Colom-bia, Peru, and Chile, and Mexico a few years later, infused the region with liquidity and will continue to accelerate its growth.
India is also interesting but has a history of disappointing international investors. It's a hard place to do business, but we believe there is opportunity there as well. Page 171-172.
I often say I am the chairman of everything and the CEO of nothing. I stick to what I'm good at-vision, direction, strategy.
That's where I add the most value. I spend almost my entire day listening to other people. I ask questions, I probe, I raise pos-sibilities.
My world, the Equity world, stretches well beyond the private investment firm I started nearly fifty years ago. It includes all of the various Equity-named companies I've started since-five in all—as well as the companies I chair or influence with a significant ownership stake. I pick great people to run them. I don't involve myself in the day-to-day, but I stay close to those who do.
I believe in the radius theory of business, where your ability to succeed is ultimately limited by the number of people between you and the decision. That's because the farther from you the decision is made, the less you control the risk. History shows that businesses get buried when they don't delegate enough-but also when they delegate too much. Page 179.
There's a baseline IQ level needed to work at my firm, but I don't need rocket scientists. After that, what best predicts your success in my world is drive, energy, attitude, judgment, convic-tion, and passion. And an ability to cut to the center of an issue.
I'd trade another twenty IQ points for those qualities any day.
I've had a number of brilliant people working for me who didn't make it because they couldn't grasp how to think about a deal. Page 182.
By now you know I'm a great believer in aligned interests-skin in the game. From the very first deals we did at EGI, I have spread the opportunity-both the risks and the rewards. We co-invest, side by side, and I often provide a "promote" to my peo-ple, allowing them to share in profits on a portion of my invested capital. That means I put my money behind theirs (say $150,000 of my money to $30,000 of their money), and if our investments or funds achieve their minimum target metrics, my people get returns based on the aggregate ($180,000). In effect, we're all invested in each other's success. It's not only about motivation; it's a mandate to collaborate. Deal opportunities and challenges are discussed, questioned, and probed by the team at large because everybody has a piece of everybody else's deal. There isn't anything that turns me on more than the fact that I've created thousands of jobs and seemingly limitless opportunity for my employees. And that I've made hundreds of millionaires. I don't just pay lip service to the idea that you can prosper on my team. Page 184
My employees feel like fast decision making and autonomy are the oxygen that makes our business thrive.
One of their projects was creating my "business card" —a little red book of Samisms that I feel have particular meaning.
"Trying to be right 100 percent of the time leads to paralysis" goes one. "Conventional wisdom is nothing other than a reference point" is another. And my favorite, "Am I being too subtle?" Of course, each is accompanied with a cartoon. Page 187
The United States was built by entrepreneurs who were largely immigrants. By nature, the immigrants who came here were self-selective. They chose to take the enormous risk of leaving their homelands and everything they knew for the unknown. For an idea. They came here and started businesses and innovated. They were a primary engine behind creating a world power. Page 193
My definition of "win" is not binary. It is not a zero-sum game. Negotiation that leads to a winner and a loser rarely leads to a successful transaction, or another one down the road.
That's how it's been throughout my business career. Sometimes my team argues with me-they can't believe we're leaving money on the table. But I want to create an environment where everyone wants to keep playing. Page 220
"Your responsibility is to maximize the skills you were given. But whatever you decide to do, invest everything you have in it-excel. What I've done is not the example I wanted to set; it's the way I've done it that I hope you emulate, through focus, effort, and commitment." Page 227.
April 27, 2025
Reading this book while living Sam's legacy, in the Zell entrepreneurship program, is moving beyond words.
On my recent trip to Chicago with the program I got to meet some of the people discussed in the book, his family and even the famous ducks.
I was on a tour of EGI and Sam's office, and spent time with our sister programs in the US, and had an incredible day of superb MBA classes at Kellogg.
Zell has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my life, and I am eternally grateful to Sam for it.
"If you're really good at what you do, you have the freedom to be who you really are" -Sam Zell
On my recent trip to Chicago with the program I got to meet some of the people discussed in the book, his family and even the famous ducks.
I was on a tour of EGI and Sam's office, and spent time with our sister programs in the US, and had an incredible day of superb MBA classes at Kellogg.
Zell has been one of the most meaningful experiences of my life, and I am eternally grateful to Sam for it.
"If you're really good at what you do, you have the freedom to be who you really are" -Sam Zell
November 21, 2022
An amazing book. One of the best business biographies I read. Even the exposition about his family and upbringing, which is usually the boring part in bios, is written interestingly. Highly recommended!
April 22, 2025
The father of the institutional REIT, the epitome of tzedakah in giving back, simplifier of complex deal making, and ultimate mensch when it came to business, philanthropy, relationships, and community - Sam Zell modernized real estate and put it on the big stage through his witty stories, T-shirt making, and humor.
February 11, 2025
One of the best and most authentic Biographies I ever read
I was very inspired by this BIO. Truly funny and full of learnings. Highly recommended read. . . . .
I was very inspired by this BIO. Truly funny and full of learnings. Highly recommended read. . . . .
April 21, 2025
Fun and to the point!
What a fun bio!
Straight to the point, fun, easy to read.
Thank you for your nice bio Dear Sam!!!
What a fun bio!
Straight to the point, fun, easy to read.
Thank you for your nice bio Dear Sam!!!
April 17, 2025
Amazing!
April 14, 2025
Interesting read for those in the real estate industry. Great bits of wisdom and great perspective. Sam doesn’t take himself too seriously which is refreshing in a business memoir.
December 20, 2017
I really loved this book by Sam Zell. As a student of distressed investing, it was great to hear about the stories of Sam's investments over the years. The primary focus was mostly around his real estate investments, but there was discussion of other "Grave Dancer" type investments. As someone who has taken advantage of cyclical downturns for my adult career (own 3 distressed properties, commodities investor), I ate this book up. However, I was somewhat surprised that it didn't include more focus on the investment side of things. It really was written mostly as an autobiography with at least 4 of the 12 chapters focused on things other than business (telling his family history, his philanthropy efforts, etc.). Overall, it was a great read, and I'd recommend it to anyone that gets excited about investing (like I do), especially when the world really looks really ugly.
My favorite quotes:
p. 37 - "Indifference to rejection is a fundamental part of being an entrepreneur."
p. 75 - "Always make sure you are getting paid for the risk you take, and never risk what you cannot afford to lose...A scenario that takes four steps instead of one means there are three additional opportunities to fail."
p. 88 - "There's no substitute for limited competition. You can be a genius, but if there's a lot of competition, it won't matter."
p. 108 - "Boards that don't exercise an ownership approach are complicit in poor-performing companies."
p. 136 - "Every day you choose to hold an asset, you are choosing to buy it."
p. 153 - "'We've just always done it that way' is the antithesis of progress."
p. 220 - "Negotiation that leads to a winner and a loser rarely leads to a successful transaction, or another one down the road."
My favorite quotes:
p. 37 - "Indifference to rejection is a fundamental part of being an entrepreneur."
p. 75 - "Always make sure you are getting paid for the risk you take, and never risk what you cannot afford to lose...A scenario that takes four steps instead of one means there are three additional opportunities to fail."
p. 88 - "There's no substitute for limited competition. You can be a genius, but if there's a lot of competition, it won't matter."
p. 108 - "Boards that don't exercise an ownership approach are complicit in poor-performing companies."
p. 136 - "Every day you choose to hold an asset, you are choosing to buy it."
p. 153 - "'We've just always done it that way' is the antithesis of progress."
p. 220 - "Negotiation that leads to a winner and a loser rarely leads to a successful transaction, or another one down the road."
March 28, 2025
Enjoy the beginning of this book, the coup story was interesting. From about 40% onwards I did not enjoy the book I found it self indulgent.
Favourite quote below:
“I’ve said it before and I’ll underscore it here: I am a voracious consumer of information. I have honed my ability to digest a lot of information, sift out what’s potentially relevant, retain it, and then recall it when it’s useful. I read at least five newspapers every day, and five business magazines a week. I remember all of it, or at least everything relevant. I also like to read escapist fiction—mystery novels, spy thrillers—and I go through about one book a week. I usually remember nothing about them. Unless all of a sudden something becomes relevant.”
Favourite quote below:
“I’ve said it before and I’ll underscore it here: I am a voracious consumer of information. I have honed my ability to digest a lot of information, sift out what’s potentially relevant, retain it, and then recall it when it’s useful. I read at least five newspapers every day, and five business magazines a week. I remember all of it, or at least everything relevant. I also like to read escapist fiction—mystery novels, spy thrillers—and I go through about one book a week. I usually remember nothing about them. Unless all of a sudden something becomes relevant.”
May 21, 2023
Forbes article on the Grave Dancer
https://www.forbes.com/sites/morganbr...
I liked the audiobook version read by Sam Zell himself
CFA interview 2017
https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/invest...
Interview by David Rubenstein - Jul 2022
https://youtu.be/ryn5nXFEE8w
1976 article 'The Grave Dancer' -Sam Zell
https://www.samzell.com/wp-content/up...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/morganbr...
I liked the audiobook version read by Sam Zell himself
CFA interview 2017
https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/invest...
Interview by David Rubenstein - Jul 2022
https://youtu.be/ryn5nXFEE8w
1976 article 'The Grave Dancer' -Sam Zell
https://www.samzell.com/wp-content/up...
November 10, 2024
Short and sweet, straight to the point. I was a bit surprised that I have not heard of him sooner. Sam takes you through his journey while at the same time shares how he sees the world from a personal and business perspective. Good and insightful read. I found his personal stories interesting, and the business pointers on-point. I read it across several sittings so I had time to digest some of his wisdom.
March 23, 2025
Some good anecdotes by the colorful real estate and investor Sam Zell.
Good business principles: law of supply and demand, liquidity equals value, go to places with limited competition and auctions, allow employees to coinvest to share risk and success, importance of long term relationships. Always partner with trustworthy people especially in emerging markets.
Good business principles: law of supply and demand, liquidity equals value, go to places with limited competition and auctions, allow employees to coinvest to share risk and success, importance of long term relationships. Always partner with trustworthy people especially in emerging markets.
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