The pursuit of excellence: the making of Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman

One of Stephen Schwarzman’s guiding philosophies is that it is as difficult to achieve big goals as small ones. Therefore, he says, you should “reach for a fantasy worthy of your pursuit”.

For anyone interested in being an entrepreneur and achieving success in business, it’s worth paying attention to the former head of mergers and acquisitions at Lehman Brothers.

Schwarzman is a private equity titan and international political power broker. He has advised US President Donald Trump and other world leaders. He co-founded Blackstone with $200,000 of his own money and another $200,000 of seed money from his business partner, Peter Peterson, former CEO of Lehman Brothers, whom he had worked closely with there.   

Today, Blackstone has more than USD $550 billion of funds under management, 25 offices in all the major continents and employs more than 2,500 people. It is one of the world’s largest landlords, recently buying the iconic Las Vegas hotel and casino, the Bellagio, for several billion dollars.

’Go big’

So, it’s no surprise that when the Blackstone CEO, now 72, came to visit London Business School in October to discuss the key inflection points in an eventful career with LBS Professor of Accounting Florin Vasvari, the lecture theatre was packed.

In a frank interview beforehand, he revealed how unlike his father, who did not aspire for global, national, or even city-wide domination for his small but popular linens and curtains business, he has always taken a “think big” approach.    

Even early on his life, this is how he saw things.

As president of his high school student council, he decided that Little Anthony and the Imperials - at the time, one of the most successful rock bands in the country - should come and perform at the school. 

Fifty years later, he is hazy on the details of how he made that happen. But that band, whose iconic hit Tears on my Pillow was the soundtrack of high school of that era, did indeed perform live at Schwarzman’s alma mater Abington High School in Pennsylvania.

And in his recently published book, What it Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence, already a New York Times bestseller, Schwarzman says he can still hear the music and everyone having a good time.

“If you want something badly enough, you can find a way.”