Blackstone Group Inc. co-founder and philanthropist Stephen A. Schwarzman will share the life lessons he has learned — beginning with his days folding handkerchiefs in his father's linen shop in Philadelphia to his more than three decades running a global money management firm — in his new book "What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence," which will be published Sept. 17 by Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster.
Mr. Schwarzman, currently the chairman and CEO of the alternative money management giant he co-founded in 1985, explores his formative years from childhood to his years at Yale University and Harvard Business School to his early years in finance, where he became "accustomed to the cutthroat, winner-take-all culture of New York's financial elite," according to a news release announcing the book's impending publication.
"My career has taken me around the globe and afforded me the opportunity to interact with everyone from students to CEOs, heads of state, policymakers and leading philanthropists," Mr. Schwarzman said. "Over the years, the frequency of these conversations has increased, and I find myself answering the same questions about 'how I did it' — how I built Blackstone into what it is today."
Aside from exploring the history of Blackstone Group — both how the company capitalized on its successes and learned from its mistakes — Mr. Schwarzman writes about his years donating more than $1 billion to various philanthropic causes. Highlights include his creation of the Schwarzman Scholars program at Tsinghua University in Beijing and a $350 million grant to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study artificial intelligence.
