Sam Zell Quotes

“Risk is the ultimate differentiator. I have always had a deep and complex relationship with it. I am not a reckless person, but taking risks is really the only way to consistently achieve above-average returns—in life as well as in investments. My father proved that when he left Poland. I am probably more comfortable with risk than most people. That's because I do as much as I can to understand it. To me, risk-taking rests on the ability to see all the variables and then identify the ones that will make or break you.”

“I've always believed I am at my best when the scenario around me is at its worst.”

“While I was unaware of it at the time, my real compensation for that job wasn't monetary. It was learning about and getting comfortable with rejection. And as I would later realize, indifference to rejection is a fundamental part of being an entrepreneur.”

“The question is not do you take money out of stocks and put it into real estate, or the reverse. There's so much money out there looking for a home. I don't think it's either/or.”

“I was dancing on the skeletons of other people's mistakes.”

“Liquidity equals value. After years of guaranteeing deals with my own assets, I fully realized this.”

“Listen, business is easy. If you've got a low downside and a big upside, you go do it. If you've got a big downside and a small upside, you run away. The only time you have any work to do is when you have a big downside and a big upside.”

“Conventional wisdom is nothing to me but a reference point. In fact, I believe it can be a horribly debilitating concept.”

“The way I look at transactions, and the way I look at risk, I have no room for sentiment.”

“We're not really in a quote 'credit crunch.' I think what we are in is a 'confidence crunch.' The excess liquidity that existed eight weeks ago still exists today. It has a different risk premium on it, but the actual amount of liquidity has not changed.”

“I fully realized the value of tenacity. I just had to assume there was a way through any obstacle, and then I'd find it. This is perhaps my most fundamental principle of entrepreneurialism, and to success in general.”