Ronald Perelman Quotes
102 Ronald Perelman Quotes (Ron Perelman Quotes, Ronald Owen Perelman)
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I always believed in the idea of for those to whom much is given, much is required.
Ronald Perelman
I just was fascinated by the dynamics of business.
Ronald Perelman
If you don’t make a decision, a decision will be made for you. And if someone else makes the decision for you, it might not be fixable.
Ronald Perelman
[On the deal that would net him a $1 billion profit.] It was a no-brainer.
Ronald Perelman
I love what I do.
Ronald Perelman
We were always different.
Ronald Perelman
I have always loved business…
Ronald Perelman
We did not buy companies to flip them.
Ronald Perelman
We did not buy companies to push them off the cliff.
Ronald Perelman
We did not buy securities to take a position and engage in greenmail.
Ronald Perelman
We’re managers, not financial manipulators.
Ronald Perelman
No guts, no glory.
Ronald Perelman
Happiness is a positive cash flow.
Ronald Perelman
I believe that it’s my obligation to give back and to follow the rules that were set.
Ronald Perelman
I don’t work on Shabbos. I don’t answer the phone on Shabbos… I won’t drive on Shabbos.
Ronald Perelman
I truly believe that I am placed where I’m intended to be placed…
Ronald Perelman
I have to take the opportunity and make good of it…
Ronald Perelman
[In 1993] My two biggest failures have been in dealing with the press and in dealing with the social community.
Ronald Perelman
The concept of a ‘hostile transaction’ is really a misnomer. Because you can’t buy something unless the owner wants to sell it.
Ronald Perelman
[On Wal-Mart in 2011] They have made, single-handedly, America more efficient.
Ronald Perelman
[In 1985 on the Revlon takeover] I can put my hands on $2 billion and I am going to spend it.
Ronald Perelman
Once we’re inside the company, then we’ll be able to look carefully at all the assets.
Ronald Perelman
I think the price is a fair one for shareholders, and a fair one for us.
Ronald Perelman
[In 1985] I think we’ve defined a strategy of seeking out companies with certain basic common characteristics. They’re all basic cash-flow generators, where the cash flow is free from fad, fashion, or styles… We won’t look at fashion companies. We won’t look at retailing chains like Macy’s. We won’t look at anything that’s high-tech-oriented or fad-oriented.
Ronald Perelman
[On talking to the public about himself in 1985] I don’t know. These get harder every time I do them. I don’t know why.
Ronald Perelman
[On his father saying ‘We both need each other’] I need him more than he needs me.
Ronald Perelman
[On his father saying to him ‘You’re bald’ when his father was also bald.] How did that happen?
Ronald Perelman
[In 2011 on his father Raymond aged 94 when he was aged 68] His mind is as agile as it ever was. Now, if he’d get a f*cking hearing aid, he’d be 100% perfect.
Ronald Perelman
[On his father] He never said no to me about going with him to a meeting or to a factory or to an activity that related to business. So from a very early age I was exposed to this stuff. And then when I graduated from [college] I got engaged. At that point, during graduate school, I was working nights for him.
Ronald Perelman
I worked for him [his father] until about 30 years ago when I had the title of executive vice president and chief operating officer, and I said to him, ‘I want president and chief operating officer.’ And he said, ‘No.’ And I said, ‘Well, then I’m going to go off on my own.’ He said, ‘Okay.’
Ronald Perelman
[On his father] The only time he would really get pissed off at me is if I didn’t make decisions.
Ronald Perelman
[After losing money in a fire due to arson.] I’ve always made sure we’re insured.
Ronald Perelman
[On his father saying ‘I didn’t want him to be [promoted to] president – he was too young. I think he was 24…’] I was 34!
Ronald Perelman
[On one of his first deals going out on his own at age 34 buying a jewelry company – Cohen-Hatfield.] They had three businesses. One was like 15 stores and malls called Hatfield’s [with] a wholesale business and lease departments at primarily Wal-Mart. I didn’t want to be in the jewelry business. So the first thing I did was sell the mall retail stores to People’s Drug in Toronto, Canada. So I sold that, and the day it was announced in the Wall Street Journal I got a call from Sam Walton. And he said, ‘This is Mr. Sam, I understand you just bought my lease departments.’ I said, ‘Yes, sir, I did.’ He said, ‘I’d like to meet you.’ So I said, ‘Sure, when would be convenient?’ So he says, ‘How about tomorrow morning?’ So I flew out to Arkansas, and we had breakfast at his Holiday Inn. And we got along very, very well. And I met him probably a dozen other times while we owned the stores. They were a profitable sector. And he said to me one day at a meeting, ‘I know you want to get out of this business one day. When you’re ready, call me up.’ So a few months later I called him up, and it just worked beautifully. That investment created my relationship with Wal-Mart. And from that we have been very, very close. Today they’re 40% of our business. Department stores are zero. And they’ve just been the greatest partner in the world. They have made, single-handedly, America more efficient.
Ronald Perelman
[On doing the deal to buy MacAndrews & Forbes] We had lunch, and it’s this inconclusive meeting. So I walk him halfway back to his office, and I open up my jacket, and I give him a check—a certified check for what I was willing to pay for the stock. And he took it, and he looked at it, and he said, ‘I’ll call you back in 15 minutes.’ He called me back in 15 minutes and said, ‘We got a deal.’
Ronald Perelman
[On philanthropy] I learned from a very early age watching my parents. And hearing from them how important it is to give back to the community. And I saw them do that.
Ronald Perelman
[On the type of giving he and his father do] We both shy away from large structural organizations like the United Fund or where so much of the money is eaten up in overhead.
Ronald Perelman
[On charity] We like to do stuff where the money will get used for what it’s intended.
Ronald Perelman
If I’m gonna be a Jew, I’m gonna be a Jew.
Ronald Perelman
[On why he’s so religious] As I grew, it became very clear to me that what I do, I am not doing alone. I am placed in situations with opportunities in those situations that others are not. I don’t believe that that is happenstance. I believe that there is a God that has a plan for me. And, you know, why did I get some of the things I got and other people didn’t? Some of it, it was just - I walked in on the guy at the right moment, and the day before he wouldn’t have done anything, and that day, you know, he got something from his wife, and he was feeling good or something. And so I believe that God plays this enormous role in my life. And I believe that it’s my obligation to give back and to follow the rules that were set. And it also gives me an enormous sense of my own place and an enormous sense of stability. And I don’t work on Shabbos. I don’t answer the phone on Shabbos… I won’t drive on Shabbos. I won’t do it, you know? And [my wife] says that ‘That is an amazing thing for you. Because it cuts off the 300 phone calls you get a day and people come to you with -nobody comes to you with good stuff; it’s always a problem.’ It allows me to just spend the day with my family and sleep and relax and get reinvigorated. And she said, ‘That is clearly the purpose of it—I can see it in you.’ But I truly believe that I am placed where I’m intended to be placed, not my doing. Now, I have to take the opportunity and make good of it, but I am given the opportunity, [it’s] not created.
Ronald Perelman
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