Sam Zell Quotes
110 Sam Zell Quotes
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All my life I’ve wanted to test my limits.
Sam Zell
Money talks and bulls*t walks.
Sam Zell
Whatever goals you set, you need to constantly readjust them so that at no time do you reach your goals before your time is up.
Sam Zell
When it’s all said and done, the petroleum of the real estate industry has always been capital.
Sam Zell
I have a lot of experience running and managing highly leveraged institutions.
Sam Zell
I’m not a newspaper guy, I’m a businessman.
Sam Zell
All that matters in the end is the bottom line…
Sam Zell
We’ve got to make everybody go for it. I’m going for it, shouldn’t everybody else?
Sam Zell
In the end we live and die by revenue.
Sam Zell
[On his ongoing success] There is one consistent theme, and that is simplicity. I have the ability to simplify a problem and identify a solution.
Sam Zell
Deals work when they have owners.
Sam Zell
I am somebody who has been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to test my limits.
Sam Zell
[On being ‘the grave dancer’] I was dancing on the skeletons of other people’s mistakes.
Sam Zell
Sentimentality of an investment leads to lack of discipline.
Sam Zell
I challenge conventional wisdom and I continually test my limits.
Sam Zell
A tie cuts off the blood supply to the brain.
Sam Zell
[On people always saying they can’t achieve the same things today that Sam Zell has done] The world always looks nigh on impossible from the perspective of a desk. But once you get out into the world and if you have what I would call the entrepreneurial characteristics, I just think this country still provides a very unique opportunity.
Sam Zell
Have you ever heard of Bernie Madoff? The SEC had a 40 page dossier on him in 1999 and nobody picked up a finger.
Sam Zell
You can’t legislate morality.
Sam Zell
The definition of a true partner is someone that shares your risk.
Sam Zell
True entrepreneurs never fail. Sometimes it doesn’t work out, but they never fail.
Sam Zell
[In December 2007] The challenge is, how do we get somebody 126 years old to get it up? I’m your Viagra, OK? That’s the name of the game guys.
Sam Zell
I think it was Confucius who said that ‘money talks and bulls*t walks.’
Sam Zell
I just make money. That’s what I do.
Sam Zell
I am somebody who has been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to test my limits. And I would remind you philosophically that my definition of a fool is somebody who has reached his limits. Almost by definition, whatever goals you set, you need to constantly readjust them so that at no time do you reach your goals before your time is up.
Sam Zell
I’m a guy who has an extraordinarily good time. I’m a guy who really focuses not being anywhere I don’t want to be. And not doing anything I don’t want to do.
Sam Zell
[In early 2008] Probably our toughest year is 2008. It’s going to be a sh*tty year and we’re going to have to do a whole bunch of things to make sure that we don’t get hurt. Number one, it’s manageable. Number two, I have a lot of experience running and managing highly leveraged institutions. And I don’t think this is any different than any of them. I’m not a newspaper guy, I’m a businessman. Therefore all that matters in the end is the bottom line, because as long as we have a bottom line we have a viable newspaper. If we lose the bottom line or erode it significantly, then we’re all going to get buried together. And that ain’t a good deal.
Sam Zell
[Salespeople] ought to look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves, ‘Am I hungry? Do I want to make a lot more money and do I want to work a lot harder?’ If the answer to all those questions is ‘yes,’ they’ve got a great future. If they look in the mirror and say, ‘Gee, I’m an order taker and I don’t really want to work harder and I don’t want to do anything,’ then maybe the outlook is bleak. Because part of what we’ve got to do here is make this company aggressive. We’ve got to make everybody go for it. I’m going for it, shouldn’t everybody else? And particularly a sales force, because in the end we live and die by revenue. And it’s that sales force that we’re depending on the revenue for.
Sam Zell
The grave dancer.
Sam Zell
I like what I do, and society rewards it very highly. Theoretical physicists solve problems, too, but society doesn’t necessarily commend their endeavours so highly.
Sam Zell
[On what he looks for in hiring people] I look for people who in no way, shape, or form can be intimidated. My greatest fear is somebody telling me what they think I might want to hear.
Sam Zell
Deals work when they have owners. There are a lot of good companies that are rapidly turning into bad companies by virtue of inaction, inattention, lack of capital expenditures, and, most important of all, lack of owners. Deals don’t work when in fact the guy calling the shots does not have his proverbial… I guess I was going to say, ‘tit in the wringer,’ but be that as it may, they don’t work.
Sam Zell
[Investment banking advisers are] The people who brought you leprosy now selling you the cure.
Sam Zell
When you have committees, you have to have meetings, when you have meetings you have to have lunch or dinner or both. Businesses are eroding while the lenders are fighting about where we’re going to have lunch next and dealing with investment bankers and the committees.
Sam Zell
We told everyone that our financial objective was to not lose money, and the upside would take care of itself.
Sam Zell
[In July 1991] I clearly have no intention of being a bondholder. If I’m going to make an investment, I’m going to be an owner of equity.
Sam Zell
As an investor, I look at real estate as an area where we’re dealing with hard assets and brick and mortar. There may be a lot of people who get a lot of joy out of virtual assets, but somehow or other, there’s a great deal of comfort that comes from being able to see and touch and understand.
Sam Zell
I’ve been in the real estate business for 40 years and I’ve always been fascinated by its creativity, its evolutions. I probably have been a significant factor in this most recent evolution revolution.
Sam Zell
[On it being supply and demand that makes real estate appreciate, not inflation] That is correct.
Sam Zell
[On the reduction of the amount of REIT’s in America] The process of the survival of the fittest will ultimately prevail…
Sam Zell
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