James Altucher had another great podcast recently with the owner and founder of the Carlyle Group, David Rubenstein.
The Carlyle group is one of the largest private equity groups in the world.
He worked for president carter until carter was no longer president. He struggled with his career after he left the white house. He tried to become a full-time lawyer after he left the white house, but he wasn’t good at it.
He kept on reiterating that it is easy to go to work when you enjoy what you are doing.
That is key to having a successful career. You have to enjoy your career.
Looks at life in thirds
He said the key is not having massive success in the first third of your life but in the 2nd and last third of your life. You should spend the first third of your life learning and facing adversity.
He Had A Vision
He said that he came up with the idea for building a private equity firm from reading the newspaper. He read about a leveraged buyout and said that after that he wanted to start his own firm. He didn’t know anything about leverage buyouts, but he just pursued his vision. This is common among really successful business people. They make up their minds and pursue their goals relentlessly.
They don’t worry about limitations or not being an expert. They stick to their guns and don’t accept anything than the best.
Adversity that he faced
In this podcast, David didn’t talk about that much adversity, but he did talk about how he went to school for law but was unclear about what to pursue after he found out that he wasn’t good at being a lawyer. He didn’t give up on his pursuit of success though. He quickly found out something that he wanted to pursue (private equity) and pivoted towards that. He wasn’t worried that he didn’t have any experience in the field that he wanted to pursue.
This is key to anyone trying to pursue their dreams. Don’t worry that you don’t have experience. If you are sure you that you want to pursue something, go ahead and pursue and let the details fall into place later.
Started a truly unique business
His firm wasn’t the first private equity firm but it was the first private equity firm that was run more like a mutual fund. Before the Carlyle group private equity funds were small and invested all of the money they took in, so they were more like mom and pop investment shops. Since he centralized all the back office operations, he was able to grow a large fund without worrying about maintaining individualized funds with different investment motives.
David recognized that his idea was not the most earth shattering, but it was something that the private equity market had never seen.
That’s something that you can use to your advantage. If you are thinking about entering an industry, then try to do something novel or something that customers want but do not exist yet. Don’t just try to do the same thing that everyone else does.
Contemplates The Inevitability of Death
Another perspective that David has that is common with other successful people is that he knows he will die. Many unsuccessful people don’t think about death and the time they have left on this earth. Since they don’t look at how much time they have on this earth, they are ok wasting their time and their life. If you want to be successful, don’t take your time on this earth for granted. Be grateful for the time you have and start maximizing your time. One of the ways that David is maximizing his time is by focusing on philanthropy which I speak more about below.
Philanthropy
David Rubenstein is also very involved with philanthropy. He said it is one of his main focuses now that he is towards the end of his life.
How to persuade people
David Rubenstein believes that it is important to persuade people and that there 3 ways to persuade people. You can persuade people by:
1. Leading by example
2. Writing
3. Speaking
In order to persuade people, you should focus on one of these areas and improve it. You should focus on the area where you are already the strongest unless your job or career requires you to focus on other areas.
