I liked the book, but I see why others hates it

This is a very unusual book. Written in a very unusual way. Narrated in a very unusual way too.

It seems that it either is poorly written or that the author tried SOO hard to tell his life story, promote himself, his ventures and disguise it in a book of advice for others that is naturally disjointed. I very well understand why other readers find it confusing. The book contains many short episodes of authors life randomly without strong closure or reason for readers to care. These stories also jumps a lot back and forth in time and it just adds to confusion. More, it also have a slightly different tone, approach and narrators. Almost like a set of favorite stories you would share with different groups like your friends, family or professional circle all put together, but told by two different people. For my personal opinion book does get a lot better throughout the second half and then nose dive again when authors attempts to cover his importance in politics and contributions to education.

At the end it all depends of your expectations. Most people who are interested in this book would be interested to learn authors insights, "know-how" and competitive edge. They are ambitious, eager to learn and have no patience. If you are one of them - this book is not for you! Or just skip to the last chapter.
Others would aim to just learn about the author and in my opinion there are better books about his biography. There are always readers that just want to read something and will find it fantastic. Also the older generation, especially in the US, that can relate to the crisis, cycles of economy and other similar or well known events. They would have a lot in common with the author. The latter will absolutely love this book - I have no doubt!

I liked the book and hope that the author will consider to write a version of it that is striped down to the facts and learning. 100% transparent situations, how to create and deal with them and create opportunities. How exactly he was leveraging deals and economy. Maybe a naive hope, however I foresee it to be all times hit.

7 people found this helpful

Interesting in parts, but far too narcissistic

Having read Ray Dalio’s Principles, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I came across this, which I thought might be similar. I didn’t know much about of Schwarzman himself, though I had heard of Blackstone.

However, I was fairly disappointed with the book for the most part. Don’t get me wrong, some parts are quite interesting - for instance, the background to the Financial Crisis, and he does give some good advice at times. However, although he seems like a genuinely interesting, and creditworthy individual, I found the constant name dropping, ego building, and self-praise nauseating to listen to.

On top of copious self-praise, he also makes asides, which don’t take directly take credit for things, but kind of indirectly imply that credit might be deserved. For instance, I gave advice to Secretary X on what he should do about the economy, the next day the market bottomed out.

Also, although he deserves credit for his charity work - he has donated a lot. Reading about it, I contrasted his approach to philanthropy with Buffet’s. Buffet has donated billions to a Foundation named after someone else, while Schwarzman must have a small town’s worth of buildings named after him at the stage, some of which he only funded a small part of. Even the Schwarzman Scholarship program is only partially funded by him (Dalio alone donated at least a quarter of what Schwarzman himself did), but solely named after him in perpetuity. The detailed descriptions of all those things seemed like simply self-praise. It kind of makes you wonder how much was for charity and how much was to have his name mentioned in the same breath as Rhodes. There’s probably a principle in there on maximising marketing value through leverage.

Maybe I’m not seeing the forest for the trees, but I found this more of a book which listed his achievements, interspersed with good advice and principles rather than the other way round.

An abridged version would be much more valuable, at least to me. The principles themselves are valid, but summarised in a 10 minute segment at the end.

Overall, expected more - a poor man’s Ray Dalio’s Principles.

4 people found this helpful

Highly recommended

I’ve never felt compelled to write a book review before, but Schwarzman’s is worth the time.

2 people found this helpful

Powerful message

Great book, very inspiring character. Schwarzman talks about $40bn dollar deals like they're ten a penny. incredibly inspiring investor with a phenomenal mental endurance. Well worth a read.

2 people found this helpful

Brilliant version of Success!

loved every moment especiallythe final 25 point summary. Highly recommend book for emerging entrepreneurs! self reflection to fix issues. Do not be the victim of your own success maintain humility. Give back to the society. Creating money should not be the only goal...objective should be to create a successful legacy a company that can shine forever

1 person found this helpful

Well written and read - insightful

A very informative book - in parts it may be a little too self congratulatory but that does not take away from the genuine stores and experiences which have been shared

1 person found this helpful

insightful business biography. Highly recommend

Fantastic book, no spoilers here. Just get a copy and be inspired in a legend of stories related to his successes and failures.

1 person found this helpful

another fantastic read

I can't express how magical it is reading biographies of people who've made it and who are just like you. you get to see the start, finish, the success, failures, and lessons along the way. this is invaluable, and coming from a billionaire it's an incredible guide on how to imitate and surpass others. thank you.

Great book

loved it. smooth read. I enjoyed this book thoroughly. its enriching, Monday building and worth the read

out of touch

shockingly bad book about a man celebrating his own achievements for 10hrs. completely out of touch with reality