Rest in peace to Sam Zell. The investment world has plenty of great figures, but this guy was more inspirational to me than anyone else.
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RIP
RIP.
If you haven't read his book I recommend it.
100% agree - it reads better than most investment/entrepreneur books.
Which book are you guys referring to? Would like to read.
Care to give a short summary and why you think it's so much better than others?
He spoke at the University of Hawaii in the early 2000’s and while I was already interested in a real estate career, he inspired me even more.
I remember looking at some EOP spin-off assets and thinking, man this guy had a feel for timing.
His book is great.
RIP Mr. Zell
Damn. RIP to the absolute legend.
RIP to a legend. A lot of people talk about the PERE successes of Blackstone, Brookfield, and the likes. But someone like Zell is a career and life to aspire to. Creating an empire and selling it to another goliath. Had the courage to go straight into entrepreneurship. Truly a legend.
Btw, since we're talking about his book, his most recent interview with David Rubenstein is really good too on YT.
RIP.
Zell’s Angels
RIP Sam Zell, He was at Bloomberg Wall Street week of recent.
Did you guys see the dumbass NYT headline about his death? It's so incredibly asinine. The guy builds an epic business after his family arrives in the US with basically nothing, after escaping the Nazis and this is what they run as a headline...total clowns. Meantime they run fluff pieces on the POS that stole from customers at FTX and Elizabeth Holmes, who knowingly endangered customers with false blood tests!!!
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/18/business/sam-zell-dead.html
"Sam Zell, 81, Tycoon Whose Big Newspaper Venture Went Bust, Dies With a fortune made in real estate, he went into the media business in a landmark leveraged buyout of the Tribune Company in 2007. Bankruptcy ensued."
I am guessing the journalists are butthurt.
They didn't even mention Sam built his business in a time when people were 100% openly antisemitic racist clowns. It is impressive to do what he did...but he did on hard mode. Instead, they just point out ONE TINY TINY TINY thing that went wrong, and in the grand scheme of things...it really is tiny compared to what he built. They talked about the jobs lost in the Tribute BK but what about the blue collar jobs Sam created with his main businesses?
It really bugs me...
Your last sentence is spot on. Poor form from these losers.
It's unfortunate to see how the media landscape has become increasingly untrustworthy and distasteful. The focus on sensationalism and clickbait headlines often overshadows the importance of factual reporting and unbiased journalism. The portrayal of individuals like Sam Zell, reducing his legacy to a failed business venture, is a prime example of the media's tendency to prioritize negative narratives over nuanced storytelling
What part of this obituary did you find to be inaccurate? You twice have made a comment about how the media (presumably the NYT in this case) is "untrustworthy" or ignoring "factual reporting," and yet nothing in this obit seems false. All journalism is biased, so complaining about that is frankly nonsense, and even if you want to say that Mr Zell's obituary should have featured a more ringing endorsement of his real estate career and less focus on his acquisition of the Tribune, that hardly seems like "clickbait". Mr Zell did have a widely publicized acquisition on the Tribune, and as I said above, I'd bet my last dime that most Americans will be far more conversant with that deal than with his sale of EOP. For better or worse, the New York Times is trying to bring in readers, so a headline that mentions his most well known deal is hardly sensational.
People hate business these days
This is just silly
doers (Zell) vs. critics (journalists)
guess whose life will be remembered
To be honest, considering how much he’s done and the level of visibility he had, I’m surprised to see how very few people commented on this post etc.
they should fire that NYT writer. terrible headline. SAM IS THE GOAT! LONG LIVE CAPITALISTS!
Well, the whole saga surrounding his purchase of the Tribune was extremely well covered and was a really big deal at the time. Equity Residential or whatever subsidiary of Zell's empire are extremely successful, but probably not "tip of your tongue" enterprises for the average person. His purchase of the Tribune Company was also a pretty solid case of the kind of vulture capitalism which is (rightly, I think) reviled as parasitic. In any case, the NYT is trying to bring in eyeballs, and talking about the one deal in Mr Zell's life that was probably illuminated to the general American public is a better way of doing that than saying "real estate mogul dies".
While I agree with what you say regarding the fluff pieces on SBF or Elizabeth Holmes, the non-Tribune parts of this obit are pretty "fluffy" as well.
One of my mentors (Dick) was a peer of Zell's. Zell was trying to get him to quit being a real estate lawyer and instead to go be a real estate entrepereneur. For the holidays Zell had someone go to Dick's house and nail an all-black Christmas wreath to the door. Dick said it absolutely ruined the door. Also funny because both Dick and Zell are Jewish. Happy holidays motherf-cker. Yeah, he was not being too subtle.
Delete
RIP to a UMich legend
ayy there's my umich alum. Zell was very involved at umich
RIP he will be missed. I was lucky enough to see him in person at the NYU REIT conference just a couple weeks ago and just finished his book - highly recommended as mentioned above. Definitely inspired me to think bigger and work harder.
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