In very short order, we were able to persuade Blackstone to raise its bid to $48.50 a share for a total of $20 billion, plus $16 billion in debt, or … - Sam Zell

So I wrote an article titled “From Cassandra, With Love” and it ran in the March 1988 Real Estate Issues. Cassandra was a character in Greek legend cursed by Apollo with the ability to make accurate predictions that no one believed.

Don’t depend on people unless you understand their motivations and you are confident that your interests align with theirs.

I said, “You’ve got to be able to look at the deal and know what it hinges on to know whether it works or not. If you realize that the key component works, then you use the numbers to test it. You don’t do the numbers to find out eight hours later whether it was worth starting.” I’m sure his IQ was higher than mine. But that isn’t how we operate. You have to be able to effectively assess the initial picture and see where the greatest risk is most likely to be, or you’ll spend your life doing numbers just to find out if a deal will work. And all that time lost is time you could have been looking at other opportunities.