Sam Zell: Composers and Entrepreneurs

Is it possible to learn how to be an entrepreneur?

In our search for excellence, many people want to start their own business – but statistics show that 65.5% of all businesses fail after 10 years .? I had the opportunity to ask Sam Zell – self-made billionaire, grandfather of the modern real estate industry, and one of Forbes’ 100 Greatest Living Business Minds – for his perspective on this topic during our interview last year, and he gave our listeners a nuanced and illuminating answer.

Sam first mentioned that while the low success rate of starting a business should be taken into consideration, the word “failure” does not exist in an entrepreneur’s lexicon.? “If something doesn’t work out,” Sam said, “get up off your ass and try again.”? According to Sam, the real danger isn’t failing – it’s being unrealistic and not knowing when to say “no go.”? This way, you won’t run the risk of finding yourself 10 years down the road with a startup that didn’t work, with the best years of your life wasted on an idea that failed.

Sam Zell also asked us to take a step back and define what an entrepreneur is.? “It’s a big psychological scenario,” he said. “It’s a high level of self-confidence.? It’s an ability to absorb rejection.? It’s an ability to shut off the noise and recognize that conventional wisdom is not necessarily the answer to the problem.? You take all of those things, and you end up with different types of entrepreneurs.”

Sam then told us the story about a contest that he ran at the University of Michigan – the greatest school on earth!.? The competition was the result of him sitting down with the Dean of the Ross School of Business one day in 1979 and coming to the realization that the word “entrepreneur” does not show up even once on any of the school’s syllabi.

Sam didn’t like this and decided to organize a contest where participants would design a syllabus for teaching entrepreneurship at Ross.? Surprisingly, the winner of the contest was a woman who taught music at Wayne State University.? “In order to be an effective composer,” Sam said, “you have to be able to bring together a whole bunch of ideas.? You need to have focus.? You need to be driven.? And maybe composing a piece of music isn’t that different from starting a business.”

I also believe that the values that make a great entrepreneur – work ethic, loyalty, integrity, and attitude – can be taught, and that is why I always make an effort to mentor young people and welcome a class of more than 30 college interns every summer.? If you learn the most important pillars of being a successful entrepreneur, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a music teacher, doctor, or restaurant waiter by background – you can be part of the 35.5% who build enduring businesses 10 years down the line.

This article is based on my interview with Sam Zell , a self-made billionaire with a net worth of more than $5 billion who has been on the Forbes 400 since its first issue in 1982.? Sam is considered one of the grandfathers of the modern real estate investing industry and currently serves as Chairman of seven NYSE-listed companies and of his private investment firm, Equity Group Investments .? Among his many accomplishments, Sam sold Equity Office to Blackstone for $39 billion in 2008, and Forbes has recognized him as one of the 100 Greatest Living Business Minds .? Sam is also the best-selling author of Am I Being Too Subtle? and an active philanthropist with a focus on entrepreneurial education.? Listen to the full episode here .

You may also enjoy other episodes on In Search of Excellence , which can be found on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , Overcast , and YouTube .

Randall Kaplan is a serial entrepreneur, venture capitalist, philanthropist, and podcaster.?He is the founder and CEO of JUMP Investors , a venture capital firm that has invested in more than 80 early-to-late-stage technology companies, including Google, Seagate, and Lyft.?Randall is a Co-Founder of Akamai Technologies , a publicly-traded technology company that has 8,000 employees around the world and earned $3.8 billion in 2022 revenues.?He is also the Founder and CEO of Sandee , the largest provider of information about beaches in the world with over 100 categories of information for more than 100,000 beaches in 212 countries.

Randall is the host of In Search of Excellence , a podcast designed to motivate and inspire others to reach their potential and achieve excellence in all aspects of life.?Randall’s guests have included Mike Tyson , Mark Cuban , Kevin O'Leary , David Solomon , Bob Pittman , Sharon Stone , David Rubenstein , Steve Case , Orlando Bravo , Sammy Hagar , Sam Zell , Rachel Zoe , Tim Draper , Kliff Kingsbury , and Eric Garcetti , among many others.?Randall is also a dedicated philanthropist – he is the founder of The Justice Ball which has raised more than $8 million for a non-profit legal clinic that aids more than 12,000 poor, sick, elderly, and homeless residents of Los Angeles each year, and is the Co-Founder of The Imagine Ball which has raised millions of dollars and is dedicated to ending the cycle of poverty and homelessness in Los Angeles.

Read Randall's full bio at www.randallkaplan.com .