#367 Inside the Contrarian Mind of Sam Zell

One of the craziest things that has happened as a result of the podcast is a few years ago, I read Sam Zell's autobiography, and then I made an episode on what I learned from reading Sam Zell's autobiography. And Sam Zell listened to the episode that is about his autobiography and asked to meet me as a result. And in that autobiography, he talks about the impact that his partner, Bob, had on him. And here's one of the stories from his autobiography. It says Bob was extremely frugal and watched every single nickel in our business. Bob was constantly on the lookout for anything that could be reused. He used to walk into somebody's office and while talking, would casually rummage through the person's trash can. He would take out stacks of papers that still had paperclips on them, all while continuing his conversation as though nothing out of the ordinary was occurring. Bob would then just pull those paper clips off, hand them back to the employee, conclude the conversation, and walk out. This is a trait that Bob and Sam shared. In this book, there's a quote that says, in a trademark Zelle move, he focused on aggressive internal cost controls. I spend a ton of time reviewing all the lessons that you and I are learning from this podcast, so I reread old highlights, notes. I search through transcripts. I've even built an AI assistant called Sage that helps me do this. And so this week, I was asking, Sage, why do you think history's greatest entrepreneurs are obsessed with this? Why are they all obsessed with controlling their costs, with watching their expenses? I mean, look at this. Look at the story that Sam just told us. His partner's walking in and rummaging through the trash can. He is not the only one that is reusing paperclips. That story has been told in another book called the invisible billionaire, which is about this guy named Daniel Ludwig, who at one point was the richest man in the world. And there's a story in that biography where Daniel's chastising his employees for wasting money by sending paperclips through the mail. And so I think this concise summary that was made by my AI assistant is a really good explanation of why this theme reoccurs throughout the history of entrepreneurs. And it says diligent cost management is not just a tactical choice, but a strategic imperative that underpins sustainable growth, competitive pricing, and long term resilience, Whether the focus is on frugality, waste prevention, or the avoidance of unnecessary expenses, the outcome is the same, enhancing value for customers and stakeholders alike. I thought that summary was so good. I just texted it to my friend, Eric. Eric is the cofounder and CEO of Ramp, and Ramp is now a partner of this podcast. I've gotten to know all the cofounders of Ramp, and I've spent a ton of time with them over the last year …