Sam Zell: Billionaire Real Estate Investor
Business is not a battle to be waged. It’s a puzzle to be solved. ~Sam Zell Sam Zell was a Chicago-based investor in real estate and troubled assets. He was known for successful business turnarounds and his direct style of communicating. Sometimes he ended his verbal messages with a question: “Am I being too subtle?” Hence the title for his autobiography. Sam has an embedded sense of urgency. STAYING INFORMED Readers learn about the period prior to Sam’s birth when his parents were forced to leave Poland at the beginning of World War II. His parents, Bernard and Rochelle, were multi-lingual and intellectually curious. While many of their relatives and neighbors were content to consume local news from the Polish authorities, Sam’s parents read newspapers from Germany, France, Switzerland, and other nations where signs of war were brewing. Their curiosity about the world around them meant that they were well informed before the fall of Poland. Zell’s parents and his older sister, Julie, left Poland just hours before Germany bombed the railroad tracks and marched in. VOYAGE to AMERICA During the journey to America, Rochelle learned that she was pregnant with Sam. The year was 1941. Traveling from Europe to America meant several stops along the way, always avoiding the shadow of the Nazis. The family passed through Russia, Japan, and Curaçao before arriving in Seattle, WA, USA. Bernard had been a grain merchant in Poland. He saw the centrally-located city of Chicago as a natural place to continue his profession. The family relocated to Chicago, and Sam was born there on Sept 28, 1941. Bernard’s and Rochelle’s insatiable curiosity was passed on to their son, Sam. After the family moved to the northern suburbs, Sam continued to take the train into the city, officially for school, but mainly to explore. As a pre-teen, he discovered that certain magazines were in demand among his north suburban friends. He purchased the mags for fifty cents each in the city, and sold them for three bucks in Highland Park. At age twelve, Sam had discovered arbitrage.