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The Tim Ferriss Show

#407: Sam Zell — Strategies for High-Stakes Investing and Dealmaking

The Tim Ferriss Show

Tim Ferriss: Bestselling Author, Human Guinea Pig

Lifestyle Design, Business, The 4-hour Workweek, Productivity, Timothy Ferriss Show, Startups, Tim Ferris, Entrepreneurship, Longform Interviews, Tools Of Titans, Timothy Ferriss, The Tim Ferriss Show, Tim Ferriss

4.617.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2020

⏱️ 127 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“If I can't run it, then I don't want to own it.” — Sam Zell

Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is my job to sit down with world-class performers of all different types to tease out the habits, routines, favorite books, and so on that you can apply and test in your own life. This time, we have a slightly different episode. I will not be the one doing the deconstructing. Instead, we have a takeover by my very good friend, Peter Attia.

As longtime listeners of the podcast know, Dr. Peter Attia (@PeterAttiaMD) is a former ultra-endurance athlete, a compulsive self-experimenter, and one of the most fascinating human beings I know. He is also one of my go-to doctors for anything related to performance or longevity. Peter also hosts The Drive, a weekly, ultra-deep-dive podcast focusing on maximizing health, longevity, critical thinking, and a few other things. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In this episode, we have Peter interviewing Sam Zell, a legendary dealmaker and investor. Sam is the Chairman of Equity Group Investments, and he was recognized by Forbes as one of the "100 Greatest Living Business Minds" in 2017. He holds a place on New York Stock Exchange's "Wall of Innovators" for his role in building the $1 trillion REIT industry. Sam is also the author of Am I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel

This is one not to miss.

Please enjoy!

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This episode is brought to you by FreshBooks. I’ve been talking about FreshBooks — an all-in-one invoicing+payments+accounting solution — for years now. Many entrepreneurs, as well as the contractors and freelancers that I work with, use it all the time.

FreshBooks makes it super easy to track things like expenses, project time, and client info, and then merge it all into great-looking invoices. FreshBooks can save users up to 200 hours a year on accounting and bookkeeping tasks. Right now FreshBooks is offering my listeners a free 30-day trial, and no credit card is required. Go to FreshBooks.com/tim and enter “Tim Ferriss” in the “How did you hear about us?” section!

***

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

optimal minimal.

0:02.0

At this altitude I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking.

0:06.1

Can I ask you a question?

0:08.1

Now I just sit in the book and time.

0:10.1

What if I did the hourglass?

0:12.1

I'm a cybernetic organism living this show on metal-hinted sculler.

0:16.1

Lee, Tim, Paris, show.

0:24.5

This episode is brought to you by Fresh Books, long-time listeners.

0:28.0

This podcast know that I've been talking about Fresh Books.

0:30.5

For years it's the all-in-one invoicing payments and accounting solution.

0:35.3

It came out because I was doing a revision of the four-hour work week for 2009 looking at new software solutions that could help people, help my readers.

0:44.3

And Fresh Books came up over and over and over again.

0:48.0

Many entrepreneurs as well as contractors and freelancers I work with all the time use Fresh Books more and more every day.

0:54.5

Why is that?

0:55.5

Well most people, especially entrepreneurs, business builders, hate wasting time doing things inefficiently.

1:01.5

Painful invoicing with different cobbled-together solutions including word or Excel can fall into that category.

1:07.5

If you want to avoid that pain what can you do?

1:09.5

Give Fresh Books a try.

1:11.0

Fresh Books is a accounting software that makes invoicing and other bookkeeping tasks so easy you can save up to 200 hours per year.

1:17.5

That's a lot of hours.

1:18.5

Here's how it makes running your business easier.

1:20.5

You can automate bank reconciliation in just a few clicks.

...

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