There is no official motto, but hard work is expected of everyone.
I have already described Blackstone's culture, which reflects the lessons and instincts I absorbed from an early age.
Attempt new things, and attempt them at scale. Rescue those who are struggling. Let the newest hires ask anything. Tolerate no office politics.
Our Monday meetings embody that culture. They are designed to help us see what is emerging anywhere in the world, to connect seemingly unrelated points of information, and to recognize the paradigm shifts that are reshaping markets before others do.
The meetings link our offices around the globe by video. People share what they are seeing in their own markets, in their own industries, in real time. What once occupied only a morning now often runs for most of the day.
A trend that appears in one country will often spread to places where no one yet sees it coming.
Around 2011, we began hearing reports that home shopping was gaining traction in both the United States and China. As I absorbed those reports, I made a simple prediction: If home shopping could take hold in America and China alike, it could take hold anywhere.
Orders placed over the internet have to be shipped from warehouses. As e-commerce expands, the volume of goods in motion expands with it. So we began buying warehouses. Few others had grasped the scale of the opportunity, and the assets were still cheap.
We understood that the home-shopping boom would drive up the value of warehouses across the world. We kept buying, and in time we became the largest private owner of warehouses on earth. The investment was a triumph.
I originally created the Monday meeting so that I could learn new things. Today, however, it has become a master class for everyone who attends.
Anyone can take part and absorb the way we think, not only about risk and opportunity, but about ethics, judgment and values. It allows every employee to share in a common culture.
That culture is reflected in whom we hire. Our acceptance rate for new graduates is 0.24 percent —fewer than one applicant in 400 gets in. We are determined that only people who fit the culture join the firm.
I have no fixed interview questions. I raise meandering topics and watch, above all, the eyes—what I call the windows to the soul. Is this person intelligent and quick? Can they remain composed when confronted with something they know nothing about? Can they carry the moment? In our world, anything can happen. IQ plus EQ: That is the foundation of how we hire.
I am confident in our working environment. When we hire people from outside, I ask them a few months later how they are getting on. Many are moved to say, "This place is amazing. Everyone here wants me to succeed."
"Why wouldn't they?" I reply. "We hired you because we want you to succeed."
Then they usually begin telling me about the backstabbing at their former firms. "At other companies," they say, "someone is always trying to put you down so they can get ahead." Then they add, "That just never happens here. Everyone is so nice."
What we do demand is hard work. In sports, the team that trains hardest wins. We compete in a brutally contested arena, and we intend to be the best in the world.
I know it is unfashionable to say so these days, but there is little room inside Blackstone for abstract debates about "work-life balance."
Your political convictions, the shows you watch, the books you read, the friends you keep—all of that is your own affair. But the fundamental values of the firm—diligence, excellence, meritocracy, openness, integrity and teamwork—are not optional. You must believe in them.
On this point we will never compromise. That discipline also protects the people who work here.
I want them to embrace these values not because I proclaim them, but because they are what it takes to thrive.
If our interview process fails and we hire someone who does not believe in this way of thinking, the other employees quickly sense that something is wrong. What is the matter with this person? Why are they acting this way?
Such a person has no future at Blackstone. Either we ask them to leave, or they become so uncomfortable that they choose to leave on their own.
Blackstone's role in society has never changed: to see that the people who entrust us with their money end up with more of it, and can live richer lives because of it.
Yet we have no corporate motto, and I have never felt the need to write one. All we have is the name. Our people know what it means.