Richard Rainwater Profile
Here’s one of the great American dealmakers.
Here is a tribute to one of the great deal-makers of the past 100 years, Richard Rainwater. He’s a self-made billionaire who has been described as a real life version of a Horatio Alger story. He is given credit for saving a number of large American companies including Disney and, Columbia/HCA (health care), Mesa and Ensco (energy) and Crescent (real estate). David Bonderman of Texas Pacific Group shared this story on CNBC:
“….Richard is a world class character in addition to being a great investor. I remember they had just done the Disney deal….maybe the best deal done by anybody. Right after that Richard is going San Diego to meet with the head of the then nascent computer company which he thought about making an investment in. He didn’t own a suitcase, so he took all his clothes in a paper bag. And he tells this guy who is the CEO of some computer company he’s going to meet at baggage claim and he’ll be the guy carrying a paper bag. So Richard shows up to negotiate this multimillion dollar deal, which is a lot of money in those days, carrying his toothpaste and socks and underwear in a paper bag which he got from the Safeway.”
Deal-making is one of those professions you can get into without a lot of startup capital. You mainly need a healthy dose of chutzpah and the patience to prove yourself with small deals at the beginning. The Tycoon Playbook covers the details.
Richard Rainwater’s “Art of the Deal”
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