Episode description

David Rubenstein grew up in a modest, blue-collar home in Northwest Baltimore.  He never considered himself a brilliant student or excellent athlete, but he did believe that hard work leads to success.  This drive and work ethic paid off, and today, David is a billionaire businessman and a member of the Forbes 400 list. 

David’s journey has taken him from humble beginnings in Baltimore, MD, to Duke University, Chicago Law School, and a job as a white house staffer, to eventually co-founding one of the largest private equity firms in the world, the Carlyle Group.

David and Randall talk about David’s career journey, his passion for philanthropy, the struggles he overcame when starting a business, three past investment mistakes, the skills necessary to become a leader, investment strategy, parenting, and much more. 

Topics Include:
- How to create your own luck
- Education, the investment no one can take from you
- The “biological clock” for entrepreneurs
- The beginnings of the Carlyle group
- Patriotic philanthropy
- The American Dream
- The challenges of parenting
- Lessons from investment “mistakes”
- Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and NFTs
- David’s three-part philosophy on life
- And other topics…

David Rubenstein is a Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest and most successful private investment firms. He is the author of several books, including The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians (2019), How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers (2020), and The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream (2021).  David is also the host of The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations on Bloomberg TV and PBS. 

David is an active philanthropist and serves on the board of many organizations, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Council on Foreign Relations, The Brookings Institution, Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts, and more. 

David graduated magna cum laude from Duke University, where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa.  David went on to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review.

Resources Mentioned:
The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians
How to Lead: Wisdom from the World's Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers
The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream

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