00:00I want the $10 plaque that was behind your desk that said if we're all going to eat, someone has
00:07to sell.
00:08Because when I was like 20 years old, looked at that plaque, it was like a wake-up moment.
00:13Like, of all the things that this man could have around him, he's got like this cheesy $10 plaque that
00:19says if we're all going to eat, someone has to sell.
00:22And it speaks to the importance of what it takes to build a business.
00:26Because you're always selling. You're selling to candidates, you're selling to vendors, you're selling to counterparties, you're selling to customers.
00:35And you just have to get comfortable with the fact that if you're always selling, you know what you're going
00:41to hear a lot?
00:44No. Not going to do that. Not interested. No interest.
00:48You know, in 1994, I was in Switzerland. We'd had a rough year in 1994. We lost about 4%
00:53of our capital in 1994.
00:55It was one of our only losing years in the history of the firm.
00:57And I'm in Switzerland. I mean, it was a rough day.
01:00My lunch, my lunch, I sat down to lunch. This person sits down.
01:06Oh, you're not John Griffin?
01:08No, I'm Ken Griffin.
01:09He goes, oh, I thought you were John Griffin from Fenchurch, another firm.
01:13He goes, I got to go.
01:15I'm like, great.
01:17I flew all the way to Switzerland for my lunch date to get up and leave the table.
01:21And then around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, I was with another Swiss banker and we're in his office.
01:26His office was like almost the square footage of the stage.
01:31Beautiful furniture.
01:32He goes, do you mind if I smoke?
01:34He takes on a big cigar.
01:35He's smoking this cigar.
01:36And we're talking for about 45 minutes.
01:40It's such a pity that such a bright young man just picked the wrong career.
01:47Like, well, that's the most graceful no I've gotten today.
01:51But you just have to tolerate.
01:54You're going to hear no a lot.
01:56But you need to become accustomed to having to market your ideas.
02:01And market what you represent and what you stand for.
02:04Again, whether it's the people that you want to have work for you or people who are trying to give
02:07you capital or customers.
02:08You need to get comfortable with the art of selling.
Comments