Richard Rainwater Quotes
101 Richard Rainwater Quotes
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[On funding one hundred charity programs] Doing this, I could live the rest of my life getting up in the morning and saying, ‘Boy, I’ve really go something I’ve really got something worthwhile to do today.’
Richard Rainwater
It’s not always easy. Sometimes people aren’t convinced. I always felt I was doing the right thing, but they didn’t, necessarily. I would sit there looking at these industries and realize that other people were seeing the same thing, but that they were frozen. People with the same level of knowledge and used to the industry, with chaos raining down on them, being crushed or frozen. After they had spent years being wrecked, they became despondent and didn’t want to leave the office. I would arrive with an idea and sometimes they didn’t want to do it or sometimes they would oppose it. But once I’ve determined what to do, I go forward. I fight despair with facts, and overcome greed by being generous.
Richard Rainwater
Once I’ve determined what to do, I go forward. I fight despair with facts, and overcome greed by being generous.
Richard Rainwater
Capitalism works in spite of ideology. You can have an intrusive government, like Singapore, or else a laissez-faire government, like Hong Kong. It shouldn’t make a difference. If the entrepreneurs do their work, the whole economy will prosper.
Richard Rainwater
Sometimes chaos can be fatal. But sometimes it is just a temporary disruption. I thought perhaps that I could be the phoenix that would help a business rise from the ashes. I was trained as a physicist, and so I was able to analyze thoroughly.
Richard Rainwater
[On his objective] Rejuvenating, resurrecting, or putting a company back on its feet.
Richard Rainwater
[In 2000 if he was starting today and becoming interested in the internet and telecommunications] I’d get four or five really smart guys, take an office in Palo Alto, and be funding companies in those industries.
Richard Rainwater
[On buying cheap oil and gas companies in 1991] You have to find them before they disintegrate.
Richard Rainwater
[On turning a $16 million stake into about $200 million in stock in the Hospital Corporation of America deal] The net experience is fun, and the tendency is to want to do it more.
Richard Rainwater
I want to help make TAB the most profitable and admired bank in the Southwest. It is a great organization, with a great reputation, and you are great bankers. But, with this affiliation, you’ll have opportunities you’ve never had before. We’ll accelerate your growth and improve your profitability.
Richard Rainwater
This will be a partnership, modeled after the partnership we forged between the Basses and Mike Eisner and his team at Disney. I believe that the people who make things happen, who achieve the results, should share in the benefits. I want to increase the stock ownership plans so all of you have a greater stake in the results, so if the company wins, management wins.
Richard Rainwater
[On why he didn’t just pack it in and ‘go to the ranch’] This is my ranch, it’s my Riviera. My work is my hobby and my vacation. It’s what I enjoy doing and I wouldn’t be happy doing anything else.
Richard Rainwater
I knew dealing with the government was a mistake.
Richard Rainwater
I traditionally don’t get into business with people I’m not athletically as good as.
Richard Rainwater
I believe you can live the lives that your kids live, or you can choose not to. You can choose not to know their friends. You can choose not to go to their sporting events or choose not to know what kind of homework they are doing. As a parent, you can choose to live pretty remotely from them. I happen to have coached my kids’ teams. I found out that there were probably half of the parents that never came to a practice, or to a game.
Richard Rainwater
My mother sat down with me every single night and said, ‘Let me see your homework. What did you do? So I grew up with the pattern of being attached and I continue to follow that example.
Richard Rainwater
I think kids understand parents that love and care for them can’t always be with them all the time. There are parents that have to work.
Richard Rainwater
A lot of times life was a struggle… The issue is feeling good about what you’re doing each day.
Richard Rainwater
You don’t know what you’re getting into. I’ll tell you what, come sit in my office and watch what I do and you’ll learn. Just show up any time, spend the day with me, whenever you want.
Richard Rainwater
If you can’t pencil it out on the back of an envelope it’s isn’t worth doing.
Richard Rainwater
If it takes spreadsheets and computer programs…. You shouldn’t do it. If you can’t pencil it out in six lines on the back of an envelope… forget about it.
Richard Rainwater
[In December 2005] I'm long oil and I'm liquid. I've put myself in a position that if the end of the world came tomorrow I'd kind of be prepared.
Richard Rainwater
This is a nonrecurring event. The 101-year flood in Houston real estate was one, the ability to buy oil and gas really cheap was another, and now there's the opportunity to do something based on a shortage of natural resources. Can you make money? Well, yeah. One way is to just stay long domestic oil. But there may be something more important than making money. This is the first scenario I've seen where I question the survivability of mankind. I don't want the world to wake up one day and say, 'How come some doofus billionaire in Texas made all this money by being aware of this, and why didn't someone tell us?
Richard Rainwater
I promise I am not a kook.
Richard Rainwater
You saw me get into oil ten years ago…
Richard Rainwater
But I'm on the edge of being so old that it doesn't matter anymore. I've won the heavyweight championship before. Instead of taking one more swing, maybe I should just retire a winner.
Richard Rainwater
[In 1996] We are on the doorstep of what I consider another golden era. The world has underestimated the balance between supply and demand
Richard Rainwater
I watched oil fields reach peak and go over…
Richard Rainwater
[In 2005] In 1988 there were 15 million barrels a day of shut-in production [(surplus oil that could be tapped)] and the world was using about 55 million barrels of oil. Today the world is using over 80 million, and there's no shut-in production left. We've used it up, through the combination of depletion and growth.
Richard Rainwater
[In 2005] The world as we know it is unwinding with respect to Social Security, pensions, Medicare. We're going to have dramatically increased taxes in the U.S. I believe we're going into a world where there's going to be more hostility. More people are going to be asking, 'Why did God do this to us?' Whatever God they worship.
Richard Rainwater
Everyone who has achieved something, scientists, ballplayers, thinks they were given their talent for a reason.
Richard Rainwater
Of all the businesses you’ve looked at what’s the best one and why?
Richard Rainwater
$50 million to your kids is too much.
Richard Rainwater
[On learning investing from Warren Buffett, Charles Allen and Benjamin Graham] I realized I did not know what I was doing. I needed to have some methodology.
Richard Rainwater
[On insisting he has never engaged in greenmail] I am personally offended by the charge.
Richard Rainwater
It made sense that when you went home at night, your net worth was tied up in the company.
Richard Rainwater
[On Stauchbach] 'I would do anything to help him, even if we had not struck a business deal. Now I'll profit from a transaction I wasn't seeking to profit from.
Richard Rainwater
[On him going to Stanford Business school after studying maths and physics] It was like being in a laboratory studying things, then predicting an outcome. Then, unlike a scientist who simply writes a paper and gets a pat on the back, you get paid a lot of money for predicting in business.
Richard Rainwater
America had the luxurious position of plundering the world. Now everyone is in the race for the same materials. This has ramifications that will transform your investment portfolio - for good if you get it right, for bad if you get it wrong.
Richard Rainwater
[In 2001] The telecom industry has blown up. I'm trying to figure it out. I'm talking to experts. I'm talking to CEOs. I'm talking to investors. I'm reading all I can
Richard Rainwater
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