Richard Rainwater Quotes

101 Richard Rainwater Quotes

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Most people invest and then sit around worrying what the next blowup will be, I do the opposite. I wait for the blowup, then invest.
Richard Rainwater

You get paid a lot of money for predicting in business.
Richard Rainwater

Once I’ve determined what to do, I go forward.
Richard Rainwater

Capitalism works in spite of ideology.
Richard Rainwater

To succeed… you have to be obsessed. You need to be engaged: to talk boards into things, to hire the right people, to convince your backers.
Richard Rainwater

Timing is everything.
Richard Rainwater

[On Darla Moore] She's the best investment I've ever made.
Richard Rainwater

I liked to compete in the classroom.
Richard Rainwater

I would go back and understand the elements behind the chaos that I had profited from.
Richard Rainwater

I always felt I was doing the right thing…
Richard Rainwater



If the entrepreneurs do their work, the whole economy will prosper.
Richard Rainwater

I believe that the people who make things happen, who achieve the results, should share in the benefits.
Richard Rainwater

My work is my hobby and my vacation.
Richard Rainwater

Trying your best which doesn’t mean being perfect.
Richard Rainwater

If you’re going to invest in anything, don’t do it unless the partners in the deal have a superstar track record. Go with the team, not the concept.
Richard Rainwater

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

[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.
Richard Rainwater

Each of us has his weakness, and each has a strength.
Richard Rainwater

I don’t feel like it’s in anybody’s interest to take themselves and life so seriously that they can’t have fun.
Richard Rainwater

This is what I think it’s worth and I’ll put in X.
Richard Rainwater



[His 89 year old father to him on his deathbed] He asked ‘Are you doing with your life what you want to do? Because next thing you know, you’ll be in bed like I am.’
Richard Rainwater

[In 2001] I'm never right on my timing. It's pitiful. Macro it's wonderful, micro it sucks.
Richard Rainwater

America had the luxurious position of plundering the world. Now everyone is in the race for the same materials.
Richard Rainwater

When I see a unique and remarkable opportunity, I commit quickly and I invest heavily…
Richard Rainwater

The capitalist system is a beautiful thing.
Richard Rainwater

I believe you can live the lives that your kids live, or you can choose not to.
Richard Rainwater

You can choose not to go to their sporting events or choose not to know what kind of homework they are doing.
Richard Rainwater

As a parent, you can choose to live pretty remotely from them.
Richard Rainwater

[On golf] It takes lots of time, it’s difficult, there’s a great deal to learn, and the relationship with the other people is fun.
Richard Rainwater

I just hit a 250-yard drive. Don’t tell me to hit 300 yards this time.
Richard Rainwater



Some people, after eighteen holes, play another nine holes if there’s time. It makes you feel better.
Richard Rainwater

[On what sea animal he would like to be] A dolphin. An arrogant mammal in the sea just having a good time.
Richard Rainwater

I was a relatively smart kid. I liked to compete in the classroom. So, even after I had my pot of gold, I didn’t stop analyzing. I would go back and understand the elements behind the chaos that I had profited from.
Richard Rainwater

[On his interesting name] It’s German.
Richard Rainwater

[On his partner-wife Darla Dee Moore] I think of you like an equity investment.
I view you like an equity investment.
Richard Rainwater

[On popping into Goldman Sachs in 1968 just after graduation without an appointment] I’ve done well in school. Gotten essentially all A’s. For me, working for Goldman Sachs could be the next step in living the American Dream.
Richard Rainwater

What has always struck me as odd is that if you look at corporations, even corporations that began as family businesses, the way they promote people is based on skill, not bloodlines. But most families continue to make the decisions on who will manage the fortune based on bloodlines. That didn’t make sense to me or the Basses.
Richard Rainwater

Once there were five hundred mutual funds and five thousand drilling rigs. Now it’s the reverse.
Richard Rainwater

[In 1995] The world will be chasing hydrocarbons for the next ten or twenty years.
Richard Rainwater

[In 1998] There’s no telling how much money I could make going out and doing deals right now. I’ve never had so much liquidity at such a time of great opportunity – and had so little interest. I just don’t feel the obsession or the passion to go out and do another deal or create another company… after thirty years, I’m out of the deal business.
Richard Rainwater



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