Tony James

And so people often accuse me of no matter what they say, arguing the other side, there's some truth to that, but there's a reason for it.

Right.

There are times when I feel like there's something in investing, there's something that's not on the page.

You've got to have a feel.

You know, we kind of talk about seeing around the corners a little bit.

And partly that's

the partner and his conviction.

Partly it's my own gut, even though it's not provable.

Partly it's the process becomes a little unfair sometimes because someone gets on something, if there's a mistake or there's something, and they just stay on it, and the whole committee kind of loses momentum.

So definitely there were times I put my finger on the scale to level that out for sure.

And I'm sure there were plenty of times when it went the other way.

Yep.

But that's kind of what you, you know, you're more than just a referee.

But I really felt strongly that it's a collective decision.

So when I put my finger on the scale, it wasn't that I was deciding.

I had to get the other people there.

And I just think groups make, especially in investing, makes better decisions than any one individual.

And Blackstone came from a lot of, as I say, independent, talented people that wouldn't challenge each other, wouldn't even do the work to look at someone else's deal.

One CIO that was a very smart guy, but a bottleneck.

I do, and I do.