If you haven’t come across the incredible story of Stephen A. Schwarzman, you will want to pay attention. Last year Steve made fifty-three on the list of America’s richest individuals, yet it is his generosity to education and the arts and his spectacular business achivements that make him such a magnetic man. This Blackstone Group magnate is an inspiration and his life illustrates that success in life may be attained by putting in the hours and being truly centered your career.

Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter Peterson founded the portfolio management and financial advisory company Blackstone Group in the mid-eighties. As the company matured, it has set the standard in m&a; but note that he did not lead his own enterprise immediately. Spending most of childhood in Pennsylvania, Steve attended school in the Philadelphia suburbs. He graduated from Abington Senior High School, his next step was to receive his degree from the Connecticut University, Yale in 1969. He undertook a program of post graduate study at the renowned Harvard Business school near Boston, Massachusetts. After concluding his post-graduate degree, Steve commenced his career in investment banking. Steve was given the role of managing director at the unusually precocious age of 31. Not only does Steve give of his time to a variety of charitable organizations, but additionally he has also volunteered as a part-time professor at Yale. He is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in New York. On top of all that, Steve recently presented to the New York Public Library a hundred million dollars to assist in their recent expansion program. In fact, the New York Public Library called one of their recently constructed buildings the “Stephen A. Schwarzman Building”.

Now, American high society looks to Steve Schwarzman as a role model — As one of Times Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People on earth, Steve is now widely followed by the mass media and affecting markets all over the world. His swift rise in the business and financial industries is nothing short of spectacular, not to mention the fact that his never-ending support of music and the liberal arts has doubtlessly been an encouragement to everybody around him.

So the financial community waits in anticipation to see what Steve will do next. Steve Schwarzman is without a doubt a fascinating man who has left his mark on America and the business community that serves it.