Brad Gerstner: belief

Transcript context

…I have the same personality characteristic that you do around an aversion to asking people for money. In fundraising for politics, I can see how that would be especially hard. You've raised, I think, literally billions of dollars over the years for Altimeter. What is it about the way that you fundraise now that hits differently in your psyche? I had the feeling at the time, and maybe it's just because at that point in time, I didn't believe in myself (perhaps) the way I believe in myself now, but it felt like a very personal ask, like give me money for my campaign. Now I am a steward, I am a fiduciary on your behalf, and I believe I'm going to make you a lot of money. We have made a lot of money for our LPs. If you could see the letters we've received from university endowments, from foundations, from family offices, and the transformative things they outline that we allowed them to do—free education, dramatically more scholarships, whether it's the environmental causes, whether it's immigration causes, whether it's inner city schools. To me, I think there are great causes. I think—as somebody else coined the phrase—we can work on behalf of, in a way that's great for entrepreneurs, in a way that's great for our economy, and in a way that helps to really transform some underlying causes. It's an easier ask for me because it doesn't feel quite so personal. And even though when you're running for office, it's in public service. It kind of felt to you more like, hey, do this thing for me and I can't totally see the ROI for you as a citizen.…

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