Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Henry R. Kravis (American Businessman)

Henry R. Kravis (b.1944) is an American businessman, financier, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder of the seminal private-equity company KKR & Co. Inc, also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Kravis stepped down as a co-chief executive officer of KKR in 2021 but continues to serve as its co-executive chairman.

Born into a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Kravis graduated with a Bachelor in Economics from Claremont-McKenna College (1967) and a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University (1969.) While running the corporate finance department at Bear Stearns in the 1960s and 1970s, Kravis teamed up with cousin George Roberts and colleague Jerome Kohlberg to carry out “bootstrap” investments, buying family-owned businesses founded in the late-1940s, but were facing succession issues.

In 1976 the triumvirate started Kravis Roberts & Co. to specialize in leveraged buyout transactions (LBOs,) borrowing significant amounts of money to fund the acquisition of underperforming businesses. Kravis oversaw some of the largest business deals in history, making LBOs part of the financial mainstream of American business. Their 1989 leveraged buyout of the food and tobacco conglomerate RJR Nabisco was the largest in history until 2007, when KKR bought out the Texas utility company TXU Energy TXU. The RJR Nabisco buyout was portrayed in the book Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco (1989; film adaptation, 1993.)

One of the wealthiest people in America, Kravis is a well-known supporter of the Republican Party and a prominent philanthropist. His lavish lifestyle and tax advantages have attracted substantial condemnation and call for more regulation of the private-equity industry.

More: Wikipedia READ: Works by Henry R. Kravis

We have a fear all the time. But that’s what keeps us going, that’s what keeps us focused. People who say ‘I have no fear. I’m not afraid of ever failing,’ are kidding themselves. It’s the fear of failure, of not wanting to fail, that makes people as great as they are. I know that’s what pushes me.
Henry R. Kravis

A real entrepreneur is somebody who has no safety net underneath them.
Henry R. Kravis
Topics: Entrepreneurs

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