Stephen Schwarzman recounts Harvard Business School beginnings

Schwarzman, whose father owned a dry goods store, founded Blackstone with Peter Peterson in 1985. The firm began as a boutique merger-and-acquisition advisory business and has since grown to become the world's largest alternative asset manager, overseeing more than $1 trillion in assets. Peterson retired shortly after Blackstone's initial public offering in 2007, while Schwarzman continues to lead the company as chairman and CEO. Schwarzman's career on Wall Street began at Lehman Brothers, and he has written about management missteps at that firm. His entrepreneurial journey started at age 14 with a lawn-mowing business, where he employed his younger twin brothers.