Creative problem solving at its best

One of the best business autobiographies I’ve read: Stephen Schwarzman’s What It Takes — about his journey co-founding investment firm Blackstone and building it into a $500 billion dollar behemoth. In my opinion, one of the best stories from the book is about the time he and his co-founder, Pete Peterson, were trying to raise their first buyout fund. (Interesting side note that says a lot: Pete wanted to start small and aim for a $50 million raise. But Schwarzman convinced him to aim for a billion instead.) Now here’s where it gets interesting: Pete was speaking at an event in Japan - and figured, why not do some fundraising while they were there anyways? But their banker was so reluctant to connect them with investors — because Japanese brokerages never invested in this kind of fund — that they had to threaten to fire him before he agreed to arrange a meeting! But at the meeting, it initially looked like their banker was going to be right. Because the investors they met with didn’t speak English well, didn’t know much about American corporations or investing, and were only there because they wanted to explore a completely different type of investment! But this is where you get to see an example of what made Schwarzmann so successful… He told them, truthfully, that they wouldn’t succeed with American M&A — which is what the Japanese investors wanted to do — with their current disadvantages. So he offered to help them with their M&A if they’d invest in his fund, which would make them a lot of money too. I even underlined this sentence so I wouldn’t forget: “People in a tough spot will often focus on their own problems when the answer may lie in fixing someone else’s.” In Schwarzman’s case? Fixing their partner’s problems led to a $100 million investment for the Blackstone fund as well. I think of this story often — especially when I feel stuck. And it reminds me to go back to what I’ve seen to work best as well—the online equivalent of “solving other people’s problems”: Leading with value. To be clear, I’m NOT talking about the often quoted “reciprocity norm,” where you give value from a place of hoping others will feel compelled to reciprocate by buying from you. That doesn’t feel good, and doesn’t work. But what I am talking about is leading with the kind of value that truly helps someone with a transformation in knowledge, belief, or action. Like blog posts that regularly have readers commenting things like: “Just reading this article alone gave me so much insight and clarity. I'm more inspired. Thank you so much for this.” Because that’s also how you solve the problem of growing your business too Like that comment above. Which is actually a real one—from one of my own blog posts. And it’s one of many similar comments [on that post]( . And because I walked my own talk? That post has over 120,000 views and 504 shares. From just that one post! Simply because I focused on putting in the work and leading with value. If that’s the way you want to grow your business too, I’d love to help you build your own growth system using the exact methodology that got us from zero to multiple 6-figures in less than two years - from just this method alone. Because I truly believe that value-led businesses are the best way to change your own life — while making the world a little better as well. You can learn more right here: [Watch a free masterclass explaining the strategy]( . Or if you already know you want to grow your business this way: [Enroll in Clients Come to Me]( to get the full system with step-by-steps, templates, guides, and Q&A support. Or if you want us to do it FOR you: [Hire my team]( to do it all for you so you can focus on doing what you love while we grow your traffic. (Your business does need to be at 6-figures or more in annual revenue for this option to be a good fit.) 
 Luisa Zhou If you no longer wish to receive these emails, click here to [unsubscribe]( Zhou Ventures, Inc. 459 Columbus Ave #4049 New York, NY 10024