The efficiency, credibility, and liquidity of the financial markets have been foundational to the largest economy in the world.
Dan Gilbert
Anybody who dies with money in the bank is a failure.
One of our things is that money follows; it does not lead. So we want people that are fired up and passionate about their mission... and people that aren't so married to spreadsheets and thinking that kind of voodoo controls the future. Because it doesn't.
When we grew up, we wanted to do two things: to own a sports team and a casino.
There's nothing better than people talking to each other, sharing best practices, and opening up communications.
We want to make the Cleveland Cavaliers a perennial champion and contender. We want people to be part of the franchise for long periods of time if they fit our culture, no matter who they are, whether it's LeBron or anybody that contributes.
Except for a handful of banks that just keep a handful of their loans in portfolio, on their balance sheet, every other loan that's originated in the United States - whether from a bank, mortgage company, mortgage broker - is sold into the secondary market.
In my view, if you want to get ahead and build wealth, you have to get over your delusion that something only has value if you can measure it.
To process and close models in 50 states and 2,000-plus counties with the myriad of, just, tens of thousands of different regulations, customs, vendors - it's a monster. So the only way to do that is with technology. It really is rocket science.
Urban renewal always happens as a symphony of events, and part of the symphony is innovative, optimistic developers with the ability and willingness to transform historic properties.
Above all, the fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers, as well as the entire franchise, deserve and need our players and coaches to dig deep within themselves.
When we do an investment, we always ask, 'Can we affect the outcome? When buying a company, can we have an impact?' That's a different style of investing than a passive investor in the stock market. To me, that's how you're taking the risk out of it. You know what your capability is and how you can enhance value.
On this planet, there is no perfection. If you chose to end relationships because of one mistake, you're going to be alone.
Fans will express themselves. We will always have the best security possible, as we always do. And I hope that Cleveland and the fans, you would hope that everybody keeps it to a certain level, because anything you do that crosses the line isn't going to look bad for anybody but the franchise and Cleveland.
Our goal is a title. With LeBron, we are in 'win now' mode.
People are more optimistic about Detroit outside of Detroit.
The good news is that the ownership team and the rest of the hard-working, loyal, and driven staff over here at your hometown Cavaliers have not betrayed you nor never will betray you.
Danny Ferry did a very good job when he was here and put the franchise up to a certain level, as did Mike Brown, and his contract had ended after five years, and, ultimately, both sides decided they wanted to do other things. No hard feelings at all there.
The Midwest has, I think, incredibly hardworking people. You know they're going to be successful because, quite honestly, I cannot work with people from the East Coast - a little bit of variance on the coast - I'm from Ohio, and I understand that.
I think Detroit is where muscle meets brains.
If the Big Bang is true, that means everything that came out of it, all of the particles, all of us, there is a scientific force that connects it all that we don't really know about.
The entire NBA knew in 2010 that the best player in the world could be a free agent in 2014. We weren't the only team positioning ourselves for the summer of 2014.
I think I've interviewed probably 1,500 people in my 24-year business career.
People my age, we would hear from our parents and grandparents who were raised in Detroit about how great this city was from 1900 to the '60s.
It's all about connectivity - not just technical connectivity but geographic connectivity. That's what makes a city go.
We are driven to win a title. We want to see that day when everyone celebrates because we finally brought a title home to Northeast Ohio. It's what we want, what LeBron wants, what all of us want.
Some people think they should go to Heaven but not have to die to get there. Sorry, but that's simply not how it works.
People still don't know how good Kevin Love is because he played in Minnesota... you didn't see him much on TV. His passing, his knowledge of the game - the stuff that doesn't show up in the stats - he has so much going for him.
Detroit's a good investment because, first of all, the entry fee for everything is lower. And, you've got the talent that is here that is ambitious and motivated, so you're going to get in on a much lower cost structure in every way, shape, or form from labor to buildings to whatever.
You have a lot of great teams in the NBA. I watched San Antonio against Dallas, and they're two great teams, and there are great teams in the east, as well. So it takes time to gel, as we've all seen.
Now that Sacramento is building an arena downtown, they're the only one not in an urban core. The only one. It's really not good business. It's nothing against Auburn Hills, Oakland County or L. Brooks Patterson. An arena in the middle of a field is not an ideal thing.
Detroit in its heyday - let's say, 1920s to the '60s - was never a huge downtown-living thing. People lived in the neighborhoods.
Kids coming out of college want that urban core excitement more and more.
I think it's natural when a team has such high expectations, under .500 halfway through the season, they're going to go after a brand new coach.
You can't fight the fact that Detroit is a de-industrializing market and it isn't facing dramatic, positive transformation.
StockX's live marketplace will harness the Internet's natural ability to facilitate a better way to transact certain segments of ecommerce. We are going to bring the kind of trading platform and visibility to tangible products that financial and commodities markets have used for decades.
Ironically, the original Detroit Stock Exchange once sat less than a thousand feet from StockX headquarters here in downtown Detroit. It is only fitting that we are going to build the next iteration of the world's most efficient market invention almost in the same spot.
People want entertainment, a whole night of it, a whole experience.
I'm still focused on the flagship businesses: Quicken Loans and RockBridge, the title company, and some of the board stuff in the gaming.
It's time for people to hold these athletes accountable for their actions.
We get a lot of emails, a lot of suggestions on the kinds of ideas and things that people would like to do. There's a lot of good ones, but a lot of them are something that the franchise couldn't or wouldn't endorse, just as being not consistent with what the NBA would want or, probably, what we would even want, too.
When there were first rumors of us going after LeBron, some fans wondered how we could do that after all that happened. But after the 'Sports Illustrated' letter, every fan is thrilled to have him back. That was so heartfelt.
LeBron James needs to go to another team with two superstars already so he can win a championship.
We like scalable companies that we think we can grow - because of our expertise, operational is consumer-facing. For the most part, consumer-facing, technology-driven process, driven sometimes if they're call center or into the sales type of stuff associated with it.
The first thing is to hang on to everybody who is talented, who is entrepreneurial, who wants to make an impact and a change and start attracting ones.
I think that when we strip people down, most of us want the same things. People just have very different views of how to get there.
First thing I said to him was, 'LeBron, you know this is true. We had five good years and one bad night'. Like a marriage that's good, and then one bad thing happens, and you never talk to each other again.
Head coaching options are limited.
From LeBron's standpoint, if a guy like Kyrie walks away - that creates doubt. But Kyrie committed right away, and that's a major statement about his faith in us.
In today's world, social media, people get judged so much by the last thing that happened, I almost feel, in a way, young people get to see that not only is it OK to fail - that's the way you get to championship success, whether it's sports or business or life.
