David Rubenstein shares his recipe for career success — and says boomers like him ‘don’t want to get off the stage’

AI may be transforming the world of work, but the core ingredients for a successful career haven’t changed, David Rubenstein says. “For a young person, the best thing to do is: Learn how to read and enjoy reading, learn how to speak effectively and persuasively, and learn how to write reasonably well,” the billionaire investor told Business Insider in a recent, wide-ranging interview.

The cofounder of private equity giant Carlyle also said to “find something that you really enjoy and make it your life’s work.” “If you really enjoy something, it’s not work, and you’ll do much better at it,” he continued. “Nobody ever won a Nobel Prize hating what they do.” Rubenstein, 77, acknowledged that more and more people are relying on AI chatbots to read and write, but he said the ability to discern between good and bad writing will remain important. “I just think the basic skills that have gotten people to be successful over the last several thousand years are probably not going to go away,” he said.

Rubenstein spoke to BI ahead of the release of his latest book this week: “Inside the Owner’s Box: Conversations on Power and Leadership in Sports.” The principal owner of the Baltimore Orioles baseball team also shared insights from his personal life.

Rubenstein said that as a wealthy parent, he kept his children grounded by emphasizing the value of education and work ethic to them, and “tried to be a role model by showing how hard work can lead to something productive.” All three of his kids went on to secure MBAs from Harvard or Stanford, and now work in private equity, he said.

But he underscored that regardless of parents’ best efforts, there’s no guarantee how their children will turn out.

Asked about work-life balance, Rubenstein said he doesn’t view his work as a “chore” or “drudgery,” and feels “fortunate that I can do things I really want to do.” In recent years, he’s pivoted from investing to interviewing everyone from Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon to Bill and Hillary Clinton, while also publishing seven books and counting.

Rubenstein said that owning a sports team has improved his work-life balance “because you have to go to games if you’re going to be an effective owner, and I didn’t go to that many games before.” The Wall Street veteran also touched on sports betting, saying that after he lost $18 on a bet in high school, he swore off gambling for life. “I learned my lesson when I was 16,” he said.

Rubenstein said that if sports betting were to go away, “it wouldn’t upset me, but I think it’s here to stay.” He also discussed the trend of baby boomers working later in life.

He and a lot of his friends are working as hard in their mid-70s as they were 10 or 20 years earlier, he said, as “we don’t want to get off the stage.” Rubenstein said he doesn’t know what he’d do with himself if he retired, and he worries there’s a greater risk of dropping dead after retirement. “So I’m not retiring anytime soon,” he said.