Everybody I interview at Omega, I tell the story about the gazelle and the lion. And every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up and knows it must run faster than the fastest lion, or it'll be eaten. And lion has to run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you're a lion or gazelle; when the sun comes up, you better be running. So you got to be engaged. And the world's tougher now than it was 50 years ago or 40 years ago when I started my business career. So, you have to be committed. Nobody's going to lay it in your lap. Very competitive world.

One of my movies that I haven't seen in a long time, I think it's 50 or 60 years old. It's called Fort Apache The Bronx. It's with Paul Newman. The opening scene in the movie is two kids are throwing a third kid off of a six-story roof, obviously to his death. And it could've been me. That's exactly where I grew up. I went to Morris High School in South Bronx. And my brother, who recently passed away, unfortunately in December, was classmates with Colin Powell in the 41st precinct Southern Boulevard, Hunts Point section. And I found my way out of that morass, and I was lucky and successful. And it was through parenting, and it was through hard work and luck. There's no substitution. Nobody's going to give it to you. You got to work for it today. It's harder now than it was when I was doing it. But it can be done. And we can't depreciate the American dream.

If you think about it, there's only four things you could do with money. The first thing you can do with money is you can spend it on yourself. My wife and I happen to be of we we're not art collectors. I'm not into team sports. Nothing wrong with buying baseball teams. Nothing wrong with acquiring art. They don't interest me. I happen to be of the view that material possessions brings with it aggravation as well as enjoyment. So I'm a less is more kind of person. When I was working, I'm not working now, I'm retired. Uh I basically had excess of savings and uh we had to do something with it. Second thing you do with money is you can give it to your children. But I think if you have a lot of money, giving all your money your children is a mistake, but you provide you pro you prevent them from having self- achievement. So when my kids were growing up uh I didn't have a lot of money and I did not give them much money. My older boy is quite intelligent. He has a five Phi Beta Kappa degree from Stanford and MBA from Wharton and made a success on his own and his younger brother has a PhD from Oregon State University as an environmentalist scientist and they were successful in their own right and I never gave him money until they proved their success. Third thing you could do with money is give to the government but only a snook gives the government money. You don't have to. you pay your taxes as a citizen. You don't volunteer to give them more money. And the fourth thing you do with money is recycle back in society. And that's what I've done with my money. You know, I I I sent a thousand kids to college in Newark, New Jersey. It's called Cooperman College Scholars. I gave over $100 million to St. Barnabas Medical Center. We replaced a saint with a Jew. It's now called Cooperman Barnabas. I've given a lot of money to New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Booker Regional Hospital. I mean, I'm a Florida resident now. I maintain a home in Florida. I have a house in New Jersey, but I spend more time in Florida than New Jersey.

One thing I tell the kids, I say, "No matter how successful or rich you are, the one luxury you cannot afford is arrogance. Just be nice to people. Be nice to people." I have found over the years; I see people that play well to people above them and treat poorly people below them. And I say, "No, you treat everybody properly." Very important. First sign of a gentleman is respect for those people that can be no possible value to him.