Tom Barrack Wants You to Read Twilight?

If you've read this piece from WSJ's Development blog, you know that Tom Barrack, CEO of real estate private equity firm Colony Capital shared his insights into the vampire novel series Twilight with his employees in an internal company memo:

For you male Colonists, here is a brief synopsis. Stubborn teenage girl meets a handsome but moody vampire and against all odds they fall in love.

Here is my macho take – Stephanie Meyer is a total genius. As I flipped through the pages I was startled by the lack of detailed description of Bella and the surgical and illuminating development of Edward. As hard as I tried I could not really picture Bella, but I was grabbed by Edward’s character – gorgeous, super human, super strong, super fast and most importantly encompassing the wisdom of a 109-year-old man in the guise of a 17-year-old boy.

The description of Bella on the other hand, was not moving, or compelling. What I realized is the genius of Stephanie was that she knew that by keeping the character generic, any and every woman could climb inside and picture herself in Bella’s shoes. Thus the fascination and deep emotional reactions to what many (including myself) thought was a foolish teenage trashy novel.

Okay, I'm lost. When comes to Twilight, I'll admit I'm completely clueless. My only encounter with Twilight was at a dinner party a couple of years ago, when one of the guests commented how ridiculous the dialogues were in the popular vampire novel she just read. We then spent the entire evening making up silly dialogues and discussing how we could all become vampire novel writers. I certainly don't understand the recent Twilight Phenomenon and I definitely don't know the difference between Team Edward and Team Jacob.

But I do know Team Tom Barrack. With over $16 billion capital raised since inception in 1991, Colony Capital is one of the largest private equity real estate firms in the world. The firm is known to be an opportunistic buyer and is an active player in the NPL markets in Asia, Europe and North America. In recent years, the company has also been active in gaming, making several large casino acquisitions.

So does Tom Barrack really want you to read Twilight? Read through the long company memo, and you'll learn Tom Barrack's final point:

Here is my point. The idea of devoting half a day to reading these books was something that never, NEVER, entered my mind as something I would ever, EVER do. I hated them. I mocked them. It made no difference to me that over 20 million books were sold, movies made, and Team Edward and Team Jacob pandemonium had engulfed the world. I was simply stuck in my point of view.

Once I ventured into the books I learned something. I now understand why some women are emotionally altered from merely reading a book. I have also gained a deeper realization that understanding the circumstances and points of views of those with whom we are negotiating, working, living, loving or fighting is the key determinant factor in an enduring relationship.

In every day business, we think we know it all. We are the captains of our industry and we possess all the global knowledge. That which we don’t understand we push a button and it appears before us. We are lacking creativity…. it is hard for us to dream… harder for us to change our lives… hard to live in a situation that other people view as unconventional. And for sure, we all have no idea on how to be satisfied with the status quo.

It is time for all of us to become more creative, spend more time outside of the strict arithmetic cadence of our business, and understand foreign points of view. Most importantly we must really find the “moment”. Anticipation is everything. The process of getting to a destination is the objective and the more illumination, color, and vitality we give to the “road” the less important the final destination becomes. It will be what it will be!!!

I don't think I will rush out to get the Twilight novels. Tom Barrack may know a great deal about real estate, but when comes to popular literature, may I suggest The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? The late Swedish journalist and writer Stieg Larsson was the best selling fiction author in the world in 2008 and the second best selling fiction author in 2009.