The New Yorker goes to town with a Sam Zell profile

Connie Bruck delivers one of her classic profiles, "Rough Rider," in the November 12 issue. Sam Zell, born in Seattle and a major landlord in this region, (though he is every inch Chicago-raised), comes across as a crazy like a fox investor who can do a deal anywhere in the world, including Abu Dhabi. Zell is also owner-in-waiting of the Tribune Company, which includes the The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times but it's only one of many chapters in a business career that reads like a novel, complete with character details that make the story: Zell is compact and bald, with wary eyes and a trim white beard, but his defining characteristic is extravagant confidence. Early in his career, he decided that he would not bow to convention in his speech or his attire. In the seventies, he would sometimes wear a red polyester jumpsuit and a gold chain to meetings with bankers. He once said that if you dress oddly and you're really good at what you do you're seen as eccentric; but if you're not so good you're seen as a schmuck. He still follows this rule, though he now wears pressed jeans and custom-tailored shirts.