The late real estate billionaire Sam Zell had a pretty simple philosophy about work: if you love what you do, why would you ever stop doing it?

Zell, who made his fortune buying distressed real estate, appeared on The Tim Ferriss Show podcast in March 2020 and explained why retirement and vacations never crossed his mind. His approach was straightforward—he spent his energy avoiding things he didn't enjoy.

"I've loved everything," Zell explained. "I love getting up in the morning. I never found myself getting up in the morning and saying, 'Oh, my God, I've got to go do this again.' I've tried very hard to focus my life on never doing anything I don't want to do, and never being any place I don't want to be."

Curiosity Over Relaxation

For most people, vacation means beaches and downtime. For Zell, that sounded terrible. He said the word "vacation" was actually "foreign" to him because sitting still didn't align with how he was wired.

"I don't take vacations," Zell admitted. "And matter of fact, that word is kind of foreign to me. I've never been one to sit on a beach; I don't know how to do that. I just want to see stuff."

Instead of traditional vacations, Zell traveled to places that sparked his curiosity. He believed that being an entrepreneur or taking meaningful risks required staying deeply curious and enthusiastic about learning. One example he shared involved watching a video about a massive Freeport-McMoRan copper mine that fascinated him so much he had to see it in person.

"I ended up at a conference sitting next to the CEO and I said, 'I just read about this incredible mine and I want to go see it.' And he said, 'Just tell me and I'll set it up for you,'" Zell recalled.

"So we flew into the jungle where there was an airport literally built into the jungle just to see the mine. We went up to the mine and saw stuff that I'll never forget. So it's curiousity."

Thinking Independently

Zell credited his constant learning with helping him avoid the mistakes that plagued others. By accumulating knowledge, he became an independent thinker rather than someone who blindly followed the "bandwagon" of conventional wisdom.

"I've spent my whole life trying to separate what other people think is cool and what I know is something different," he said.

But Zell also recognized a potential trap. Too much information can paralyze decision-making. His advice? Develop the skill to "sort it out"—learning to distinguish what matters from what doesn't. That ability to filter signal from noise, he suggested, was critical for anyone trying to make smart decisions in business or life.