The world would be a much less prosperous place without these courageous investors whose work greatly improves companies. : “If you ever do that to me again, I’m going to kill you.” The late Pete Peterson uttered those somewhat tongue-in-cheek words to Stephen Schwarzman in 1985, not long after they'd founded Blackstone together. They had just exited yet another failed investor pitch for their then-boutique investment bank, and Peterson was frustrated. Specifically, they’d just met with Delta Airlines.