STEVE: Because I don’t want to. (After a beat.) See, Sam, you’re a scientist. You’re an athlete of the mind, and that’s great. You, with your great mind, you can compute things I can’t even imagine, probably that most people can’t. My expertise, Sam, my gift that I’ve been given… is faith. I’m not a knower. I’m a believer. And that’s what real estate is all about. It’s about faith. It’s about the substance of things not seen. Is the money here? Is the money there? It doesn’t matter. I don’t care.
What matters is, can you sit down with people and imagine possibilities? Can you sit down with the city fathers and imagine turning a run-down Comfort Inn into a Holiday Inn Express with a pool?
Can you imagine turning a pathetic, drug-infested big-city block into a glittering new mall with a Hilton Hotel as the centerpiece, and a Starbucks and a Borders and a Hard Rock Café? If you can imagine that kinda stuff in my business, Sam, you’re not just halfway there; you’re all the way, because the money doesn’t matter. The work of real-estate development and especially hotel development — ooh, it’s so important — is belief. That’s what I’m talking about. Belief. Don’t invest in this hotel. Don’t. Please. Don’t. Invest in believing. Invest in the believing part of yourself. Because … it’s fun. (After a long beat.) This is not rocket science, Sam. It’s real estate.