If anyone is the "real deal," Sanford "Sandy" I. Weill is. He is chairman of the Weill Cornell Medical College's Board of Overseers, the retired chair and CEO of Citigroup, a renowned philanthropist -- and a major Cornell benefactor -- and now the first author and subject of the new book "The Real Deal: My Life in Business and Philanthropy."

Weill spoke in Bailey Hall Oct. 27 as the keynote speaker of the three-day Cornell Trustee-Council Weekend with his co-author, Judah S. Kraushaar '79, the former director of the Global Financial Services Equity Research team at Merrill Lynch and rated as one of the top securities analysts by various sources. Weill told anecdotes about how he went from graduating from Cornell in 1955, without a clue about what to do with his life, to creating and leading the global bank Citigroup, which gave a 2,600 percent return to investors during his leadership.

As the two sat on stage, following an introduction by Cornell President David Skorton, Kraushaar asked the questions -- as he had done for two years in helping to write the book -- while Weill responded.

It all started, Weill said, a week after his Cornell graduation.

"The event that ... really changed me the most and shaped my life was marrying my wife [Joan] a week after graduation," said Weill. The reason, he said, is because she gave him confidence and encouraged him to take risks, noting that "the time to take risks is when we are young." Weill drew laughter from the audience when he noted that in their early years, Joan encouraged him, though in their later years, rather than encouraging him, she more often says, "Down boy, stay real."

Weill explained how five years after graduation, with $31,000 in savings -- including cash from the wedding -- and $30,000 in borrowed money, he started a small securities brokerage firm called Carter, Berlind, Potoma & Weill. In the mid-'60s, his firm made such improvements as hiring outside auditors and starting its own "back office" while the competitors got "sloppy." As chair from 1965 to 1984, Weill and his firm made more than 15 acquisitions, creating the nation's second-largest securities brokerage firm. Then Weill sold the firm to American Express for $1 billion but stayed on as chair until 1985, when personality conflicts and frustrations led him to resign at age 52.

"But I didn't look at it as a setback," said Weill. "The experiences at American Express made sense -- I learned the importance of independent boards; I learned the importance of developing relationships with individual members ... and I learned about the importance of philanthropy."

"We [he and his wife] are both crazy enough to think we can make a bit of difference in this world and crazy enough to try," he said. During that period Weill got involved, and still is very active, with the National Academy Foundation (which the Gates Foundation now supports), Carnegie Hall and Weill Cornell.

Then ... Weill did it again. He started with a small consumer-finance company and, over the next 20 years, started acquiring other companies again, including the Travelers Group, Aetna's property and casualty business and Salomon Brothers, until it all culminated in a "merger of equals," as he described it, when his firm merged with Citicorp to form Citigroup.

What else has he learned along the way?

"I have always believed in partnerships and in having open communication," Weill said. He also stressed the importance of teamwork, letting a company be a meritocracy, allowing the best people to survive and, finally, making everyone an owner, "so everyone feels they will benefit and are a real partner."