Why Did Sam Zell Own So Little?

David Senra says Sam Zell owned very little, even as one of the wealthiest people on the planet, because what you own eventually owns you. Reading Kevin Kelly's Excellent Advice for Living, Senra hits the book's line: the natural state of all possessions is to need repair and maintenance, what you own will eventually own you, and the response is to choose selectively. Senra had lunch with Sam Zell before Zell died, and Zell told him exactly that.

Zell did not own a lot of things. He had a place in Chicago, a compound in Malibu, and a plane. Compound was the word he used for the Malibu place. Everything else, he said, he rented.

The lunch is Senra's own story. The book supplies the rule, and Zell's short list is how the rule looked when he lived it. Possessions need repair and upkeep, so the choice he described is to own selectively.