Nicholas Schorsch: bigger than life, and not finished yet

The first thing you notice about Nicholas Schorsch is that he is not nearly as tall as he appears on video or in the pages of InvestmentNews.

Of course, all that changes as soon as he opens his mouth.

That’s because once the fast-talking — and faster-thinking — Mr. Schorsch speaks, his 5’11” frame suddenly fills the room. At least that’s how I experienced Mr. Schorsch last Friday when I stopped by his offices on Park Avenue in New York to make his acquaintance.

I figured we write about Mr. Schorsch so much, I should at least have a cup of coffee with the guy.

Indeed, the 52-year-old is no stranger to InvestmentNews. Thanks to senior columnist Bruce Kelly, we have been all over the more than $10 billion worth of real estate, broker-dealer firms and mutual funds he has purchased this year.

Just last week, RCS Capital Corp., one of Mr. Schorsch’s companies, agreed to acquire Summit Financial Services Group Inc. for $49 million. The deal marks the third independent-broker-dealer acquisition of the year for Mr. Schorsch, who is executive chairman of the board of RCS Capital.

But he and I didn’t talk about the deal — or even the string of deals he has made recently.

Rather, we talked about his almost fanatic propensity to drive change — whether it’s within the nontraded-REIT industry, where he has ruffled feathers for calling out REIT managers who pay themselves big asset management fees before investors get their capital back, or within his own company, where he says he makes it a point never to sit in the same chair twice in the office boardroom.

Despite his acquisition spree of late, Mr. Schorsch insists that his goal is not to get bigger — it’s to get better.

“If you really want to know what drives me, it’s the fact that I never want today to be my best day,” he said. “We can always do better tomorrow.”

The conversation with Mr. Schorsch took an even more philosophical turn.

“Life isn’t about the end result,” he added. “It’s about the journey.”

Mr. Schorsch readily admits that some of his world view is shaped by his faith as a practicing Quaker, which is a religion that values, among other things, pacifism and social equality.

“Quakers have this saying that goes something like, “The way will open,’” he said. “Basically, you start to believe you are making a difference and you will. I am just doing that in business.”