This Racecar Driving Wall Street Exec Explains What Driving 'On The Edge' Taught Him About Making Deals

Mark Patterson, Co-Founder of the private equity firm MatlinPatterson, is an avid racecar driver. Years ago he took lessons at Skip Barber Racing School and fell so deeply in love with the sport that he enrolled his teen aged sons.

In a recent interview with OneWire CEO, Skiddy von Stade, Patterson - who has completed 24 hour races - explains how the way drivers think has shaped him as a business man.

Drivers have a term for going so fast that a car and its driver are pushed to the limits of their skill - it's called, "on the edge."

Its a moment when drivers have to laser focus on what they can really control.

"You have to get comfortable not analyzing," said Patterson. "Just like in a deal, you can't analyze every fact with equal portion of attention so over time with judgment, you learn to pay attention to the most crucial elements coming at you. So what makes you quicker in racing appears to be that you're more courageous and taking more risk-no. You're just not paying attention to stuff that used to scare you. And it's the same in business. "

Watch the full interview above and subscribe to receive new Open Door interviews with industry leaders here.