Private equity capital in each of those markets Europe and Asia - while those markets have very different characteristics - fills a niche where either strategic investors or the public markets don't go, or don't want to go for some particular reason. I think that's going to continue to be the case going forward.

Some of the very best private equity people, in my experience, are people who start out as stock pickers - people who really understood value, how to take a company's financials apart and couple that with good judgment about businesses, macro trends, and where things are going.

Prices are always lower when the troops are in the street.

A good default, like Portugal or Greece, would be very good for the private equity business.

The private equity world is a relatively small one. There are currently probably a few thousand professional jobs worldwide. In private equity, that's probably about all there is. So in the scheme of things, the firms are all relatively small.

Nobody in my generation ever started out in private equity. We got there by accident. There was no private equity business - actually, the word didn't even exist - when I started. I got there out of the purest of happenstance and so I think many people find what they really enjoy doing just in that way. So another piece of advice for you is: don't worry too much about what you're going to be doing when you get out of business school - life will come your way.

Don't do something you don't like. Look for a job that makes you excited to get up and go to work everyday.