Goldman Sachs

Blankfein became Goldman CEO only because his predecessor was tapped for Treasury Secretary

Blankfein credits fortune as much as skill for his rise: his predecessor becoming Treasury Secretary opened the CEO slot at the right moment. He uses this to argue that luck — the ball bouncing right — is underappreciated in elite success.

“I got to be CEO of Goldman Sachs because my predecessor, got nominated to be Treasury Secretary. Had he not been that, maybe he would've lasted 5 more years in the job and maybe I would've been, you know, too old for it at that point or something. So there's a lot of fortune, there's a lot of luck, but I wouldn't exaggerate the skillset required or the degree of work required is beyond the grasp of many of your listeners. It's not.”

Good Risk Managers Sometimes Have to Push People TO Take Risk

After the 2008 financial crisis, Goldman partners became gun-shy and talked themselves out of opportunities. Blankfein argues that risk management isn't just about suppressing risk-taking — sometimes the job is to actively encourage it, because no risk means no growth.

“You know, the firm at that point had just gone through a period where it had, you know, big losses and people were gun-shy. And I, you know, you'd think a risk manager's always trying to repress people from taking risk. Sometimes a good risk manager has to promote the idea that people take risk 'cause that's what you're there for. And if you don't take risk, you don't, you don't move forward. There's no growth.”

Steal thisPeriodically audit whether your team has become too risk-averse post-failure; if so, your job as a leader is to push them back toward calculated risk.

Warren Buffett's $5B Goldman investment during 2008 crisis — and why money wasn't the point

During the financial crisis, Buffett invested $5B in Goldman preferred stock after a brief phone call, comparing the potential loss to 'not even a bad hurricane.' Blankfein reveals the money was irrelevant — what Goldman needed was the confidence signal Buffett's backing provided to the world.

“I love the fact that, yes, that was actually the flow of the conversation. But he's a pretty rigorous guy and he knows that we're pretty rigorous people. And, and he, at one point he said, you know, and I said, you know, I would feel better telling you all the things, you know, before you make this investment, I would feel better telling you all the things I'm worried about. And he said, you know, Lloyd, I know you well enough to know that you worry enough for the both of us.”

Lloyd Blankfein's personal portfolio: 98% risky assets, 75% single stocks

The former Goldman Sachs CEO keeps nearly all his personal wealth in equities — roughly 98% in risky assets, with 75% in single stocks and the rest in ETFs. He treats active stock-picking as a hobby backed by decades of professional experience.

“I would say that I am 98% in, in risky assets of which, you know, 95 of the 98 are equities. Probably a third, a quarter is in ETFs. And 75% is in single stock. And if I'm wrong, it's 10% are in ETFs and 90% are in single stocks because that's what I like to do.”

The 9-Paragraph Obituary Rule: no more than 3 of 9 paragraphs should be about your job

A senior Goldman partner told new partners that if their life merits a 9-paragraph obituary, at most 3 should be about work. The rest should reflect family, community, and personal pursuits — a built-in reminder that career is only part of a life well-lived.

“If you live the kind of life that you, that there's an obituary written about you and it's 9 paragraphs long, make it so that you do enough so that there's no more than 3 of those 9 paragraphs are about your life at Goldman. That's the best. And now that, you know, that may be the best, but it's not gonna be the case for me because I was, I stayed too long.”

Steal thisUse the 9-paragraph obituary test quarterly: is your current allocation of time building paragraphs 4–9, or just deepening paragraph 1?

Buffett never bought Goldman on the open market — the big boys don't speculate

Codie argues public-market speculation is dumb: no one on the Forbes 100 made their money just buying stocks. Even Buffett's 2009 Goldman deal was a backroom deal with warrants and options for asymmetric upside, not buying shares on the street. Without an unfair advantage, don't speculate.

“Morden didn't go out to the street and buy a bunch of stock. He had a ton of warrants and options on top of it. It was a total backroom deal. And that's the only reason that he did it because he basically had this huge asymmetric risk where he had a bunch more upside than he had downside. And that's the same thing with Icahn, who tries to affect the outcome. So my point with people, especially these days with like GameStop and all the madness and stock investing is like, If you don't have an unfair advantage, if you can't write down why specifically you're going to win instead of somebody else, you should be really careful speculating on stocks because the big boys don't really do it.”