Speaker 1: One of the most significant investment banks in the world
Speaker 1: is Goldman Sachs. It's had a gloried history. Recently, I
Speaker 1: had a chance to sit down with the current CEO
Speaker 1: of that firm, David Solomon, to ask him about the
Speaker 1: Federal Reserve, operating Goldman Sachs, and the current economic environment.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about some government matters. Now, you're in Washington,
Speaker 1: the Federal Reserve. You've talked about the importance of the
Speaker 1: FED being independent. So are you worried about the independence
Speaker 1: of the FED? And the Secretary of Treasuries announced five
Speaker 1: potential next chairs of the FED. Any of them or
Speaker 1: all of them acceptable to you?
Speaker 2: Well, let's get right into it.
Speaker 1: David.
Speaker 2: First of all, I just say and I think it's
Speaker 2: a point that's worth emphasizing central bank independence, not just
Speaker 2: here in the United States, but around the world. I
Speaker 2: think it's served us very very well, and I think
Speaker 2: it's something that we should speak out for, we should
Speaker 2: strive for, and I think it's important. I'm not going
Speaker 2: to comment on the individuals other than to say I
Speaker 2: think all five individuals, you know, carry skills and experience
Speaker 2: that could make them credible candidates to be a FED chair.
Speaker 2: I think we all know that there's one person that's
Speaker 2: going to make that decision is to the next Ed Shair.
Speaker 1: And sometimes the government of the United States is moving
Speaker 1: oscillating its policies a bit. Going tariffs are the things
Speaker 1: Has that made it difficult to do well on Wall
Speaker 1: Street for Wall Street firms or the Wall Street firms
Speaker 1: seen to be doing okay? But has the changing in
Speaker 1: policy of what the tariff we're having here or not
Speaker 1: having it or other kinds of things, has it been
Speaker 1: difficult for Wall Street firms to deal with what the
Speaker 1: administration is doing or is actually not a big.
Speaker 2: Problem government policy makers? You know, there's always uncertainty, there's
Speaker 2: always unpredictability in all different kinds of administrations. And I
Speaker 2: think our job as business leaders is to adapt and
Speaker 2: to adjust and deal with it. Can'tidy. I think that's
Speaker 2: that's what I think we do. Right.
Speaker 1: So, the debt of the United States is now thirty
Speaker 1: eight trillion dollars. Some people would say that's a lot.
Speaker 1: Why is the businessman not worried about? As a general,
Speaker 1: they don't seem to be as worried about the thirty
Speaker 1: eight trillion as I would have thought they would be well.
Speaker 2: I speak to a lot of people in the business
Speaker 2: community and a lot of people in the financial community,
Speaker 2: and I think people are worried about the level of
Speaker 2: debt and the fact that we've reached a point. And
Speaker 2: by the way, this is true in the United States,
Speaker 2: but it's true when every developed economy where kind of
Speaker 2: fiscal stimulus and an aggressive fiscal play is really just
Speaker 2: kind of embedded in the way these democratic economies are operating.
Speaker 2: And it's accelerated meaningfully in the last five years. I
Speaker 2: think the pandemic, you know, played an accelerating role, and
Speaker 2: it doesn't seem like we have an ability to pull
Speaker 2: it back. And so we've taken the debt you know,
Speaker 2: in the last fifteen plus years, kind of since the
Speaker 2: financial crisis, from seven trillion to thirty eight trillion, and
Speaker 2: just refinancing it for the rest of the Decade's what's
Speaker 2: got to be refinanced. If you look at current rates,
Speaker 2: you know, is going to grow it into the low forties,
Speaker 2: you know for sure. And we're growing our spending at
Speaker 2: a reasonable rate still, and so this is an issue
Speaker 2: we have to wrestle with now. The path out really
Speaker 2: isn't a revenue path out. The path out is a
Speaker 2: growth path path and you know, if you think about it,
Speaker 2: the difference you know, trend growth is two percent. The
Speaker 2: difference between compound and growth of three percent and two
Speaker 2: percent is monstrous in terms of dealing with this issue.
Speaker 2: So there's a lot of discussion about running, you know,
Speaker 2: a real growth play. I think we have some things
Speaker 2: that are going on that give us a better opportunity
Speaker 2: to have a higher growth trajectory, particularly you know, technology
Speaker 2: AI getting embedded to the enterprise, the productivity opportunity from that.
Speaker 2: But if we continue on the current course and we
Speaker 2: don't take the growth level up, we will there will
Speaker 2: be a reckoning in this. And the bottom line is
Speaker 2: we have to find people, you know, to buy and
Speaker 2: finance our debt. And you know, ultimately it's it's not
Speaker 2: going to be other people around the world. If it
Speaker 2: keeps growing, it's going to turn to us.
Speaker 1: Is Wall Street worried about the fact that government is
Speaker 1: shut down? I mean this is for a long shutdown
Speaker 1: or people on Wall Street saying, well, it don't get
Speaker 1: started again at some point, or have you seen the
Speaker 1: adverse impact on your business as a result of the
Speaker 1: government shutdown.
Speaker 2: I think we all should be concerned about the fact
Speaker 2: that the government shutdown. And I you know, I think
Speaker 2: it's unfortunate that we have government shutdowns, and this one's
Speaker 2: now going on for a period of time. As it
Speaker 2: goes on longer, it starts to have an economic impact, right,
Speaker 2: it starts to filter through the economy. And we're getting
Speaker 2: you know, we're getting to that point in.
Speaker 1: This Who do you think the shutoffs were for the
Speaker 1: shutdown the government? Right, Well, let me ask you. I
Speaker 1: know you're not going to answer that question. So every
Speaker 1: seven years on average, and the US economy has had
Speaker 1: a recession seven year own average. We haven't had a
Speaker 1: recession for quite a while. Are you worried about any
Speaker 1: potential recession coming or you think the economy is in
Speaker 1: pretty good shape?
Speaker 2: Well, I think the economy is in pretty good shape
Speaker 2: at the moment. And I think when you look at
Speaker 2: kind of the give gets, you know, in terms of
Speaker 2: tailwinds that winds are there are more tailwinds.
Speaker 1: At the moment.
Speaker 2: I mean, I go back where we're still running a
Speaker 2: pretty aggressive fiscal you know, fiscal play, the AI infrastructure
Speaker 2: investment boom you have, you know, you've got six or
Speaker 2: seven large companies that are going to spend three hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty billion dollars you know, this year on AI infrastructure.
Speaker 2: That has an effect on growth. We also, after a
Speaker 2: period of kind of heavier regulatory oversight of business broadly,
Speaker 2: there's now a pretty clear by this administration, a pretty
Speaker 2: clear systematic look at regulation and you know, more of
Speaker 2: a view toward what regulation is really necessary and works
Speaker 2: as effective. And that's you know, that's a tailwind for
Speaker 2: growth and so you all and you also have as
Speaker 2: AI gets embedded into the enterprise, you have real productivity gains.
Speaker 2: So we've got a big, diverse economy. It's in pretty
Speaker 2: good shape at the moment. There are things we can't
Speaker 2: see that could set it off, but I think the
Speaker 2: chance of a recession and the near term is low.
Speaker 2: But that's one of the things about sentiment shifts and
Speaker 2: changes and support. You generally don't see them until they're
Speaker 2: right in front of you.
Speaker 1: On AI, some people would say that there's maybe a
Speaker 1: little bit of a bubble in AI. When you have
Speaker 1: companies with market caps of five trillion dollars, you don't
Speaker 1: see any bubble there at all.
Speaker 2: Whenever we have an acceleration in technology and people get
Speaker 2: excited about it. You have significant capital formation around new
Speaker 2: companies that are trying to capitalize on that opportunity. And
Speaker 2: you know, we've seen this before through history, and you're
Speaker 2: seeing it, you're seeing it now. It won't be a
Speaker 2: straight line. The opportunity set with AI is enormous. There
Speaker 2: will be winners and losers, and it's hard to pick
Speaker 2: the winners and losers now. And certainly a lot of
Speaker 2: the capital that's being deployed will not produce adequate returns,
Speaker 2: and a bunch of the capital that's being deployed will actually,
Speaker 2: you know, will actually not produce any returns.
Speaker 1: But dollar is down about eleven percent or so against
Speaker 1: the Euro and some other currencies as well this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah year, I mean in the last fifteen years, it's
Speaker 2: up monstrously.
Speaker 1: Right, But did you worry that it's gone down or
Speaker 1: you think it was overvalued? And as a result of
Speaker 1: it having gone down, you think the chance of a
Speaker 1: Plaza core to orchestrated effort to take it down even
Speaker 1: further is unlikely? And you think the dollar decline now
Speaker 1: is okay, it's suggusted appropriately.
Speaker 2: You know, the dollar has been on a pretty good
Speaker 2: run over a long period of time, and it's certainly
Speaker 2: given back this year given some of the policy actions,
Speaker 2: some of the gains. But fundamentally, the dollar is the
Speaker 2: reserve currency of the world. I don't see anything at
Speaker 2: the moment that threatens that. I'm not concerned that there's
Speaker 2: some fundamental shift. And actually, when you think about digitization
Speaker 2: and tokenization and access to the dollar, you know, over
Speaker 2: time it's actually allowing easier access to the dollar around
Speaker 2: the world, which in the long run is a benefit
Speaker 2: for the dollar and the dollar's position in the world.
Speaker 1: What about crypto? Is crypto now important for Wall Street?
Speaker 1: It's an important business? And are you a big believer
Speaker 1: in the viability and the good investment opportunities? And related
Speaker 1: to crypto.
Speaker 2: I'm a big believer in the technology of the blockchain
Speaker 2: and the ability for us to change the financial infrastructure
Speaker 2: the rails to increase speed and decrease friction, and that's
Speaker 2: a very very good thing for the system. That's different
Speaker 2: than a debate on the long term value of bitcoin.
Speaker 2: I don't have a I think bitcoin looks like a
Speaker 2: store of value. I don't have a real long term view,
Speaker 2: you know, on that a strong long term view, but
Speaker 2: I do. I do have a very strong view about tokenization, digitization,
Speaker 2: stable coins, and innovation around the whole financial infrastructure. It's coming,
Speaker 2: it's coming at a very quick pace, and to the
Speaker 2: degree that it increases speed, reduces friction, and allows for
Speaker 2: a more secure system, I think that's a very very
Speaker 2: good thing.
Speaker 1: So firms like yours seem to have two main businesses.
Speaker 1: I'll say one is investment banking and together is trading,
Speaker 1: which is stronger. Right now, investment banking or trading are
Speaker 1: both doing well.
Speaker 2: They're both big, important businesses, and it's evolved a little bit, David,
Speaker 2: because the way we run these businesses now we run
Speaker 2: it as one business global banking and markets, and it's
Speaker 2: our investment banking, fixed income, currencies and commodities and equities,
Speaker 2: franchises and the RUE is one business. We've obviously had
Speaker 2: an extraordinary leadership position in investment banking and M and A,
Speaker 2: and we've maintained and strengthened that. But in our trading businesses,
Speaker 2: we've increased our wallet share with our clients over the
Speaker 2: last five years by three hundred and eighty basis points,
Speaker 2: and so we've really created an ecosystem by getting these
Speaker 2: businesses to work together as one. Goldman sachs that our
Speaker 2: clients really feel like they've benefited from and so we've
Speaker 2: seen growth in those relatively mature businesses because of that.
Speaker 1: When COVID came, a lot of people work by zoom
Speaker 1: they had to really and then when COVID was over,
Speaker 1: people were urging their employees to come back to work.
Speaker 1: And there's still a little bit of a fight on
Speaker 1: Wall Street about whether people should work in the office
Speaker 1: five days a week or four days a week. What
Speaker 1: is your policy.
Speaker 2: We don't have a policy. We work. Ours is a
Speaker 2: culture of teamwork and collaboration and apprenticeship, and that works
Speaker 2: when people come together. But people also travel to see
Speaker 2: clients and people all so have busy, complex lives and
Speaker 2: we have to give them flexibility. We did that before COVID,
Speaker 2: we do that now. But fundamentally, people show up, they work.
Speaker 2: We don't have rules. They get their jobs done, they're accountable,
Speaker 2: they're present, and you know, we we come together.
Speaker 1: That's what We don't care if they're in the office
Speaker 1: five days or three days, as long as a job
Speaker 1: against done.
Speaker 2: As long as as long as they're doing what they
Speaker 2: need to do. And part of what you need to
Speaker 2: do is you need to be present, You need to
Speaker 2: mentor people. By the way, young people, they're coming to
Speaker 2: Golden Sacks to learn. All these young people we were
Speaker 2: talking about, they want to be present in the office
Speaker 2: and they want senior people around them.
Speaker 1: They want to learn what brings you to Washington other
Speaker 1: than this event, what you're doing and what what are
Speaker 1: you doing in Washington today?
Speaker 2: Principally, fifteen years ago, we created a program at Golden
Speaker 2: Sacks called ten Thousand Small Businesses. We had a thesis
Speaker 2: that if we could provide some boot camp business education
Speaker 2: for small businesses. Given the importance that small businesses play
Speaker 2: in our economy here in the United States, the entrepreneurial spirit.
Speaker 2: I think thirty five percent of the private workforce in
Speaker 2: the United States as small businesses, that if we could
Speaker 2: make an investment in that community and use our expertise,
Speaker 2: our knowledge and transmitted into that community, it would spur
Speaker 2: more investment, more economic growth. A few years ago, we
Speaker 2: created a platform called ten Thousand Businesses Voices to bring
Speaker 2: graduates of that program to d C periodically to go
Speaker 2: up on the hill and spend time with members and
Speaker 2: senators on policy issues. And so we have two thousand
Speaker 2: small businesses here. When you think about the power of
Speaker 2: the US economy, you can't understate how important this entrepreneurial spirit.
Speaker 2: It's different from other places in the world.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about your background. Where were you born.
Speaker 2: I was born in Westchester County, outside New York City,
Speaker 2: White Pins, White Plains.
Speaker 1: Name, And what did your parents do.
Speaker 2: My father had a financial printing business, like mutual fund Perspectuses,
Speaker 2: and you know Perspectus is in Manhattan, a small financial
Speaker 2: printing business. He was actually quite smart. He sold it
Speaker 2: in two thousand to one of the big financial printers
Speaker 2: that didn't exist after twenty ten. So I think he
Speaker 2: made I think he made a good trade. My mom
Speaker 2: was an audiologist at the Berke Rebilitation Hospital in White Plains.
Speaker 1: And were you a star student when you were in
Speaker 1: elementary or junior high school or high school?
Speaker 2: I would not say I was a star student. I
Speaker 2: would say that I was a distracted student, meaning I
Speaker 2: have lots of interests, and you know, studying hard was
Speaker 2: not one of them. There was a point when I
Speaker 2: really kind of got it when I was in college.
Speaker 2: But I would say I coasted more through through high school.
Speaker 1: To an athlete. Were you an athlete?
Speaker 2: I was. I was an athlete, but I was extremely mediocre,
Speaker 2: extremely mediocre.
Speaker 1: I know the feeling. Okay, So, so you went to
Speaker 1: Hamilton College because you admired Alexander Hamilton or.
Speaker 2: Well, I went to Hamilton College because I didn't get
Speaker 2: into Williams.
Speaker 1: Well, but you're the chair.
Speaker 2: But Hamilton College is a great school. I'm really glad.
Speaker 2: I'm really glad that I went there.
Speaker 1: You're the chair.
Speaker 2: I've voted the last twenty five years to service there
Speaker 2: and I do chair the board.
Speaker 1: Of the board. Now, fantastic enact Congratulations. So are you
Speaker 1: graduated from Hamilton? What did you major in?
Speaker 2: I majored in political science and I thought, I really
Speaker 2: thought I was going to go to law school.
Speaker 1: And you didn't miss anything, trust me.
Speaker 2: Well, it was very interesting. You know, all my friends
Speaker 2: were moving to New York and if you really think
Speaker 2: about it was nineteen eighty four and the financial services
Speaker 2: world kind of the bottom of what I would call
Speaker 2: was a long drag from the late sixties to nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty two. I mean the moment would be September fifteenth,
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty two, when the ten year Treasury at fifteen
Speaker 2: point nine percent. We were just starting to come out
Speaker 2: of that and see equities start to start to move
Speaker 2: again in banks and financial firms were creating analyst programs
Speaker 2: and banks were creating training programs, and all my friends
Speaker 2: were going to New York to do this. I didn't
Speaker 2: really know much about finance, but it was an opportunity
Speaker 2: to kind of continue what we were doing in college
Speaker 2: in an apartment in New York and where you could
Speaker 2: earn a salary of twenty two thousand dollars. So I
Speaker 2: got a job at the Irving Trust Company, which was
Speaker 2: a commercial bank and a bank training program, and I
Speaker 2: went to work on Wall Street, actually literally on Wall Street.
Speaker 2: Irving Trust headquarters was number one Wall Street.
Speaker 1: Did you interview for a job at Goldman Sacks and
Speaker 1: get turned down?
Speaker 2: I didn't interview. I sent a letter asking for an interview,
Speaker 2: and I got a reply back saying no, thank you.
Speaker 1: After Irving you went where.
Speaker 2: Back in those days, generally speaking, if you wanted a
Speaker 2: career on Wall Street, you had to go to business school.
Speaker 2: And so in the fall of nineteen eighty five and
Speaker 2: early nineteen eighty six, I was applying to business school,
Speaker 2: but I got an interview at Drexel Burnham Lambert in
Speaker 2: the Hijo bond department and in a small branch of
Speaker 2: it that was based in New York that basically traded
Speaker 2: and sold junk commercial paper if you can believe that
Speaker 2: product existed. And I took that job and went to
Speaker 2: Drexel burning I had a great experience Atdrexel Burnham. I
Speaker 2: learned a lot. My background was all around hyo bonds
Speaker 2: and credit trading.
Speaker 1: But you left before they went bankrump.
Speaker 2: I did. I I was competing for a piece of
Speaker 2: business with a Goldman sax partner's name was John winkel Read.
Speaker 2: And at the end of competing for that piece of
Speaker 2: business and actually doing that piece of business, it was
Speaker 2: actually a financing for Sheldon Adelson, who was building big
Speaker 2: casino hotels in Las Vegas. We raised them one point
Speaker 2: two billion dollars. In nineteen ninety eight, I started getting
Speaker 2: recruited to come to Goldman Sachs and I had been
Speaker 2: in a pretty senior position at bear Stearns, but I
Speaker 2: really thought it was an opportunity to go to work
Speaker 2: for what I believed was, you know, the most extraordinary
Speaker 2: financial firm on Wall Street.
Speaker 1: It's very unusual for it my mid to early career
Speaker 1: to go to Goldman because usually I'd hire people right
Speaker 1: on business score college and you went kind of as
Speaker 1: a lateral, and that was unusual. I assumed you had.
Speaker 2: That at the time. It wasn't unprecedented, but it was.
Speaker 2: It was unusual. The firm was just going public. I
Speaker 2: mean I came right after the IPO, and the firm
Speaker 2: in that year had gone out and hired you know,
Speaker 2: five or six partners that had real credibility because the
Speaker 2: firm was trying to grow and expand its footprints.
Speaker 1: So how many years were you there before where you
Speaker 1: became the CEO?
Speaker 2: Well, I became the CEO in twenty eighteen, so that
Speaker 2: means I was there nineteen years.
Speaker 1: So work your way up. Did you think when you
Speaker 1: join you wind up as a CEO?
Speaker 2: No, I didn't think I would be there for twenty years.
Speaker 2: I remember there was a partner who was a longtime
Speaker 2: partner named Bob Hurst who was talking who it was
Speaker 2: just kind of he was kind of winding down when
Speaker 2: I joined the firm, and I remember being at an
Speaker 2: event with clients and he was talking about all the
Speaker 2: years he had been at the firm, and I remember
Speaker 2: looking him and saying, well, I'll never make that many years.
Speaker 1: You became the CEO in October of twenty eighteen. The
Speaker 1: stock is up roughly three hundred percent since then. The
Speaker 1: market capitalization's up roughly three hundred percent, So people are
Speaker 1: pretty happy with you.
Speaker 2: I assume this week, I mean, you know, so you.
Speaker 1: Came out with your earnings, because last week your earnings
Speaker 1: were up per share I guess forty one percent per share,
Speaker 1: forty six percent, forty six percent over a year of year.
Speaker 1: But the stock went down two percent. And how can
Speaker 1: that be given how well you did.
Speaker 2: I guess they wanted earnings to be up fifty five percent.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, we we really don't. I mean
Speaker 2: it's hard for me because like any human being, you know,
Speaker 2: I have the screen on my desk or on my phone.
Speaker 2: But we're really you know, twenty eighteen, when this leadership
Speaker 2: team started, you know, through twenty eighteen, the end of
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen to twenty nineteen, we really developed a strategy
Speaker 2: to grow the firm, and we've made real progress, and
Speaker 2: we've grown the firm very materially. I mean, the market
Speaker 2: cap has grown as you highlight because we've grown the revenues.
Speaker 2: We've not quite doubled the revenues. We've taken the revenues
Speaker 2: from mid thirties to almost sixty and we've grown the
Speaker 2: earnings very very materially, and that's grown the market cap.
Speaker 2: And so we're executing on that strategy. And I think
Speaker 2: we've got a great strategy, an incredible team. We've got
Speaker 2: a client. We're incredibly focused on our clients and our
Speaker 2: client franchise, and you know, the stock will follow. Our
Speaker 2: job is to execute, to be patient, to take a
Speaker 2: long view. There will be cycles. At the moment, we're
Speaker 2: in a constructive cycle, so it feels like there are
Speaker 2: lots of tailwinds. There'll be more headwinds, but you know,
Speaker 2: over the next five years, I think we will continue
Speaker 2: to grow the firm, continue to deliver for our clients,
Speaker 2: and continue to deliver for shareholders.
Speaker 1: What percentage of your employees are not men?
Speaker 2: We've made a bunch of progress, especially in the senior rankspeicendily,
Speaker 2: not enough and we continue to be focused on creating opportunities,
Speaker 2: but it's a long, long road.
Speaker 1: What are the skill sets that enables somebody to rise
Speaker 1: up at.
Speaker 2: Goldman Goldman's no different than any other professional services firm.
Speaker 2: You know, I think one of the things that's important
Speaker 2: to be successful in a professional services firm is you
Speaker 2: have to enjoy interacting with people. It's a people business
Speaker 2: inside the firm because you work collaboratively on teams and
Speaker 2: you work collectively for the betterment of a group out
Speaker 2: of the firm. And you have to like working with clients.
Speaker 2: You have to like serving clients. You have to like
Speaker 2: responding to clients, you have to like talking to being
Speaker 2: with building relationships with clients, and so, you know, those
Speaker 2: are skills that matter. To do those things, you have
Speaker 2: to have to be smart, you have to be motivated.
Speaker 2: We have four core values client service, partnership, integrity, and excellence.
Speaker 2: And you know, all great businesses are underpinned by the
Speaker 2: leadership in the organization living those values and really trying
Speaker 2: to peak to the best of their ability to deliver
Speaker 2: against those values.
Speaker 1: So it used to be the case you had to
Speaker 1: be a man to rise up at Wall Street. Today,
Speaker 1: what percentage of your employees are are not men?
Speaker 2: We've made a bunch of progress, especially in the senior ranks,
Speaker 2: picendily not enough, and we continue to be focused on
Speaker 2: creating opportunities. But it's a long you know, to get
Speaker 2: to the top of the funnel. It's a it's a long,
Speaker 2: long road. And you know the sample set. I remember
Speaker 2: my training class, you know, it was it was ninety ten,
Speaker 2: you know, men to you know, men to women, you know,
Speaker 2: forty two years ago.
Speaker 1: Many people who go to a place like Goldman say
Speaker 1: that if you want to rise up yet they have
Speaker 1: an MBA. But you don't have an MBA, And so
Speaker 1: do you think it's necessary to get an MBA to
Speaker 1: rise up at Goldman or equivalent firms.
Speaker 2: I think there was a period, you know, thirty years
Speaker 2: ago where it really was, you know, the vast majority
Speaker 2: of people that rose up in the organization did have
Speaker 2: a business degree. I think that's changed, and the vast
Speaker 2: majority of people that rise up in the organization do
Speaker 2: not have a business degree. That doesn't mean that a
Speaker 2: business degree is not a valuable is not a valuable thing,
Speaker 2: but the you know, the world's changed. We can train
Speaker 2: and develop people, you know differently, and you know, real
Speaker 2: time experience is a valuable thing. And one of the
Speaker 2: strategic things that the business schools did that I think
Speaker 2: had an effect. If you go back to when I
Speaker 2: first started, you worked for two years and you went
Speaker 2: to business school. The business schools went to a mode
Speaker 2: where they really wanted people to get four to six
Speaker 2: years or seven years of experience, and so they kind
Speaker 2: of wound up with people went to business school more
Speaker 2: to career change, not to career continue, because if you
Speaker 2: were if you worked in finance for four or five years,
Speaker 2: you had learned a whole bunch of things real time
Speaker 2: on the job, where the value proposition you know, for
Speaker 2: going to business school wasn't the same as it was
Speaker 2: if you were only two years in.
Speaker 1: And if somebody is watching here and you want to
Speaker 1: summarize what you wish somebody would know about Goldman Sachs,
Speaker 1: what would it be.
Speaker 2: It's filled with extraordinary people that are just zealously focused
Speaker 2: on doing the best we can to serve our clients,
Speaker 2: to build trust, to take a long term view, to
Speaker 2: do the right thing, and really have the most be
Speaker 2: a part of and steward what I believe is the
Speaker 2: most extraordinary, very financial institution in the world, and to
Speaker 2: try to make it stronger, better than we found it.
Speaker 1: And your biggest worry today about what's going on in
Speaker 1: the world or the economy. Is there any one worry
Speaker 1: you're worried about.
Speaker 2: Or there are always risks, There are always things to
Speaker 2: worry about. We're constantly looking at our processes, looking at
Speaker 2: our risk, thinking about what can go wrong. And the
Speaker 2: reason for that is not because things aren't going to
Speaker 2: go wrong. Things will go wrong. What defines a financial
Speaker 2: institution when things go wrong is how the institution responds
Speaker 2: to it. You know, we are zealously focused on that
Speaker 2: because I guarantee things will go wrong. They always do.
Speaker 2: Environments change, bumps come. Risk is risk, and when you
Speaker 2: take risk, you know you have periods of time when
Speaker 2: you lose money or it's hard to make money. And
Speaker 2: what defines organizations is how they respond when things are tough,
Speaker 2: not how they respond when things are easy.
Speaker 1: Can you go out to dinner in New York without
Speaker 1: somebody saying, here's a resume or here's a deal.
Speaker 2: The greatest it's a privilege, and there's pleasure that comes
Speaker 2: with it. The greatest privilege is stewarding this firm is
Speaker 2: is the people that you get to work with that
Speaker 2: the firm is filled with the most extraordinary people that
Speaker 2: work so incredibly hard. You know, day in and day
Speaker 2: out to serve our clients. They're smart, they're motivated, and
Speaker 2: it's it's it's incredible to work with them, to be
Speaker 2: with them, and then also our clients and the opportunity.
Speaker 1: To particularly the private equity clients, the private.
Speaker 2: Equity clients, and it avouves the private equity clients. But
Speaker 2: the I mean, it's just it's it's the most enjoyable
Speaker 2: thing about the business is people and the ability to
Speaker 2: to learn and to be with people and be motivated
Speaker 2: by people and stimulated by people. It's it's it's really extraordinary.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to hear more of my interviews. You
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