The long-tenured CEO of Goldman Sachs - an institution legendary for its far-sighted culture of success - shares the hard-won wisdom gained from a life in global leadership
From the long-tenured head Goldman Sachs - an institution legendary for its culture of success - comes a candid memoir of global leadership in an age of extreme turbulence.
'Lloyd Blankfein is scary smart about people, markets, and life generally. His 10,000 Small Businesses idea proved to be a huge winner, and I personally witnessed the time and effort he devoted to its success. During the 2008-2009 financial crisis, Lloyd acted decisively, and he tells the story of what happened with unique insights.'
WARREN BUFFETT
'Lloyd Blankfein has always been a straight shooter, but his journey from public housing to the heights of Wall Street wasn't a straight line. Streetwise is packed with important lessons about leadership, risk-taking, decision-making, and giving back.'
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG
When Lloyd Blankfein was attacked as a Wall Street fat cat, he had to smile, thinking of his precarious childhood in the notorious public housing projects of East New York, Brooklyn, and attending a high school so chaotic he didn't feel safe leaving class to go to the bathroom in his time there. Harvard University was a total moonshot, and his outsider status never wore off, there or at Harvard Law. When he struck people as street-y, it wasn't Wall Street they were thinking of. But if the chip never quite left Blankfein's shoulder, neither did a wry, resilient spirit and a lucid, democratic intelligence that saw through airs and found talent and ideas in unlikely places.
Streetwise is a delightfully honest, sharp and often very funny reckoning with Blankfein's education - in finance, human nature and the workings of the world. It abounds with lessons about leading teams of brilliant, aggressive, competitive people and harmonising them around shared goals; changing when times are hard and when they're good; managing risk; and knowing a crisis is at hand before it swamps you so you can guide your team to the further shore. Blankfein is famed for his calm hand on Goldman Sachs's tiller during the global financial crisis, and that story is told in full here, among many other decisive episodes.
A powerful blueprint for the wise stewardship of a cause that is larger than yourself, Streetwise will inspire and inform readers throughout the global business community and beyond.
About the Author
Lloyd Craig Blankfein is an American investment banker who has served as senior chairman of Goldman Sachs since 2019, and chairman and chief executive from 2006 until the end of 2018. Before leading Goldman Sachs, he was the company's president and chief operating officer (COO) from 2004 to 2006, serving under then-CEO Henry Paulson.
Born and raised in New York City, Blankfein attended Harvard University for his undergraduate and law school studies before briefly entering private law practice. After leading Goldman's currency and commodities divisions from 1994 to 1997 he served as the president and chief operating officer from 2004 to his ascension to chief executive. Almost immediately after Blankfein assumed the head of the company, the financial crisis of 2007-08 hit the banking industry.
Blankfein was twice named one of the most influential people in the world by Time magazine and won the Financial Times Person of the Year award in 2009.
