Learning from the man that steered the largest bank through the 2008 housing crisis

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Subject: Learning from the man that steered the largest bank through the 2008 housing crisis

10X Funnel Hackers

Lloyd Blankfein is the most sought after financial experts on planet Earth. Twice named Time Magazine’s “Most Influential People in the World.” During the housing crisis, from 2006 through 2018, he served as chairman and CEO of the second largest investment bank in the

world, Goldman Sachs. In the 12 years with him at the helm, they generated half a trillion dollars in revenue.

"Motivation simply because I really wanted to get to a better place." The son of a mail sorter and a receptionist, Lloyd Blankfein grew up in Brooklyn in public housing. He got lucky because he got a great opportunity and wen to Harvard. "I was always ambitious. I was always scrounging. I got my working papers I was 13...I sold popcorn and peanuts at Yankee Stadium and I delivered for the local pharmacy. I tutored kids for $1.50 an hour. And so I was always pretty much driven to work. Life was simple in those days. So I had I felt like I had no choice. I was motivated."

Leading through the stress of a financial crisis: "I would say you gotta use the adrenaline...it came with the territory. And I can look back and say that, of course it drives you to higher levels...But I wouldn’t call it stress. I was talking about a commitment, a sense of responsibility, duty, and that creates an urgency and maybe that’s another word for stress, to perform. And I always wanted to perform. I always thought about who I’d be disappointing if I didn’t do it that way. I had to get cohorts of people moving in the same direction and not be frozen in fear because we were going through a crisis. The biggest thing I had to deal with I’d say…you’re talking to 40,000 people, "the best thing here would be if 1% of us deals with the problems and the other 99% do your jobs, serve your clients, accomplish your mission in the world."

Cultivate the team players and weed out the superstars: "One of the burdens and obligations of management is to recruit the right people, retain the right people, and motivate the right people. We spend a lot of time looking at people. The most important thing in everybody’s level is to make sure they’re bringing up people and bringing to their bosses the attention of people who work for them. There’s some people who are selfish and greedy and those guys get weeded out. But the best compliment you can have in my old firm is that you are a good partner, you are good team player."

"Well, crisis is bad, you know, you can get killed but it’s also opportunity. So you want to be both. You want to protect yourself. You want to protect your downside. But the winner is going to be the person who gets in front first, and figures out what to buy and how to take advantage, you know, I hate to say this, but other people’s distress."

How important is success? You have to be good. You know you have to convince other people but you also have to be a salesman to yourself. That’s the most important sale that you’re gonna make. You have to pump yourself up.For more detail, download the notes from his talk by clicking here.

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Subject: Learning from the man that steered the largest bank through the 2008 housing crisis