Mod note: Best of Eddie, this was originally posted on 3/14/12.
Wow. Goldman Sachs executive director Greg Smith, who is the head of US equity derivatives in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa resigned today with a huge "f**k you" to Goldman in the New York Times:
Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs
Citing the toxic culture fostered by Lloyd Blankfein and Gary Cohn, Smith finally got fed up and quit.
It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail. Even after the S.E.C., Fabulous Fab, Abacus, God’s work, Carl Levin, Vampire Squids? No humility? I mean, come on. Integrity? It is eroding. I don’t know of any illegal behavior, but will people push the envelope and pitch lucrative and complicated products to clients even if they are not the simplest investments or the ones most directly aligned with the client’s goals? Absolutely. Every day, in fact.
You young guys who get moist at the mere thought of working for Goldman Sachs would do well to take this article to heart.
DealBreaker is absolutely gonna annihilate this guy on the Bronze Medal in Table Tennis at the Maccabiah games line.
LOL.
So true. A meatball right into Bess's wheelhouse...
The culture he's talking about sounds very similar to Salmon Brothers.
Just out of curiosity, did the guy just scuttle the rest of his career? Or will every bank want him now sort of as a PR stunt for the bank (i.e. Bank cares about integrity)?
Quite obviously the latter...
Hey why do you think this is 'quite obvious' ? I've heard that people suspect he had an agenda in writing this, but there were several theories about what it might have been, ie, maybe he was screwed over by someone in the company, in which case he would probably stay in finance. But maybe he wants to enter politics? Is that an outlandish idea?
Yum, salmon.
I still would work for GS in a second.
Mmmm...salmon brothers. Sounds yummy, smoked I hope.
Agreed-it's all about perception. Some firm that values its perceived integrity relative to GS will scoop him up in a second (my money's on JPM, Dimon knows how to work a crowd.).
That reminded me of a recent tweet at gselevator: Without question, Michael Milken has done more for humanity than Mother Teresa.
Anyway, I think that's a bit over the top, DBL was doing illegal stuff and they all ended up in jail. There's a big difference between unethical and illegal.
I agree on the Dimon comment. He's very good with this shit, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets hired like next week.
It's a shame Salmon Brothers collapsed after that migration of grizzly bears came through.
I read Stanford scholarship and finalist for Rhodes Scolarship and then...bronze medal in table tennis at the Jewish olympics.
I can still see GS fanboys reading this and still thinking "so what...what a p**sy". You forget how important the work environment is until you get there.
Kudos to Greg that he got out rather than saying "this sucks but I'll leave after my next bonus...or the one after that".
This is probably the opposite of the truth. You can't tell me with a straight face that over the past 6 years, Goldman Sachs just spontaneously morphed into a moral-less beast that is now engulfing the global economic system. He made damn sure he sat through the boom times in 2005-2008, sat through a couple of tougher years thereafter, and then after the awful bonus season across capital markets just finally said fuck it.
But as the first one to leave a sinking ship, he creates the image that he is some sort of standard for ethics and morals, when in fact there is no way anyone on this board, or most anywhere else knows if that is truly the case.
Respect for him, not everybody have the balls to follow the ethics these days... Sidney Weinberg is probably turning in grave right now, sending ghosts to haunt on Lloyd...
I interned at GS this past summer...sounds pretty accurate sadly
And so the parodies have begun:
Why I am leaving the Empire, by Darth Vader
Greg Smith is Internet famous in less than three hours. Impressive.
I think the SB analogy is pretty accurate.
However, this doesn't necessarily mean that GS isn't the right place to start your career in. It's still the most "prestigious" place to be, so even if they decline you can just leave and you'll probably be better off having GS on your resume.
Fantastic piece, even if most Wall Street guido idiots will blow it off. And you could generally extrapolate this over the entire BB space right now. It's sad that the financial meltdown really didn't change much at all.
Another whining Jew, so what's new ? HE MAKES MILLIONS FOR 12 YEARS AND THEN BAILS OUT... What a piece of shit ! As if Investment Banking was ever about helping the client. IT WAS ALWAYS ABOUT RIPPING OFF THE CLIENT.
100%....TRUTH What a pussy, makes all this money "advises clients who are worth a total of $1 trillion" blah blah blah....Since Day 1, Wall St. was about making money first and foremost. That's just the nature of the beast. This guy is a puss looking for attention.
deleted.
=-)
Good article... Very Jerry Maguire-esque...
Interesting read. Not sure if a NYT op-ed is the best way to go, but if he wanted to become instantly famous in the world of finance, touche.
I believe everything he has to say. Hopefully Goldman can turn around that culture deterioration. And hopefully I can get into a good buy-side firm and not have to worry about it.
maximumrespect
My GS friends all want to leave, I'm not at all surprised.
When do we get the 'Greg Smith' book/film?
Bullshit.
I bet he ends up on the buyside, maybe somewhere like PIMCO... The article reminded me a little about John Knee's book, the Accidental Investment Banker. He was also at GS and is now at Evercore.
Wow
So Goldman is now 90s Morgan and Morgan is now 90s Goldman?
He may call them callous, I call them generators of shareholder wealth.
..
Wait, where did he go to undergrad?
But seriously, I like how he stuffed his entire resume in there. Looks like he isn't as immune from the dbag culture as he thought...
The scary thing is that you come here, you notice it, you hate it. Then you get used to it. Then you start to become it if you're not careful.
I just realized I'm paraphrasing Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption. Us bankers are institutionalized in our own sort of way.
He won the Bronze Medal in Table Tennis at the Maccabiah games ->the ontly thing I didnt know before reading this!
if investors are stupid enough to buy products they dont understand....
He had to explain his background somewhat to establish credibility, though he went over the top (ping pong).
As long as gs has that culture I will never work for them. I value my integrity too much to act in such atrocious manner towards my clients. Kudos to Greg for having the courage to leave, and speak against it.
cough bs cough
I know somebody who did an iBanking internship who overheard and MD on the phone, talking (she believes) to a potential client. It sounded like the MD was trying to pitch an M&A deal to an executive at the client company.
The MD said something like "Think of it as a house. Think of it as a boat."
M&A rarely creates value for the client company. It helps executives at the company empire-build and land big bonuses. There's a big conflict of interest involved
This is one of those academic arguments that doesn't really make any sense. Do you really believe that M&A rarely creates value? Do you really believe that shareholders are just stupid and allow 'executives to empire build'? Its just not true. Spend some time in the industry and you'll be able to see through your professor's rants.
Dude a majority of M&A deals fail...
Greg got dickslapped and now is crying foul...seriously dawg? Which fucking company out there cares about its customers??
Pepsi and Coke put cancerous shit in their products : http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/03/09/coke-pepsi-skirt-cancer-w…
Apple has fucking infants making iphones: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254221/Apple-admits-using-chil…
And this guy is saying Goldman's corrupt?? Buddy everyone's fucking corrupt...welcome to the system bud
strong correlation between name and what was written
Is this really anything new?
I make so much fucking money that I can brag in the New York Times about my moral superiority and table tennis skills. I'm such a baller, man. I went to Stanford, then got hired by Goldman Sachs. I'm so beautiful that I was featured in our campus recruitment video. I hate Goldman Sachs because I know the culture. I was There. I know these douchebags. And, I decided to quit because I'm better than all of them and all of you.
Signed, Glorious Douchebag
Notice how this whole thing is about doing right by your clients and now the guy is opening his own firm? NY Times OpEd is the best ad space you could never buy.
How is this article news?
I agree. It's not like clients are some naive entities that don't realize that Goldman is making some money off of them. What a travesty. Also, does he actually think that he got promoted and chosen for recruitment videos and shit for reasons more important than the fact he made them money?
This entire op-ed is stating the obvious, but it's still a PR nightmare because someone actually addressed what we already knew to exist
happypants, are you sure he's setting up his own shop and not joining another firm?
Some other perspectives:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/former-goldman-employees-divide-…
Yeah this is not exactly shocking news, more like what the public assumes the culture is like at every single bank.
Still interesting to see someone at his level torch those bridges though
Dear Goldman Sachs,
You're Fired!
Best, Kermit
Now somebody set up a parody Twitter account for him:
https://twitter.com/#!/MuppetGregSmith
Pretty funny.
Wait...Goldman Sachs is unethical? Shocking. Simply shocking.
Yawn. Back to work.
A person familiar with the matter said Mr. Smith’s role is actually vice president, a relatively junior position held by thousands of Goldman employees around the world. And Mr. Smith is the only employee in the derivatives business that he heads, this person said. - WSJ
Bill Cohan: Greg Smith is "toast" on Wall Street:
Story didn't make it on to today's WSJ issue. shucks :( Thanks for the post!
Hold on... a trading counterparty is trying to make money? That is preposterous!
/sarcasm
Well here's a great way to fuck your career up. I'm sure everyone else on Wall Street is just dying to have him working for them. What a dickhead.
As far as the op ed goes, you mean bankers don't want to make money? Wow! Tell me something I didn't know.
Well here's a great way to fuck your career up. I'm sure everyone else on Wall Street is just dying to have him working for them. What a dickhead.
As far as the op ed goes, you mean bankers don't want to make money? Wow! Tell me something I didn't know.
Did anybody notice how Goldman says fuck you to the whole world?
Have you seen their NJ office at 30 Hudson Street? It looks like a giant dick coming out of the ground. I just noticed while going to work today. Take a look:
http://nopests.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Goldman-Sachs-Tower…
Doesn't it look like a giant "fuck you' ?
"A person familiar with the matter said Mr. Smith’s role is actually vice president, a relatively junior position held by thousands of Goldman employees around the world. And Mr. Smith is the only employee in the derivatives business that he heads, this person said. - WSJ"
hahhahahaa
"There are three ways to make a living in this business: be first, be smarter, or cheat."
A VP at Goldman after 12 years? I doubt it. if you're still at that level after 12 years, you'll probably have already been fired as part of the 5/10% low performers.
Why I Am Applying for an Executive Director Position at Goldman Sachs
http://www.minyanville.com/sectors/financial/articles/greg-smith-goldma…
He looks like Blankfein's younger brother.
Take a piss on this fucker on sight
This guy is a tool. He is a VP after 12 years, was bitter about how his career was going, so decided to try to up his profile to launch something new by doing this...dont be shocked to see him on talk shows or with a book coming out soon. What did he just realizes that this business is dirty after 12 years? cmon man....
Consider, though, that no one would have given this story a second thought had he brought this up earlier in his career, when he was an analyst/associate. He's no saint, but if you want to be a whistleblower, the logical thing to do is wait until you're senior enough that people will listen, but still sure that your career is about done.
Anyone saying this guy's career is finished has no understanding of marketing. Anyone who thinks that this is not news, I don't know what the hell to tell you, this is a pretty significant blow to the company's reputation. Business is how people perceive your company, and while rumors and speculation of Goldman being a band of crooks is fairly bad, a 2 page letter from a senior member completely vilifying the business is far worse.
As it stands Goldman is on over 120 years of built reputation. The only reason Goldman has prestige in its name is a result of how the business was run in that duration.In the last 5 years it's beaten away a lot of that respect and now its running on residuals.
And yes we all realize finance as practiced in America from the 20th century on is a business of parting fools from their money, but you definitely need the fools trust before you can get to the parting bit.
Their reputation with their clients isn't THAT correlated to their reputation with the general public though. Of course their reputation with the general public matters too, because it could enter the political field, but their reputation with their clients is far more important
This reminds me of Mad Men... When they couldn't get a cig company, Don wrote a piece in the newspaper declaring they didn't want to deal with companies that killed people anymore...
What a load of bs, if it actually mattered that much to him, why did he stick around for so long. Now that he's made a good living for a few years, he comes out with this crap..
Sounds like he's trolling the troll. Greg is merely raising the stakes on the game. He'll prolly end up on top.
This guy is a dick. He talks about GS as if they were the devil's friends and doesn't mention that they treated him like a brother (who gets paid millions).
Greg Smith’s op-ed is nothing more than a cranky banker’s sex tape. Full argument here: http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/why-greg-smith-is-an-opportunist-…
Parasitic culture is everywhere in all lines and levels of business. It is cut throat anywhere you go, and your average working man is just as corrupt or greedy as any banker. And it is sustainable as long as you 1)"dont get caught" 2)continue making profit 3)destroy all your competition. That is the way it has been since life began on earth.
It's sad for GS, but they are in the wrong position at the wrong time in history. And given their situation, there is no alternative but to continue their current course. There is just no way that the short-term management at GS will sacrifice their short-term bonuses for the good of the long-term life of the company.
goldman stopped giving a shit about even pretending to serve its customers when it discovered the fed-treasury arb money machine.
Oh, and Fuck GS !
Checked with a buddy of mine in BB S&T in London. He said there's rumors floating around that this dude has been gunning for promotion for 3 years now and is disgruntled because he got rejected again. The rest of this moral superiority is just bullshit apparently. Who knows how much truth there is to this, but it seems far more likely than his assertion that Goldman's culture suddenly transformed from client focused altruism to ripping off the same clients.
LOL at the NY Times (The 'Paper of Record') getting hoodwinked by this dudes title and thinking he was a big shot. Way to do your research.
Eddie! We had this guy beat by a year on this whole derivatives business!
I've been at firms where I've been aligned with my clients/investors and others where I wasn't. There are structural reasons for misbehaviour (short term outlooks, transaction as opposed to relationship focus, etc...), but personal integrity is still a big deal no matter what your organisational constraints.
I suppose its difficult for the highschoolers/college guys on WSO to understand... This isn't a video game or simulation... You only have one reputation.
I agree with your post in spirit but you have to understand IB's have dual roles...'market makers' and then 'M&A'...in trading banks are the casino while in M&A you have to make the best deal to get the most commission.
This guy was in the derivatives group so his point of view is from a traders perspective and should not account for the M&A group.
Also your clients are not normal joes but pension funds and hedge funds. Both are looking to rip each other off. Thats been how it has been going for ages. This is happening across the street, but we all know GS is overaggressive and in bed with the regulators. I am not defending GS here, I am just saying "dont hate the playa , hate the game"
shit has hit the fan boys
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-15/goldman-stunned-by-op-ed-loses…
People should thank this guy for having the balls to come out and give a rare and refreshing view. Instead, they're focused on making a big deal about minor things with his character, position, earnings, and so on to avoid participation in the real discussion which is Goldman Sachs. The worst so far have been the quotes from "career coaches". Yeah, he committed career suicide in the financial industry, thanks for your shitty obvious advice.
If he was given the title of Executive Director outside of New York, then he's an executive director. Oh he's actually a "vice president" in New York? Why does that title difference even matter? It's not like he's a 1st year analyst. 12 years at Goldman Sachs is enough time to give a serious opinion on what he's seen at the company since he started. Too bad a lot of people in the interest of being politically correct and self-serving don't take honesty seriously.
GOLDMAN HEIR SPEAKS: Greg Smith Was Right, They Ruined My Great-Grandfather's Company
http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-goldman-iii-on-greg-smith-letter-2…
[quote=Edmundo Braverman]GOLDMAN HEIR SPEAKS: Greg Smith Was Right, They Ruined My Great-Grandfather's Company
http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-goldman-iii-on-greg-smith-letter-2…]
Oooooh snap!
I think we all need to bear in mind that clients of investment banks can be just as cutthroat, manipulative, and banal as the investment bankers. A lot of Goldman clients have big money, and they know it. They're both trying to get the most they can out of the other; it's called sales. It isn't like negotiating your cell phone bill with the Verizon guys.
Would READ HIS BOOK !
Although this guy may have just ruined his career he did a good thing by calling them out. There is a saying that goes doing nothing in the face of evil is evil. I'm glad he told the truth and I hope he finds a more rewarding career soon.
Sometimes people just need to stand up against a casino-en-ligne and tell the truth instead of cowering down and remaining quiet because you are afraid of losing your career.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2012/03/16/has-goldman-sachs-b…
very interesting article no wonder tech companies have such die hard followers
Love the Mad Men comparisons. I have no doubt in my mind that this stunt was inspired by Don Draper.
This guy fancies himself a business renegade and this was much more about self-promotion than integrity. It's not that hard to "take a stand" when you'll just fall backwards into a pile of money if it backfires.
Is it just me or occupy dummies are signing up on WSO to hate on Goldman?
its just you... very few of us are lucky enough to be on the right side of a trade with the goldmans sachs.... its a great feeling (i love it).
you'll learn once you've been in the industry for a while and have had your ass handed to you / a deposit made inside you...
I'll second this. The firm I work at primes with the Sachs, but we don't we trade with them if at all possible, mainly because "everyone" knows they are trading on inside information. Greg Smith's letter is flawed for a lot of reasons, but mainly because his core premise is that clients will leave if they know the firm is underhanded. You can't leave the Sachs, you have to be a client to get into the flow in certain products and have general intel on what is happening in various corners of the Street. It's a necessary evil. Unless the Sachs starts directly robbing from client accounts, clients are not going to leave. Where I work, we constantly joke about how deceptive GS is, but recognize that we can't really do anything about it except exercise caution.
Trade with them at your own risk and with the assumption that they are going to fuck you. Mostly, we just prime with them because they have one of the best prime brokerage set ups, and in this particular function, have exceptional customer service (unlike some other BBs where we have had bad experiences). But we NEVER give them information about what we are doing. I've had strategy meetings in various parts of the world with high level Sachs people and they ALWAYS fish for information that they can use against you. You know what? They get the finger. I tell them the opposite of whatever we're doing. Want to go long? I say I'm interested in short and then trade through another channel. Fuck em.
In general, be afraid of anyone pushing flow when they have their own prop desk, especially if that someone is Goldman. But they can open doors for you, especially overseas, and that is valuable.
Bravo to both of you. I love a good underdog story. No flame.
Thanks for the compliment
I had a meeting with a top tier executive at an F500 that had experience with Goldman on a regular basis due to heavy M&A activity. When GS was brought up during our conversation, he had this to say about them:
"Those guys over at Goldman may make a lot of money, but let's be real here..they're nothing but a bunch of whores"
Haha couldn't believe he said that. Sadly, seems to be somewhat accurate
The only lesson here is that this is a clear example of how not to leave GS, or any firm. The culture is what it is and if you don't like it, leave, but do it quietly.
"Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs" OpEd (Originally Posted: 03/14/2012)
What do you guys think about the Greg Smith OpEd in the NYT? (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/why-i-am-leaving-goldman-sach…)
He complains about what leadership has turned into at Goldman, yet his way of dealing with it is to quit in protest? That's the easy way out. What's he going to do next? Go to another bank?
You want to fix leadership? Write the same OpEd.... and stay at Goldman! Fight the machine, don't run away with your tail between your legs. Goldman culture wasn't based on people that quit when they didn't like something. They operated with unfaltering integrity and clients, employees and competitors followed. This is a leadership void indeed.
...you think he could stay at goldman after writing something like this? are you fucking nuts?
and this is the 3rd time this has been posted btw
He'll find a job on the buy-side for sure.
I make so much fucking money that I can brag in the New York Times about my moral superiority and table tennis skills. I'm such a baller, man. I went to Stanford, then got hired by Goldman Sachs. I'm so beautiful that I was featured in our campus recruitment video. I hate Goldman Sachs because I know the culture. I was There. I know these douchebags. And, I decided to quit because I'm better than all of them and all of you.
Signed, Glorious Douchebag
^ LMAO.
I met Gary Cohn at an alumni dinner in Manhatten, he seemed like a nice guy who did come off quite intimidating.
Goldman wants Patrick Batemans, the rest are losers and weak. That's the impression I got from their recruiting, site visit and from Gary Cohn.
Didn't take long for parodies. "Why I Left The Empire" by Darth Vader. http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/why-i-am-leaving-the-empire,…
also being discussed here ... http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/greg-smiths-f-u-to-goldman
Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs (Originally Posted: 03/15/2012)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/why-i-am-leaving-goldman-sach…
March 14, 2012 Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs By GREG SMITH TODAY is my last day at Goldman Sachs. After almost 12 years at the firm — first as a summer intern while at Stanford, then in New York for 10 years, and now in London — I believe I have worked here long enough to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.
To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.
It might sound surprising to a skeptical public, but culture was always a vital part of Goldman Sachs’s success. It revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing right by our clients. The culture was the secret sauce that made this place great and allowed us to earn our clients’ trust for 143 years. It wasn’t just about making money; this alone will not sustain a firm for so long. It had something to do with pride and belief in the organization. I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years. I no longer have the pride, or the belief.
But this was not always the case. For more than a decade I recruited and mentored candidates through our grueling interview process. I was selected as one of 10 people (out of a firm of more than 30,000) to appear on our recruiting video, which is played on every college campus we visit around the world. In 2006 I managed the summer intern program in sales and trading in New York for the 80 college students who made the cut, out of the thousands who applied.
I knew it was time to leave when I realized I could no longer look students in the eye and tell them what a great place this was to work.
When the history books are written about Goldman Sachs, they may reflect that the current chief executive officer, Lloyd C. Blankfein, and the president, Gary D. Cohn, lost hold of the firm’s culture on their watch. I truly believe that this decline in the firm’s moral fiber represents the single most serious threat to its long-run survival.
Over the course of my career I have had the privilege of advising two of the largest hedge funds on the planet, five of the largest asset managers in the United States, and three of the most prominent sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East and Asia. My clients have a total asset base of more than a trillion dollars. I have always taken a lot of pride in advising my clients to do what I believe is right for them, even if it means less money for the firm. This view is becoming increasingly unpopular at Goldman Sachs. Another sign that it was time to leave.
How did we get here? The firm changed the way it thought about leadership. Leadership used to be about ideas, setting an example and doing the right thing. Today, if you make enough money for the firm (and are not currently an ax murderer) you will be promoted into a position of influence.
What are three quick ways to become a leader? a) Execute on the firm’s “axes,” which is Goldman-speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other products that we are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential profit. b) “Hunt Elephants.” In English: get your clients — some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom aren’t — to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like selling my clients a product that is wrong for them. c) Find yourself sitting in a seat where your job is to trade any illiquid, opaque product with a three-letter acronym.
Today, many of these leaders display a Goldman Sachs culture quotient of exactly zero percent. I attend derivatives sales meetings where not one single minute is spent asking questions about how we can help clients. It’s purely about how we can make the most possible money off of them. If you were an alien from Mars and sat in on one of these meetings, you would believe that a client’s success or progress was not part of the thought process at all.
It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail. Even after the S.E.C., Fabulous Fab, Abacus, God’s work, Carl Levin, Vampire Squids? No humility? I mean, come on. Integrity? It is eroding. I don’t know of any illegal behavior, but will people push the envelope and pitch lucrative and complicated products to clients even if they are not the simplest investments or the ones most directly aligned with the client’s goals? Absolutely. Every day, in fact.
It astounds me how little senior management gets a basic truth: If clients don’t trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you. It doesn’t matter how smart you are.
These days, the most common question I get from junior analysts about derivatives is, “How much money did we make off the client?” It bothers me every time I hear it, because it is a clear reflection of what they are observing from their leaders about the way they should behave. Now project 10 years into the future: You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the junior analyst sitting quietly in the corner of the room hearing about “muppets,” “ripping eyeballs out” and “getting paid” doesn’t exactly turn into a model citizen.
When I was a first-year analyst I didn’t know where the bathroom was, or how to tie my shoelaces. I was taught to be concerned with learning the ropes, finding out what a derivative was, understanding finance, getting to know our clients and what motivated them, learning how they defined success and what we could do to help them get there.
My proudest moments in life — getting a full scholarship to go from South Africa to Stanford University, being selected as a Rhodes Scholar national finalist, winning a bronze medal for table tennis at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, known as the Jewish Olympics — have all come through hard work, with no shortcuts. Goldman Sachs today has become too much about shortcuts and not enough about achievement. It just doesn’t feel right to me anymore.
I hope this can be a wake-up call to the board of directors. Make the client the focal point of your business again. Without clients you will not make money. In fact, you will not exist. Weed out the morally bankrupt people, no matter how much money they make for the firm. And get the culture right again, so people want to work here for the right reasons. People who care only about making money will not sustain this firm — or the trust of its clients — for very much longer.
Greg Smith is resigning today as a Goldman Sachs executive director and head of the firm’s United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
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Corrupti a eum et iusto molestiae tempora. Voluptas fugiat assumenda non laborum laudantium non assumenda. Aliquid nesciunt officiis voluptas quia expedita non. Quasi omnis dolor ea quisquam recusandae.
Nobis provident vel itaque. Dolorem fugiat doloribus corporis tempore iure et est. Sint porro tenetur odit vero dolorem molestiae voluptate id. Dolor odio id quibusdam et ut autem.
Numquam cum et dolor accusantium. Provident totam delectus vero odio assumenda voluptas ea. Eum qui dolorum repellendus voluptate est nobis aut. Perferendis sapiente voluptas ex aut aut provident quia delectus. Quibusdam laudantium qui atque aut voluptate dicta facilis.
Dolorem dicta quidem fugiat autem dignissimos ea. Qui totam accusantium veritatis soluta aut. Omnis omnis labore aut aspernatur voluptas rerum.
Perferendis odio quam sit voluptas et ea. Non assumenda nesciunt aliquam in consequuntur.
Officiis eveniet in iure consectetur facilis est. Commodi quaerat animi beatae officia aut voluptates. Quo libero numquam minus recusandae aut. Molestias reiciendis ut et neque magni voluptatibus blanditiis. Expedita rerum velit enim aut hic libero. Cumque corrupti beatae nobis unde.
Aspernatur qui odio ut beatae optio. Dolorum consequatur quisquam molestiae est. Officia veritatis non ut doloribus et facilis. Enim autem hic dolore repellat nemo et maiores.
Quidem rem debitis quo praesentium soluta id dicta velit. Aut occaecati occaecati ut sed sunt animi.
Rerum fugit cum qui consectetur. Nihil possimus aperiam voluptatum voluptates sint. Omnis mollitia sit nemo molestias delectus autem molestiae architecto. Aut possimus aspernatur aut nemo deleniti ex perferendis perspiciatis. Quidem porro vel dolorem mollitia asperiores. Doloremque error voluptatem qui omnis. A nisi sed officiis laudantium sed optio ratione.
Voluptates ipsa fugiat ut sed sit tenetur. Iusto quia nemo ut. Aperiam et non et praesentium est reiciendis possimus.