My Story, Part 3: Ego & Wall Street

We moved to Washington, DC and then out of the blue I got a call from my first legal mentor who I had worked for in NYC from 1972-1975. He had left the practice of law and was now the Chairman and CEO of a global investment banking firm headquartered in NYC and London. He asked me to come see him in NYC. I did. 

In our meeting, he offered me a senior partnership to work for him overseeing IPOs, raising Private Equity for clients, and Tax Shelters. I told him I knew nothing about those areas and that I did not even know how to do an Internal Rate of Return computation. He looked at me and said: “I know all of that but I know you and you know how to learn”. His knowing that was based on my work with him on tax litigation cases where I had to go to Puerto Rico and work in factories in the mountains for days as a laborer being taught by the women employees how to make girdles and false teeth so that I could write detailed legal briefs describing each step of the value added in the manufacturing process.

So, I learned how to be an Investment Banker and spent 12 years in Investment Banking. That took me to Europe and Asia where I learned about different societal systems, cultures and history and ways of working.

My success was built upon my ability to continuously learn. I was good at “not knowing” and figuring out how to know. My work was alI about business results.  I took care of the people who worked for me but I had no time for personal chit chat with them. It was all about the numbers – I made no time to get to know them as human beings. All I cared about was their performance and helping them succeed professionally. I was driven to be the best and I was still a thinking machine. My ego was all wrapped up in being the best. How far could I go? Boy was I good. I was smart. As far as I knew, this is what success looked and felt like—I was on my way! Then, I “hit the wall”.