Yahoo Finance Trump's top economic adviser Gary Cohn has the ultimate Wall Street underdog story
Gary Cohn, the president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs, has accepted President-elect Donald Trump’s offer to be the director of the National Economic Council.
Cohn, 56, has an incredible Wall Street underdog story, which is featured in Malcolm Gladwell’s “David And Goliath.”
Growing up in Shaker Heights, a Cleveland suburb, Cohn struggled with dyslexia. At one point, he overheard a teacher tell his parents they’d be “lucky” if he grew up to be a truck driver. Despite the adversity, he finished high school and went on to graduate from American University in 1982. His first job after college was selling window frames and aluminum siding for US Steel.
While on a company trip to New York, Cohn convinced his manager to give him a day off to visit New York City. During this trip, he visited the commodities exchange at the World Trade Center complex. From the observation deck, he watched the action on the trading floor below. That’s when he devised a plan to get a Wall Street job.
“…Then I walk down to the floor with the security gate and stand at the security gate, like someone is going to let me in. Of course no one is. And then literally right after the market’s closed, I see this pretty well-dressed guy running off the floor, yelling to his clerk, ‘I’ve got to go, I’m running to LaGuardia, I’m late, I’ll call you when I get to the airport,'” Cohn told Gladwell in the book. “I jump in the elevator, and say, ‘I hear you’re going to LaGuardia.’ He says, ‘Yeah,’ I say, ‘Can we share a cab?’ He says, ‘Sure.’ I think this is awesome. With Friday afternoon traffic, I can spend the next hour in the taxi getting a job.”
The man Cohn asked to share a cab with ran the options business for a brokerage shop. During the ride, the man laughed and confessed to Cohn that he didn’t even know what an option was.
But Cohn didn’t exactly play along.
“I lied to him all the way to the airport,” Cohn told Gladwell. “When he said, ‘Do you know what an option is?’ I said, ‘Of course I do, I know everything, I can do anything for you.’ Basically by the time we got out of the taxi, I had his number. He said, ‘Call me Monday.’ I called him Monday, flew back to New York Tuesday or Wednesday, had an interview, and started working the next Monday. In that period of time, I read McMillan’s “Options as a Strategic Investment” book. It’s like the Bible of options trading.”
It was a difficult task to finish the book. Even today, it still takes Cohn about six hours to read 22 pages, Gladwell noted.
Cohn began his career on the commodities floor. In 1990, he joined Goldman’s commodities trading unit, J. Aron — the same unit where Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein got started. In 1994, he was made partner.
$GS Pres & COO Gary Cohn celebrates his 25th yr @GoldmanSachs today–here’s a photo from his 1st day at the firm #TBT pic.twitter.com/XqxHkimfVm
— Goldman Sachs (@GoldmanSachs) May 28, 2015
“Gary Cohn and I have been partners for more than 25 years, so I know better than perhaps anyone that he has the intelligence, commitment, and experience to be successful at any endeavor he undertakes,” Blankfein said in a statement on Monday.
Blankfein added: “We will miss Gary at Goldman Sachs, but I believe the American people and the President-Elect are fortunate that he has chosen to serve his country. I am confident that Gary will bring his many talents and expertise to the White House and will do his part to make our economy stronger for all Americans.”
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Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance.
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