"Catch-Up With David": Lloyd Blankfein

So, I'm sitting and I'm thinking about Monday, and I'm excited, but I remember so vividly back in May 2006, your first day. And I remember how quickly it happened. I remember hearing from you over Memorial Day weekend, and then like the next day, you were the CEO. Having now done it and looking back, what do you wish you knew that first day that you can pass on to me that'll help me? Well, I think, you know, I think you have a lot of the stuff down. I could tell you what I wasn't used to. There was a very big gap between the attention I got the day before and the attention I got the day I started as CEO. And it was a very, very big chasm. I think you had a, as kind of CEO elect, CEO in waiting, you had a time to, you know, gin up for that. And there's an adjustment that has to be made for that. Not only just the weirdness of it, but also the response that you have to do and how to organize your calendar, how to select and prioritize a sense of what's owed to you and what you owe to others. And for me, it was kind of sudden. There's undoubtedly disadvantages and advantages to everything. But one of the things that because of the, you know, radical nature of my transition, it left me with a sense of what I would want to do for my, for my successor. Yeah. By the way, I'm appreciative of it because it's, it's, I can't imagine as I've, as I've gone through a bunch of what I've gone through the last few months and getting ready for this and moving to the next stage, I can't imagine if I had to do it the way you did it. Hopefully, hopefully I would have risen to the occasion, but. I have a thought, I have total confidence. And beyond that, I will say, you are so much more equipped and prepared than I was when I, when I went in because my, well, my experiences were very fairly localized on the trading side of the business. That's a long time ago now. Right. And when I got to be president, obviously I started to comprehend the whole firm, but not as long period. Your background, you were in the trading divisions, you were a capital market originator, obviously investment banker. So your comprehension of the, of the breadth of the firm's activities, you know, was much more in place than when I got the job. When you, when you look back and I know you, you've, you've really, you've loved this job, not every day, not every moment for sure, but I just, I see how much energy you still have around the firm and the place and the partnership and the people and all. There's no question that you, you love it. You've got enormous passion for it. What, what, what have you loved the most? You know, I'll just, you know, not to be, not to quibble on semantics, but let me tell you, I'm sure from the outside, it didn't look like every moment was a lovable moment. Definitely not. I would say I appreciated the job. I valued it. I, I liked and appreciated the responsibility and the consequences of it. And at any given moment, if I wanted to stop, I could have made it stop and I didn't. So loved is a funny word because obviously when you're, you know, some of the things I had to go through at the time and some of the press and some of the testimony in certain circumstances and the pressure and can't say, gosh, I loved every moment of it, but I always appreciated it. And the weight of responsibility I valued because we were always in the arena. You could always, I could always have stepped out and made myself an observer, but there's something about being in the arena and engaging in that thing. And gosh, I wouldn't have traded any set of experiences for the ones I had. Now that's, I mean, that's one of the things that, that I've really learned watching you over all these years is the way, you know, the way you carry the responsibility and that it's not always easy. And, you know, sometimes it's really exciting. Sometimes it's really, really hard, but it's, you know, it's a marathon and you've got to be humbled by the position that you're in, but you're responsible. You know, we're all wired the way we're wired, you know, listening to you say this, I think, oh my goodness, I wish I'd done this. And I wish I'd done that. And I wish I'd been better, but that's the way, you know, that's the way we are. Look, we make decisions. We make a million decisions. We say yes to some investments, no to others. We, we sell companies, we sell it to this one. We don't sell it to that one. We support some views of the way the world's going to evolve and don't support others. And not everyone's going to like every decision we make. And not every decision we make is going to be right. I know you think the way I do about this. You never think about what you're owed. You always think about what you owe someone else. Like I always say to people in positions like the one I have, the one you're having, is you can always make it stop. If you're not making it stop, think of what you owe everybody else for being able to have this position. And look, I'm not saying, you know, there's places in life where you can have more fun, more influence. There are other smart people in the world, other important jobs, but this is kind of up there. And so it's a privilege to have it. And for the privilege, you always have to remind yourself what you owe to the people who support you in this privileged position. Now you talk about voice and influence. You know, you've used Twitter effectively at times and humorously many times, I would say, to send messages and to weigh in on important issues. You know, sometimes to really weigh in and sometimes just because in a way that you can be, you just want to be funny and just kind of participate in the discussion. The world's changing a lot. You know, social media. I know you're doing Instagram. We're doing Instagram. So you've elevated it. I only did writing. You're doing pictures. Already we're showing progress. Pictures are easier. We're showing. Well, I don't know. Writing goes with it. Are you going to have an Instagram account after you leave, after you retire? I might, I might do more. You know, I was very conscious and this is something that you'll have to think about too. I was always conscious that one of the reasons why I was in, you know, maybe what I said was clever, maybe it was smart, who knows, but really why people were interested in it, it was because of me and why they were interested in So I was always thinking every time I made a public statement like that, I was conscious that the platform that gives me the voice and the leverage I have is a platform that really belongs to the firm and the constituents of the firm. So I tended to tweet and give public statements on immigration issues because it affected the people in the firm, marriage equality because it affected the ability in our firm to live the lives in the best spirit. Things related to the economy, if I thought we had a special expertise, but stayed away from things in which the firm really had no interest. No, you always, and we talked about this a lot, you always thought about, you know, how is this relevant to our firm, to our people, you know, to our stakeholders. In the next iteration, I don't know. I might do more. I might venture forward on opinions that are my own opinions without any regard for whether they serve the constituencies and the interests of Goldman Sachs. You know, in general, not necessarily looking forward to leaving Goldman, but one of the things I look forward to is unrestrained tweeting because you have your, you know, my sense of obligation stuck with me for that. And I'm sure you'll feel the weight of that too. You know, just to wrap up, what will you miss the most? You know, I will, we should talk in a year about what I'll miss the most because I'll find out. On the personal side, I think it's time for somebody new and with a new sense. I mean, I feel pretty energetic, but a lot of what I wanted to accomplish, I have, and you'll come in with a new vision, a new set of eyes. And for me, I'll have to find out what I miss about it. I'm anticipating, of course, I'll miss the people to some extent, the interaction. I hope to do, but won't be the same, but I hope to get the equivalent satisfaction out of the next chapter. And I'll say, you know, my expectation is that there'll be a next chapter for me. And so whatever I miss, I hope not to miss for long. I hope you don't miss for long. We'll miss you. Okay. Well, you're good to say it. And guess what? Call me anytime. I will. Okay, good. Thanks, Lloyd.