Billionaire philanthropist and former energy trader John Arnold recalls how he became interested in a finance career as a teenager. Arnold was a star natural gas trader at Enron before opening his own hedge fund Centaurus Capital that he ran for 10 years. Today, Arnold runs a prolific philanthropic foundation with his wife Laura. Arnold spoke in an interview for "Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein" at an event for law firm Baker Botts. This interview was recorded May 3. -------- Like this video? Subscribe to The David Rubenstein Show on YouTube: / @davidrubenstein
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Vanderbilt is in Tennessee.
So did you want to stay in
Tennessee or do you want to go
back to Texas.
So you're coming from Dallas.
Maybe go back a little bit here.
But my parents used to ask me
what do I want to be when I grow
up.
I said I want to be a
millionaire when I'm 30.
And they said no that's not a
job.
What do you want to be.
I don't know but I want to get
to be a millionaire when I'm 30.
And in 1989 I'm 15 years old and
liars poker comes out.
And this is a very famous book.
It tells the story of 80s Wall
Street through the lens of
Solomon Solomon Brothers bond
trading desk.
And you know this is like the
first introduction I have to
what Wall Street is.
Reading this book I'm like
that's where the game is.
It's like the Willie Sutton line
about why do you rob banks is
because that's where the money
is.
Well why you want to go work at
a bank because that's where the
money is.
In 1995 I didn't get the Wall
Street job.
And so the closest thing I got
was a job at Enron which was I
was developing this merchant
bank around the natural gas
industry which was in a very
interesting time in the mid 90s.
And I said well that's the
closest thing I got.
I go do that for a couple of
years in Houston and go back to
business school and figure out
what I want to do.
