One of My Favorite Stories
In
reading Michael Lewis's The
Big Short, I was reminded of a
story that touched me deeply when I read his first book, Liar's
Poker.
I loved Liar's
Poker, about some of the messes
at the bottom (and top) of Wall Street. Truth be told, I love Wall
Street as an idea, and often dislike the individual acts of mendacity
that get written about as "Wall Street". Merchant
bankers are necessary, and good ones are a national treasure. Bad
ones...are in jail.
I'd be willing to bet
that Michael Lewis, when he wrote Liar's
Poker, didn't intend
for some corporate guy (me) to remember this one story. The story he
wanted me to remember was how the entire industry wasn't as
great as people thought it was, and he was living proof. Or, the story
about two guys (my recollection is Merriwether and Gutfruend, but
it's been years) betting a million dollars on a game that was
about bluffing (Liar's Poker).
Anyway, here's the
story. The head of the mortgage bond trading department was a guy named
Lewie Ranieri. Today, Ranieri is a legend on Wall Street. But in
1968...
"...he
was a sophomore English major...when he took a part time job on the
night shift in the Salomon Brothers mailroom...at 70 dollars a week.
His wife lay ill in the hospital, and the bills simply accumulated.
Ranieri needed ten thousand dollars. He was nineteen years old, and all
he had to his name was his weekly paycheck.
He
finally got up the courage to request A LOAN from a partner at Salomon
whom he knew only VAGUELY. ...The partner told Ranieri that the
hospital bill would be taken care of. Ranieri thought that meant it
would be deducted from his weekly paycheck, which he couldn't
afford, and he began to protest.
"It will be taken care of," the partner repeated. Salomon
Brothers then paid the ten thousand dollar bill racked up by the wife
of the mail room clerk with three months' tenure.
There was no committee meeting...The partner...hadn't even
paused before giving his answer. It was understood that they bill would
be paid, for no reason other than it was the right thing to do...
The
act moved Ranieri deeply.
You could do worse than work
for a company with leaders like that.
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