Lloyd Blankfein

Forbes richest lists are dominated by self-made middle-class strivers, not old-money dynasties

Blankfein observes that scanning the wealthiest Americans today, you see almost no Morgans, Rockefellers, or other generational-wealth names — instead, the list is filled with socially mobile people who created wealth from modest backgrounds.

“It turns out that if you look at the lists of most successful people or wealthiest people in the US, you're not seeing a lot of Morgans or Rockefellers or any of these classical family names. On that list, you're seeing basically people not necessarily growing up in poverty, but they were kind of middle-class people who did, you know, who did well. These are not, you know, generational wealthy people coming along. A lot of people were socially mobile in their lives and, you know, created wealth for others and, you know, and a piece of it stuck to them.”

Even the most powerful people in the world want affirmation and are deeply insecure

Blankfein says that after decades of meeting world leaders and top executives, the most consistent surprise is how normal, insecure, and approval-seeking they are. He suggests that insecurity and personal flaws often drive extraordinary success.

“The bigger takeaway is that I've known people who've done very, very well and in high office and high there. And guess what? After they finished speaking, they said, how— they say, how did I do? Like they want affirmation and they're insecure and the kids don't always like them. People are a lot more normal.”

Blankfein became Goldman CEO only because his predecessor was tapped for Treasury Secretary

Blankfein credits fortune as much as skill for his rise: his predecessor becoming Treasury Secretary opened the CEO slot at the right moment. He uses this to argue that luck — the ball bouncing right — is underappreciated in elite success.

“I got to be CEO of Goldman Sachs because my predecessor, got nominated to be Treasury Secretary. Had he not been that, maybe he would've lasted 5 more years in the job and maybe I would've been, you know, too old for it at that point or something. So there's a lot of fortune, there's a lot of luck, but I wouldn't exaggerate the skillset required or the degree of work required is beyond the grasp of many of your listeners. It's not.”

The 1-Stroke Golf Tournament Rule: tiny margins separate winners from also-rans

Blankfein argues that in most competitive fields — trading, acting, athletics — the gap between the best and second-best is razor-thin, but rewards are winner-take-all. Understanding this explains why luck and timing matter as much as skill.

“The difference between somebody who's really, really good and somebody who can't make it is not that great. You know, when you— you know, you think of a golf tournament, and somebody wins a golf tournament by 1 stroke, and there's 6 people tied for second, 1 stroke behind the winner. That's a very low margin of victory. And a lot of life is like that. And sometimes it's winner take all where somebody is just ever so slightly better, but that thing stands out.”

Steal thisBefore blaming skill gaps for outcomes, ask whether timing and luck explained the 1-stroke difference — then size your bets accordingly.

Good Risk Managers Sometimes Have to Push People TO Take Risk

After the 2008 financial crisis, Goldman partners became gun-shy and talked themselves out of opportunities. Blankfein argues that risk management isn't just about suppressing risk-taking — sometimes the job is to actively encourage it, because no risk means no growth.

“You know, the firm at that point had just gone through a period where it had, you know, big losses and people were gun-shy. And I, you know, you'd think a risk manager's always trying to repress people from taking risk. Sometimes a good risk manager has to promote the idea that people take risk 'cause that's what you're there for. And if you don't take risk, you don't, you don't move forward. There's no growth.”

Steal thisPeriodically audit whether your team has become too risk-averse post-failure; if so, your job as a leader is to push them back toward calculated risk.

Warren Buffett's $5B Goldman investment during 2008 crisis — and why money wasn't the point

During the financial crisis, Buffett invested $5B in Goldman preferred stock after a brief phone call, comparing the potential loss to 'not even a bad hurricane.' Blankfein reveals the money was irrelevant — what Goldman needed was the confidence signal Buffett's backing provided to the world.

“I love the fact that, yes, that was actually the flow of the conversation. But he's a pretty rigorous guy and he knows that we're pretty rigorous people. And, and he, at one point he said, you know, and I said, you know, I would feel better telling you all the things, you know, before you make this investment, I would feel better telling you all the things I'm worried about. And he said, you know, Lloyd, I know you well enough to know that you worry enough for the both of us.”

Lloyd Blankfein's personal portfolio: 98% risky assets, 75% single stocks

The former Goldman Sachs CEO keeps nearly all his personal wealth in equities — roughly 98% in risky assets, with 75% in single stocks and the rest in ETFs. He treats active stock-picking as a hobby backed by decades of professional experience.

“I would say that I am 98% in, in risky assets of which, you know, 95 of the 98 are equities. Probably a third, a quarter is in ETFs. And 75% is in single stock. And if I'm wrong, it's 10% are in ETFs and 90% are in single stocks because that's what I like to do.”

Blankfein treats the stock market like background music — always on, rarely consuming

Blankfein explains his daily trading habit not as obsessive screen-watching but as ambient awareness, like listening to music while doing other things. To him, markets are constant background noise he monitors without being paralyzed by.

“It's like, you know, some people like to listen to music. You'd say, how much time do you spend listening to music? Well, they're not sitting at a desk slumped, hunched over, just listening to music and doing nothing else. Maybe if you're a record producer, you do that. But normal people are listening to music while they're doing other stuff. To me, the market is like music.”

Blankfein's advice to non-professionals: heavy S&P 500 index, tilt toward tech ETFs

When asked how a non-professional investor should allocate, Blankfein recommends broad equity ETFs like VOO or SPY as the core, with an additional tilt into tech-focused ETFs since broad indices are already heavily weighted toward tech anyway.

“It's the advice I would give to people. I think at your age it pays to be in riskier assets like equities as opposed to, you know, fixed income. But if I were in equities, and by the way, this is the same advice that a Warren Buffett would give, I would be in a diversified portfolio of equities like the S&P 500s, which is SPYs or VOOs.”

Steal thisBuild your core around VOO/SPY, then add a tech-focused ETF for extra weight in the sector most likely to drive the next decade of growth.

Robinhood-style gamification democratizes investing but hides real financial danger

Blankfein sees fintech trading apps as genuinely good at expanding access to investing, but worries that confetti and 'attaboy' UI patterns mask downside risk for people who can't afford to lose. The same feature that hooks needed investors also misleads vulnerable ones.

“I think those things that kind of democratize investing and make it very, very accessible to people is in its own terms a very good thing. So people should be aware of assets they could buy and make it easier to do do some and maybe, you know, receive advertising promotion so that they focus on it more than they would. Maybe they would never focus on it but for those companies. You know, at the same time, if you make it too much like a video game, you could mask the fact that there's danger associated with it and you can lose, and that people who don't have a lot of money can lose more than they can afford to lose.”

Blankfein thought SpaceX was overpriced at $100B — now worth ~$1.75T

Blankfein passed on SpaceX when its valuation was $100 billion, thinking it too expensive. The company is now being discussed at valuations near $1.75 trillion — a 17x miss — illustrating even elite investors routinely misread transformational companies.

“Well, I thought, you know, SpaceX was overpriced at $100 billion market cap.”

"Give with your warm hand, not your cold hand" — the case for gifting while alive

Blankfein cites a phrase that resonated with him: rather than leaving wealth at death, give while you're alive to experience the joy and impact of giving. This aligns with the 'Die with Zero' philosophy of spending and giving in your prime.

“Well, he's got a way of expressing it that I didn't originate, that somebody said it to me, but it resonated with me. He said he wanted to give with his warm hand, not his cold hand. That's cool. That was a very good visual for me to feel. Give with your warm hand, not your cold hand.”

The 9-Paragraph Obituary Rule: no more than 3 of 9 paragraphs should be about your job

A senior Goldman partner told new partners that if their life merits a 9-paragraph obituary, at most 3 should be about work. The rest should reflect family, community, and personal pursuits — a built-in reminder that career is only part of a life well-lived.

“If you live the kind of life that you, that there's an obituary written about you and it's 9 paragraphs long, make it so that you do enough so that there's no more than 3 of those 9 paragraphs are about your life at Goldman. That's the best. And now that, you know, that may be the best, but it's not gonna be the case for me because I was, I stayed too long.”

Steal thisUse the 9-paragraph obituary test quarterly: is your current allocation of time building paragraphs 4–9, or just deepening paragraph 1?