On resilience: “when people reach out for career advice  deliver the words that guided my own career: 'Suck it up…' My advice to people during difficult times is just do your job and show they were wrong and act like you’re unperturbed by it even though you are perturbed by it." Examples of slights and challenges Blankfein had to deal with in his 25 years at Goldman before becoming CEO:

• Rejected by Goldman; joined separate company that had just been acquired by Goldman
• In his first few years: “Was at the bottom of the food chain in many ways (acquisition not Goldman, commodities not equities or fixed income, salesmen not trader). Not part of most meetings where real info was shared, meant didn’t have much to add. Often I didn’t have anything to do and was told to hold a phone to my ear to look busy. 100 of 300 laid off as business wasn’t growing, was told they were thinking about firing him but didn’t.”
• A colleague nicknamed him “overhead”
• Struggled to get another colleague to return his calls, needed to go to his boss eventually to help get his calls returned - had to deal with multiple such “stiff arms”
• One boss only gave him one complement ever:“well, that’s not the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard”
• In his first major title bump, he was made head of a team then the offer was rescinded a few weeks later after some members of the team bristled at it. 
• When added to major firm committee, was done so at first in unprecedented approach as listener only, and invited to only every other meeting. 
  
• Was required to briefly move countries for work when he and his family would have preferred to stay. 
• Received negative 360 feedback from his colleagues in many performance reviews 

Advice on Career Navigation & Finance

• Stay put [at one company] rather than starting fresh somewhere where the people above you won’t have loyalty to you and those below you will resent you. 
• in moments of org chart ambiguity, try simply acting like you’re in charge. If people listen, fine. If they don’t, just shrug and move on. People usually respond to demonstrations of leadership more than to titles.
• Risk management matters more than prediction. You are not in the forecasting business, you are in the contingency planning business
• The best traders are not right more than they are wrong. They correct and adjust more quickly than others

Managing Goldman during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis

• No one alive on Wall Street had ever experienced anything as calamitous and dramatic as the global financial crisis of 2008. Almost 2 decades later, we are living in  the world that the crisis made: an era of intense polarization, distrust of institutions and authority, rising inequality, class conflict, populous movements, and authoritarian government
• Core problem many banks had done: borrowed too much (leverage 33:1), borrowed too short term (relying heavily on repo loans), and invested too much of what it borrowed into speculative mortgage securities (that were now ~illiquid untouchable toxic assets).
• On managing during a crisis: “I’m like a flight attendant during turbulence - smile like you’re enjoying yourself. If you look afraid, the passengers will freak out”
• Should you find yourself faced with monumental judgments at a critical time, you might wish you were somewhere else, and someone better suited was in your place. Well guess what? they’re not coming, but you are there. And who knows if someone else would be better anyway
• someone from his team said they didn’t think they could do this anymore during the financial crisis. “For goodness sakes, you’re getting out of Mercedes to go to the ny fed, you’re not getting out of a Higgins boat in Omaha beach, get a grip.”
• I told people that their reputations for the rest of their careers would be established by how they handled this moment. And not just your reputation with others, your reputation with yourself. Your own sense of confidence will come from how you perform under the kind of pressure we’re facing. When you look back at your career, you’re going to think most about what kind of difference you made in challenging times like those were in now, not the good times.
• "A crisis is the precondition for a fantastic display of resilience and character. Congratulations." 

Miscellaneous 

• Do what you have a passion for (left tax law after 4 years practicing; his wife cried and his parents questioned the move). “Some colleagues in tax, dreaded getting monthly new packets of tax rulings; others waited eagerly for it…was looking at a life that would be comfortable, boring, and to me not that meaningful... I just thought “I can’t aspire to this, it looks deadly”.
• to this day, it’s hard to remember where I’ve been cause I saw hotels offices and taxis which looked more or less the same everywhere we went
• Public speaking: “When you’re swimming, it doesn’t matter whether the water is 6 feet or 600. It shouldn’t matter if you’re speaking to 6, 60, or 600. It’s the same stroke”
• Some people mistake stubbornness for character
• From public housing in Brooklyn attending public school that were failed to making it to the top of perhaps the most prestigious firm in finance. Shared a bedroom with his sister then his grandma. “As Gd is my witness, I will never share a bedroom again, unless it’s with someone I want to share a bedroom with. Escaping the neighborhood was my primary objective in life”
•