Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story

Junior. Greg Smith expanded the fifteen minutes of fame he earned by resigning from Goldman Sachs in a startling 1500 word New York Times editorial and has written a 250 page memoir titled Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story. All memoir becomes a matter of perspective, and Smith’s junior role at Goldman gave him a perspective that represents one slice of the firm and one set of experiences. Reading this book is like eavesdropping, bringing the reader into places where we might not normally be, to the point where there was entirely too much recollection of chatting at urinals. Yuk. That and other unnecessary contexts pack this book with anecdotes that meant something to Smith, but not to many others. His main point is that his values and the behavior he saw at his company became misaligned. From p. 236, “I knew in my heart there was something deeply wrong in the way people were behaving, in the way they didn’t care about the repercussions, in the way they saw their clients as their adversaries.” Readers who want an inside view of Goldman will get a sliver here. Readers who like a coming-of-age memoir are likely to find this one interesting. Any reader expecting the revelation of secrets won’t find them in this book. Rating: Three-star (Recommended) Click here to purchase Why I Left Goldman Sachs from amazon.com.