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Streetwise: Getting to and Through Goldman Sachs
From the long-tenured head of an institution legendary for its culture of success comes a candid memoir of global leadership in an age of extreme turbulence.
“Lloyd Blankfein is scary smart about people, markets, and life generally. His 10,000 Small Businesses idea proved to be a huge winner, and I personally witnessed the time and effort he devoted to its success. During the 2008–2009 financial crisis, Lloyd acted decisively, and he tells the story of what happened with unique insights.” —Warren Buffett
When Lloyd Blankfein was attacked as a Wall Street fat cat, he had to smile, thinking of his precarious childhood in the notorious public housing projects of East New York, Brooklyn, and attending a high school so chaotic he didn’t feel safe leaving class to go to the bathroom in his time there. Harvard University was a total moonshot, and his outsider status never wore off, there or at Harvard Law. When he struck people as street-y, it wasn’t Wall Street they were thinking of. But if the chip never quite left Blankfein's shoulder, neither did a wry, resilient spirit and a lucid, democratic intelligence that saw through airs and found talent and ideas in unlikely places.
Streetwise is a delightfully honest, sharp and often very funny reckoning with the author’s education—in finance, human nature, and the workings of the world. It abounds with lessons about leading teams of brilliant, aggressive, competitive people and harmonizing them around shared goals; changing when times are hard and when they’re good; managing risk; and knowing a crisis is at hand before it swamps you so you can guide your team to the further shore. Blankfein is famed for his calm hand on Goldman Sachs’s tiller during the global financial crisis, and that story is told in full here, among many other decisive episodes.
Suffusing Streetwise is the author’s deep and abiding respect for the partnership culture of Goldman Sachs. We follow the never-ending work to protect and preserve that culture through all sorts of tumult—the challenge behind every other challenge. He is open about when he and the firm got it wrong, which was often enough, but the creative, risk-taking spirit was never snuffed—even as the fail-safes put in place to protect the firm and its clients held when they were needed the most. A powerful blueprint for the wise stewardship of a cause that is larger than yourself, Streetwise will inspire and inform readers throughout the global business community and beyond.
“Lloyd Blankfein is scary smart about people, markets, and life generally. His 10,000 Small Businesses idea proved to be a huge winner, and I personally witnessed the time and effort he devoted to its success. During the 2008–2009 financial crisis, Lloyd acted decisively, and he tells the story of what happened with unique insights.” —Warren Buffett
When Lloyd Blankfein was attacked as a Wall Street fat cat, he had to smile, thinking of his precarious childhood in the notorious public housing projects of East New York, Brooklyn, and attending a high school so chaotic he didn’t feel safe leaving class to go to the bathroom in his time there. Harvard University was a total moonshot, and his outsider status never wore off, there or at Harvard Law. When he struck people as street-y, it wasn’t Wall Street they were thinking of. But if the chip never quite left Blankfein's shoulder, neither did a wry, resilient spirit and a lucid, democratic intelligence that saw through airs and found talent and ideas in unlikely places.
Streetwise is a delightfully honest, sharp and often very funny reckoning with the author’s education—in finance, human nature, and the workings of the world. It abounds with lessons about leading teams of brilliant, aggressive, competitive people and harmonizing them around shared goals; changing when times are hard and when they’re good; managing risk; and knowing a crisis is at hand before it swamps you so you can guide your team to the further shore. Blankfein is famed for his calm hand on Goldman Sachs’s tiller during the global financial crisis, and that story is told in full here, among many other decisive episodes.
Suffusing Streetwise is the author’s deep and abiding respect for the partnership culture of Goldman Sachs. We follow the never-ending work to protect and preserve that culture through all sorts of tumult—the challenge behind every other challenge. He is open about when he and the firm got it wrong, which was often enough, but the creative, risk-taking spirit was never snuffed—even as the fail-safes put in place to protect the firm and its clients held when they were needed the most. A powerful blueprint for the wise stewardship of a cause that is larger than yourself, Streetwise will inspire and inform readers throughout the global business community and beyond.
400 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 3, 2026
472 people are currently reading
1676 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 28, 2026
Fantastic business book and autobiography. Of course, I am a bit biased having worked as a salestrader myself for about 9 years (not at Goldman) from 2011-2019.
It's a biography where you feel like you are hearing an actual voice. So many biographies of late feel almost like they're written by the same person (and, they probably are). But this biography had such a unique voice that I felt like I understood Blankfein's personality.
He is very funny. There were times where I was laughing out loud while reading this. He has mastered the art of self-deprecation, as he straightforwardly discusses in the book, noting this was something he worked on as he rose through management. Maybe it's because I spent all my 20s on the trading floor, but his voice felt very familiar to me. It was fun for me to remember some of the events he talked about and where I was at the time (for a few years, I worked at a bank across the street from Goldman, so I remember walking to work past the Occupy Wall Streeters and Rolling Stone's infamous "vampire squid" article).
Of course, I don't agree with him on a number of things. Like how he clearly thinks investment bankers deserve the money they make or how he thinks boycotts lead to madness (in a capitalist society/in a totally dysfunctional political system as we're in now, I'd argue that the consumer actually should be voting with their wallets). And I found the Goldman Sachs worship to be a bit over-the-top (but hey, maybe it's because I never made it past a first round interview with them). But I thought he really put his thoughts out there in this book in a way you don't often see - calling out John Mack for infamously throwing Zoe Cruz under the bus, sh*tting on Dick Fuld for not taking the Lehman deal, and not shying away from the internal Goldman turmoil.
I particularly enjoyed reading about him taking Goldman though the 2008 financial crisis. What a unique vantage he must have had as one of the few banks that came out stronger than before. He has a ton of management lessons in here, too, a really great read for anyone who manages people.
It's a biography where you feel like you are hearing an actual voice. So many biographies of late feel almost like they're written by the same person (and, they probably are). But this biography had such a unique voice that I felt like I understood Blankfein's personality.
He is very funny. There were times where I was laughing out loud while reading this. He has mastered the art of self-deprecation, as he straightforwardly discusses in the book, noting this was something he worked on as he rose through management. Maybe it's because I spent all my 20s on the trading floor, but his voice felt very familiar to me. It was fun for me to remember some of the events he talked about and where I was at the time (for a few years, I worked at a bank across the street from Goldman, so I remember walking to work past the Occupy Wall Streeters and Rolling Stone's infamous "vampire squid" article).
Of course, I don't agree with him on a number of things. Like how he clearly thinks investment bankers deserve the money they make or how he thinks boycotts lead to madness (in a capitalist society/in a totally dysfunctional political system as we're in now, I'd argue that the consumer actually should be voting with their wallets). And I found the Goldman Sachs worship to be a bit over-the-top (but hey, maybe it's because I never made it past a first round interview with them). But I thought he really put his thoughts out there in this book in a way you don't often see - calling out John Mack for infamously throwing Zoe Cruz under the bus, sh*tting on Dick Fuld for not taking the Lehman deal, and not shying away from the internal Goldman turmoil.
I particularly enjoyed reading about him taking Goldman though the 2008 financial crisis. What a unique vantage he must have had as one of the few banks that came out stronger than before. He has a ton of management lessons in here, too, a really great read for anyone who manages people.
March 17, 2026
This is a great book, very fun and interesting. I skipped some parts that were either too sophisticated for me in terms of finance and math; and some parts that felt like they came out of the annual report (and were repetitive; we know now that Goldman has a strong family/partner/community ethos, got it).
But parts of it are fascinating and funny. Blankfein is apparently famous for snapping out fast one-liners and he has a fast, funny, smart way of describing many things in very few words.
I compare this book to the Keith McNally autobio, which similarly feels very honest. He talks about his strengths and things he's proud of but he has a sense of humor about sharing criticisms other people have of him. In the photo section, he includes a "360 review" from people who work with him, that is fairly shattering. We know people love him, but we can also see how people um dont.
Worth the price of admission alone: His inside description of life at the top of the group that was trying to handle 2008 and the financial crisis. I had just finished Andrew Ross Sorkin's book 1929 and the descriptions of America's top bankers gathering to try and stop the bleeding back then is very similar to what Blankstein describes in 2008.
I continually compare new autobios to the recent Graydon Carter book, which is a fun snappy read and seems completely empty and phony. This book and the Keith McNally book are the opposite. They're raw, and honest and you feel while you're reading that someone else almost certainly has a different vision of what happened in this or that situation — but you feel that McNally and Blankfein would have no problem with that. The Carter book is a little bit more of a faux fairy tale.
But parts of it are fascinating and funny. Blankfein is apparently famous for snapping out fast one-liners and he has a fast, funny, smart way of describing many things in very few words.
I compare this book to the Keith McNally autobio, which similarly feels very honest. He talks about his strengths and things he's proud of but he has a sense of humor about sharing criticisms other people have of him. In the photo section, he includes a "360 review" from people who work with him, that is fairly shattering. We know people love him, but we can also see how people um dont.
Worth the price of admission alone: His inside description of life at the top of the group that was trying to handle 2008 and the financial crisis. I had just finished Andrew Ross Sorkin's book 1929 and the descriptions of America's top bankers gathering to try and stop the bleeding back then is very similar to what Blankstein describes in 2008.
I continually compare new autobios to the recent Graydon Carter book, which is a fun snappy read and seems completely empty and phony. This book and the Keith McNally book are the opposite. They're raw, and honest and you feel while you're reading that someone else almost certainly has a different vision of what happened in this or that situation — but you feel that McNally and Blankfein would have no problem with that. The Carter book is a little bit more of a faux fairy tale.
March 25, 2026
I didn't know anything about Lloyd Blankfein before reading his book and was primarily interested in reading it because of curiosity about Goldmann Sachs. While I did enjoy learning more about the firm, I loved the time I spent getting to know Blankfein himself. I appreciated learning about his time at Harvard, and how he transitioned from feeling like an outsider in that rarefied environment to becoming the ultimate insider as he transitioned from J. Aron and climbed the ladder at Goldman Sachs.
Blankfein is an engaging writer with the driest of wit. He hasn't written a managerial textbook, but he offers excellent insight into how he used his people skills to manage effectively while also acknowledging his own shortcomings. His love and respect for Goldman Sachs are apparent throughout the book, but he doesn't shy away from revelations about colleagues with whom he sharply disagreed. Equally, he spares no praise for those, like Henry Paulson and Gary Cohn, he admires.
I liked that he wrote so openly given his background as a lawyer and CEO which could have easily stifled any revelations under opaque corporate-speak. It's impressive that someone with a reputation for speaking his mind ascended to the CEO role when often leadership is reserved for those who will more reliably toe the company line.
Blankfein is an engaging writer with the driest of wit. He hasn't written a managerial textbook, but he offers excellent insight into how he used his people skills to manage effectively while also acknowledging his own shortcomings. His love and respect for Goldman Sachs are apparent throughout the book, but he doesn't shy away from revelations about colleagues with whom he sharply disagreed. Equally, he spares no praise for those, like Henry Paulson and Gary Cohn, he admires.
I liked that he wrote so openly given his background as a lawyer and CEO which could have easily stifled any revelations under opaque corporate-speak. It's impressive that someone with a reputation for speaking his mind ascended to the CEO role when often leadership is reserved for those who will more reliably toe the company line.
March 13, 2026
first off, i despise wall street, like every ordinary fellow out there. the necessary evil of modern finance is not without its gems however, people being the most important asset. that said, the quality of modern bulge bracket investment bankers has been steadily declining like everything else covered by thick layer of entropy. this book stands out, reads less like a pompous memoir and more like an earnest collection of vignettes from a life. my reasons for reading and reviewing being personal, i could care less about new york and the people that run it. rating favorably because well, is perhaps my first and last banker biography. not saying the man is cream of the crop, but perhaps, given the times and the situations he steered through, the last of the greats.
March 15, 2026
Lloyd is an excellent storyteller of his life. You don’t have to be a Wall Street/ finance expert to enjoy his book. He breaks everything down including what a slide ruler is (with some humor)
Fascinating learning the story of his life. From nothing to everything. Valuable insight into banking culture and running one of the biggest banks in the world. A wild and successful ride driving transformative change and crisis at Goldman.
Fascinating learning the story of his life. From nothing to everything. Valuable insight into banking culture and running one of the biggest banks in the world. A wild and successful ride driving transformative change and crisis at Goldman.
March 28, 2026
A fascinating, if not longwinded account, of Blankfein’s premiership at Goldman (and his career before that point). I thought the section on the 2008 crash was particularly insightful. I did find it awkward that after such a long and successful career, Blenkfein did what so many of the super rich did and chose to sit around and challenge others on twitter. Although apparently a short lived endeavour, it’s oddly the point I felt least able to relate to him in the entire book.
Want to read
March 4, 2026Lloyd Blankfein on His Memoir, Risk Management and Leadership
https://youtu.be/GwM7To3pCZQ?si=LlJbg...
WSJ: Lloyd Blankfein Misses Being Goldman Sachs CEO—Mostly When There’s a Market Crisis
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing...
https://youtu.be/GwM7To3pCZQ?si=LlJbg...
WSJ: Lloyd Blankfein Misses Being Goldman Sachs CEO—Mostly When There’s a Market Crisis
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing...
March 9, 2026
Great read. Really well written and obviously very interesting story given Lloyd's experience. Very candid and informative. I most enjoyed learning about how we thought about operating a partnership and maintaining the culture of the firm while it expanded and evolved. One of the better business books I've read recently!
March 15, 2026
A solid 4 for the unique insight from a level-headed CEO who grew up poor in Brooklyn and went to law school. I may have liked it even more if I had a finance background or knew all the technical deals and departments/people mentioned.
March 17, 2026
I’m giving it 3 stars but really it could be 4. Loved listening to it while driving although a lot of the finance things I didn’t quite bet. That said, he’s an engaging writer and great reader but it’s not a book for everyone.
March 18, 2026
Amazing book as Blankenfein describes his life journey from the streets of NY to Goldman Sachs. Really enjoyed his personal viewpoint of what happened during the 1994 currency crisis and the 2008 financial crisis. Really worth the read.
March 5, 2026
Audio 4.5 Star
Enjoyed listening to the book
Great balance of personal and professional and career advice as well as details on the lessons on financial markets
Enjoyed listening to the book
Great balance of personal and professional and career advice as well as details on the lessons on financial markets
March 14, 2026
I worked a lot with Goldman Sachs when I was in banking business, Lloyd Blankfein seems to me the least likely CEO character in Goldman’s elite culture. I enjoy reading this straight talk book
March 24, 2026
I started the book after hearing a good review. I must have misheard what it was about. Way too technical for me. I did not finish.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews