On the Road Less Traveled: An Unlikely Journey from the Orphanage to the Boardroom

by Ed Hajim, Glenn Plaskin

A powerful story touched with family trauma, deprivation, and adversity balanced by a life of hard work and philanthropy!On the Road Less Traveled is the inspirational story of Edmund A. Hajim, an American financier and philanthropist who rises from dire childhood circumstances to achieve professional success and personal fulfillment. At age three, Hajim is kidnapped by his father, driven from St. Louis to Los Angeles, and told that his mother is dead. His father soon abandons him in order to seek employment—mostly in vain—leaving his son behind in a string of foster homes and orphanages. This establishes a pattern of neglect and desertion that continues for Hajim’s entire childhood, forever leaving its mark. From one home to another, the lonely boy learns the value of self-reliance and perseverance despite his financial deprivation and the trauma of being an orphan. As time passes, Hajim displays a powerful instinct for survival and a burning drive to excel. A highly motivated student and athlete, he earns an NROTC college scholarship to the University of Rochester; serves in the United States Navy; works as an application research engineer; then attends Harvard Business School, where he finds that the financial industry is his true calling. So begins his rapid ascent in the corporate world, which includes senior executive positions at E. F. Hutton, Lehman Brothers, and fourteen years as CEO of Furman Selz, growing the company more than tenfold. He also creates a happy and abundant family life, though he never forgets what it means to struggle. At age sixty, he is reminded of his painful past when a family secret emerges that brings the story full circle.  

Genres: Nonfiction

335 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 2, 2021

Reviews

[Barry Medlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read!

[CatReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up.

Having spent the majority of my life as a student of some sort, I'm used to the familiar ritual: students are told to dress up, gather up, and fill an audience for a distinguished guest's speech, award presentation, and/or dedication of a new venue/statue/scholarship in that person's honor, made possible through a very generous donation with tons of 0s at the end. Select students (usually scholarship recipients and/or nepo babies and/or the more well-dressed/attractive-looking specimens) are then paraded like props around the distinguished guest posed in center of the frame and told to smile nicely for the photo op. The resulting photos will find their way to alumni newsletters in an effort to bring in more donations. During my student years, these honored guests seemed like almost alien-like to me - I couldn't really relate to their wealth or their life accomplishments that landed them in such a position.

Ed Hajim is one of these people now. In his memoir, alongside a coauthor, he recounts his rags-to-riches/American Dream story the enabled him to be in a position to donate $30 million to the University of Rochester in 2008, own yachts, build his own golf course, send his kids to elite boarding schools, own numerous homes, chair multiple boards both in the educational and financial sectors, etc. Born in 1936, Hajim's early life was definitely rocky -- his parents divorced and his father kidnapped Ed to spite his mother when he was 3 years old. Shortly thereafter, Ed's father decided he didn't want to be a single parent and shipped Ed off to live in foster homes and orphanages until he was 18, as he told Ed and everyone else that Ed's mother had died in childbirth (which was false -- Ed's mother was alive and well). Ed managed to succeed academically in high school, got an engineering degree from the University of Rochester, served time in the Navy to fulfill the terms of his ROTC scholarship, got into Harvard Business School, enjoyed wild success in the financial sector, and of course, had a stay-at-home wife who raised their three children, maintained their households (since they had so many homes and traveled so often), and otherwise took care of things so Ed could focus entirely on work. Ed talks at the end of the book about how the American Dream is alive and well, but maybe he doesn't realize that a large part of his success was being born a white man in 1936 and not a woman and/or a person of color. That's not to take away from his accomplishments, hard work, knowledge of managing money, and ability to overcome his difficult childhood (he references having anger issues related to his dad a lot in the book). But at times, especially when he was talking about his extensive travels, his many properties, and the golf course he built himself on Nantucket (because the existing golf course on Nantucket rejected his bid for membership), it seems like he'd lost perspective of where he came from.

Overall, with the caveats mentioned above, this was an engaging, well-written book that gave me perspective on the US financial industry of the 1970s and 1980s (similar to Liar's Poker) and an interesting life.

My statistics:
Book 142 for 2024
Book 1745 cumulatively

[Barbara Waloven · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quote form this book, “skill is important, but luck is essential “ definitely fits this memoir. Ed Hajim had the worst of luck at the start of his life...or did he? A great deal of determination and willingness to take chances led to his very fruitful life. Great uplifting story that would be an excellent read for work book clubs.

[Kivalina Mauck · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I couldn’t put it down and read it almost straight through. I did have to be forced to sleep. Great true life story.

[BookTrib.com]

Throughout his career, Hajim was guided by his instincts to know when a situation had run its course and it was time to move on. “Sometimes it’s better to sever ties and leave on your own, even if the next step is unknown,” he writes. “That’s often the road less traveled, but it’s so worth the journey.”

And what a journey it’s been.

Read our full review here:
https://booktrib.com/2021/03/01/ed-ha...

[Michael Garin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A life story well told

Full disclosure, Ed Hajim is a friend and former colleague who kindly mentions me in his book.
While I've known Ed and his wonderful family for more that three decades, I learned many things about his early life and the experiences that molded him into the man he is, an inspiration to many.
The lessons he learned along the way and his sharing them with his readers makes this a book worth reading by anyone interested both in business and seeking a happy life.

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

My son’s girlfriend was given this book because she is a Horatio Alger scholar. I don’t think this is the best book to give a recent HS grad. First, it gives the assumption you are all going to end up multi-millionaires. Second, it makes a TON of assumption that the reader is well versed in how big business that revolve around Wall Street work. I felt he should have talked more about the difficulties and the hard work. He made it just seem too easy.

[Dorothy Minor · Rating 4 out of 5]

For book clubs seeking a memoir about childhood difficulties and deprivation that lead an adult to considerable success, On the Road Less Traveled: An Unlikely Journey from the Orphanage to the Boardroom by Ed Hajim will fit the requirements. While fiction is my go-to reading, I do enjoy dipping into memoirs and selected other types of nonfiction. BookTrib has nudged me in those directions along with my favorite fiction reading. Broadening one’s reading horizons is an admirable thing and can lead to learning and pleasure too.
Edmund A. Hajim, financier and philanthropist, spent a childhood in difficult circumstances. Readers will be appalled to learn that Hajim’s father kidnapped Ed when he was only three and told Ed that his mother was dead. Then just as mean, his father leaves Ed in one foster home or orphanage after another. This kind of neglect certainly would take its toll on anyone, particularly a young child.
Hajim, a Syrian immigrant, has worked on Wall Street as an executive in investments. He worked for E.F. Hutton, Lehman Brothers and other major American companies. His website provides additional background information: https://www.edhajim.com/.

As readers learn more about Hajim and his difficult early life, he provides useful explanations for his adult success. See some of those accounts below.
“My childhood disadvantages became advantages in later life.”
“By living in 15 to 20 different locations, I learned how to adjust to different circumstances, became good at it, and almost looked forward to it; I was not afraid to change.”
“Tough situations, hostile and abusive, taught me how to appreciate good times and handle difficult situations with less anxiety.”
“My lack of a present family forced me to seek out external mentors and better understand the need for partners/people who cared.”

Clearly, readers will see the self-reliance in Hajim and his own determination to rise above the difficult upbringing his father forced upon him. Hajim does not brag about his accomplishments; rather, he uses the adversity he experienced to show how to develop skills in order to cope with whatever was thrown his way. Readers will come away from the book with inspiration and advice which they can apply to their own lives.

On the Road Less Traveled will provide book clubs with a thoughtful discussion. The first points may be about the childhood difficulties, but the members will soon move on to the inspiration offered. The epilogue offers additional insight. Titled “The Four P’s – Passion, Principles, Partners, and Plans,” the epilogue contains clear explanations of each of the four words. In addition, Hajim has included questions to ask one’s self and suggestions for taking one’s life in new directions. Some of the lines that struck a chord with me follows here: “Read passion cannot be found outside yourself. And it can’t be given to you by somebody else. It’s cultivated through the books you read as a kid, the movies that inspired you, the teachers who helped you along the way, the friends you had, the jobs you loved – even the messy childhood you might have experienced.” In those lines, Hajim touches on an important message, particularly about books, friends, and teachers.

[Jeri Rowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for work in a day, mining it for structure and style for a forthcoming book at the university where I work. That's how I saw it. At least at first. But Ed Hajim's memoir kept me turning pages to find out what was next. Here's the setup:

His father, a Syrian Jew, kidnaps him when he was 3 and tells him his mother died in childbirth. His father then bounces from job to job before joining the Merchant Marines during WWII and hands off Ed to various foster homes and orphanages. Hajim writes pretty candidly about that and circles back around later in the book when he finally realizes his mom isn't dead, and he meets her. In between, he graduates from the University or Rochester, goes into the Navy, gets an MBA from Harvard, gets married, has kids and becomes an incredibly successful businessman.

A classic adversity-to-abundance tale. Hajim writes: "In the end, adversity is a gift. If you don't experience it, you'll never know how to overcome it. The disadvantages I endured sparked my ambition and work ethic. So, it wasn't fate. It was drive -- some call it grit. It's the one thing privileged people who feel entitled to everything and have nothing to fight for often lack. That was never me."

Hajim tells the life story in a classically chronological way. So, it's easy to follow. And if you're into the inside-baseball stories of Wall Street, he takes you on a cursory journey through the growth of businesses he started and sold. Names names, too. But what got me is Hajim's story. It causes you to pause and think, "How did this young kid who really didn't have a family to speak of become a philanthropist, a Wall Street executive and the guy who built a golf course on Nantucket because the other golf course on the island wouldn't let him join?"

So, it's a good read. Plus, his 13-page epilogue is a tips-for-life section that anyone of any age can glean something from. So, all in all, "On The Road Less Traveled" was a nice surprise.

[Barbara Gula Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great American Success Story

If you enjoy reading biographies of successful people who overcame hardship and hurdles to get where they are today, then this is a good book for you. Engaging and easy to read.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A powerful and often moving rags to riches story, this memoir from Ed Hajim makes for compelling reading. He charts his journey form one of deprivation to enormous professional and personal success with insight and thoughtfulness, and I very much enjoyed it.

[Bess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story, Great man.

[Adrienne Kozlowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible story of resilience. If you ever doubted yourself about building the life you want - this book is proof - anything is possible.

[Kelly Kreider · Rating 5 out of 5]

The autobiography reads like a book and kept me engaged the whole way through. It’s an inspiration and put me in a good mood every time I picked it up to read.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good autobiography. Started from the bottom now we here vibes.

[Jill Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an inspirational and uplifting novel. During these challenging times, Mr. Hajim's story restores our faith in humanity.

[Karen Stone Talwar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a fantastic book...So inspirational