Big Deals in Manhattan
You don’t have to know a lot of technical details to be successful in the world of high finance, but you do need connections. In fact, I’ve learned that connections are even more important than knowing basic math to calculate percentages. Maybe it’s a little more than some basic street sense, because I’ve discovered that the ones who really spend time getting to know the city have the most advantages in any kind of business situation. Knowing when to be friendly, and when to play hard are instinctual, and the college that figures out how to teach that will have something special to offer.
In all my years, though, it’s not the best deals or the biggest killings that stand out in my mind. I don’t consider myself to be particularly romantic, and definitely not sentimental, but there are some memories that play out in my head like the sweet scene in a Scorcese film. My favorite of all of these took place in one of the Manhattan business hotels, where I was only there for a few days to have a meeting. It was one meeting, and the whole trip revolved around this ten minute conversation, and then I was supposed to be out of there.
This was at the end of a particularly bad winter, where the streets are covered in snow that’s been turned black and gray, all the white melted into the sidewalks that looked like they’d never be clean again. I didn’t have much time to prepare for the meeting, and I was tired enough to sleep for the extra hour, but against my better judgement, I decided to go out for a stroll in the city before turning in for the night. Mid-town is large enough to get lost in for years, and many people do, but I was lost in thought so it wasn’t until I got to the upper west side that I even looked at anything. At the entrance to a subway station, I heard her voice, and before I caught my breath we were playing pool and talking about our favorite films. She said she liked Raging Bull, and she said a million other things. I didn’t get the deal.