Goodbye Gordon Gekko

How to live a more productive life by putting a profitable lifestyle ahead of profits

With his standout Wall Street line "Greed is good," Gordon Gekko became pop culture icon for unrestrained greed. But, while greed might be great for one person–especially when that person is fictional–it's not so great for good people living in the real world. In Goodbye Gordon Gekko: How to Find Your Fortune and Not Lose Your Soul, Anthony Scaramucci describes how a better understanding of people, capital, and culture can be used to enrich one's life, financially as well as spiritually. With smart and engaging prose, the book:

• Discusses how the best manifestations of ambition, entrepreneurship and mentoring can lead to a life that not only fulfills financial obligations, but also leaves a lasting legacy
• Describes ways in which Americans and American companies can act to avoid the kind of crisis that crippled the country's economy
• Details how to build a core set of values to discover wealth on one's own terms

Given the turmoil in financial markets over the past few years, many people are reevaluating what it means to be "rich." Goodbye Gordon Gekko shows how it’s possible to be well-off without all the trappings of wealth.

Preface vii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Ambition 7

Ego versus the Egomaniac

Chapter 2 Success and Failure 37

Reaching for Excellence

Chapter 3 Vocation and Meaning 61

Let It All Hang Out

Chapter 4 Capital 85

Real Wealth

Chapter 5 Knowledge 103

Lessons from Unlikely Places

Chapter 6 The Way of the Mentor 123

Looking for a Hero

Chapter 7 Teamwork 145

There’s No “I” in Team

Chapter 8 The People You Meet on the Street 165

You Take the Good, You Take the Bad

Chapter 9 How to Find Your Fortune without Losing Your Soul 187

Further Reading 205

Acknowledgments 207

About the Author 209

Index 211

"This book makes a lively read...we are prudently advised to undertake an 'annual ambition check-up'." (Financial World, September 2010)

"...an interesting read whether you are inside or outside of the banking arena." (The Market, October 2010)

Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and Managing Partner of SkyBridge Capital, a New York-based alternative investment management company, focused on partnering with emerging managers and seeding and mentoring Wall Street's next generation of entrepreneurs. In the past five years, SkyBridge has seeded emerging hedge fund managers and built a fund of funds business with $4.4 billion in total assets. From 1989 to 1996, Scaramucci was at Goldman Sachs, where he became a vice president in the private wealth management area in 1993. Scaramucci is a member of the Board of Overseers for the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts University, and a board member of the Lymphoma Foundation, the Brain Tumor Foundation, and the NYC Financial Services Advisory Committee. He was also a technical adviser to Oliver Stone for the movie Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

We never really know how it's going to turn out. One day a community organizer, the next day President. One day CEO of Lehman Brothers, the next day the piñata for greed and ambition run amok. Life is full of decisions, choices, and unexpected twists and turns; how you pick yourself up and react to these unanticipated circumstances will make all the difference.

According to author Anthony Scaramucci, it is time to say goodbye to Gordon Gekko, the rogue character famously portrayed by Michael Douglas in the classic movie Wall Street. In Goodbye Gordon Gekko, Scaramucci explores opportunities for leading a rich life in a difficult, radically changed economy. Believing that the financial crisis was caused by a nation of Gekko-wannabes tripped up by status anxiety and egocentric tendencies, he argues that you can be happy and financially profitable as long as you stay true to yourself and stick to your values and principles. Scaramucci offers hope, urging you to pass through the happily-ever-after portal so that you can find your fortune and all that is fortunate.

With years of experience at Goldman Sachs, and having co-founded two successful alternative investment management companies, the author provides a behind-the-scenes view of life on Wall Street—the wins and the losses, the rights and the wrongs, the successes and the failures, the good mentors and the difficult colleagues. Through these entertaining and insightful stories, featuring advice from a diverse cast of characters ranging from Li Ka-shing to John Weinberg to his Italian nana, Scaramucci identifies the temptations and roadblocks that accompany our professional ambitions and personal choices, revealing the rules for leading a profitable and fortunate life.

What does this mean in practical terms? As Scaramucci shows, it means ridding yourself of egotistical tendencies and developing the self-awareness to bounce back from failure. It means building a circle of competence made of those you trust, mentoring and celebrating others, and giving back to your community and country, all the while targeting success. It means seeing capitalism as an art and businesses as creations and vocations, not simply as levers to feeding your ego. Goodbye Gordon Gekko provides a road map to help people achieve true wealth defined beyond a checking account.

GOODBYE GORDON GEKKO

"A fun, easy read, with sage advice. Scaramucci is a player, looking under the rocks of corruption in our financial capital, and he survives as an honest soul."
—OLIVER STONE, Three time Academy Award Winner; Director, Wall Street and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

"Scaramucci's book is a truly insightful read. It introduces us to a moral compass on Wall Street—finding riches by direction of a true north as opposed to insidious Gekko-style greed."
—JOSH BROLIN, Academy Award Nominee; Actor, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps; Active Trader

"With extraordinary honesty, grace, clarity, humor, insight, and emotional intelligence, Anthony Scaramucci here masterfully delivers timeless and priceless wisdom and wit that will ennoble and energize parents and children, teachers and students, coaches and athletes, bosses and workers, not to mention all three branches of government."
—DAVID M. DARST, CFA, Managing Director and Chief Investment Strategist, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney

"There is only one Anthony Scaramucci and only the Mooch could have been so entertaining, insightful, and honest while sharing his life with us. Thank you, Anthony, and continue to make a difference."
—BOBBY VALENTINE, Former Major League Baseball Manager, New York Mets

"Anthony Scaramucci is a unique combination of great entrepreneur and savvy Wall Streeter. His perspective on all things business is invaluable and here for all to read."
—DAVID FABER, Anchor, CNBC