Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s Best Career Advice

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People all over the world strive to be ‘successful’. Everyone seems to want the same thing, but not everyone seems to understand what they may lose in pursuit of those desires. When it comes to pursuing a dream that one is so deeply passionate about, the cost becomes just as serious: one’s sanity.

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby depicts the consequences of pursuing a goal as direct outcomes of the excessive, and often obsessive, behavior conducted by the characters.

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Jay Gatsby, the main focus of the novel, sought a woman named Daisy, and every action he performed was in hope of gaining her attention. Instead of aiming to be successful in his job and faith, he spent all of his time dwelling over ways to get Daisy’s attention. Gatsby was once seen “asking people casually if they knew [Daisy]”, because she was constantly on his mind. A worn-out mind can easily lead to poor decision making and decreased mental stability.

Gatsby was so caught up, so obsessed, with achieving his goal, that he seemed to have forgotten that there was more to his life than being with the woman of his dreams. This drives him noticeably insane to point where, upon his death, he was perceived to have “no longer cared” and that he “paid a high price for living too long with a single dream” while he was alive. The strength of his obsession and lack of success in his quest to be with whom he so deeply desired cost Gatsby his sanity.

It could be argued, of course, that this novel is just that, a novel; purely fictional and thus cannot be used as a comparison to real life. What proof is there that the obsessive pursuit of one’s dreams is truly problematic?

As seen in the fact-based documentary Inside Job by Charles Ferguson, joint-stock companies such as Goldman Sachs along with many others were purely concerned with their own self-interests in order to increase their wealth and power. They went so far as to dupe and manipulate their clients by stealing their money with no concern of the greater impact it would have. The companies “very quickly ran their institutions off the cliff, taking much of the global economy with them”, and even though top executives walked away with their wealth completely intact, it did take a toll on their mental health. These executives, arguably, achieved their dreams by having to sacrifice their time, effort, integrity, and pride, but most importantly, their sanity and mental stability in order to do so.

So, the question arises: Should dreams just be forgotten? Because why, some may wonder, should one even think about following their passions if it will only serve to hurt them? Well, as described in Rachel Gillett’s article “Successful People Share Their Best Career Advice for Young People”, published by Business Insider, philanthropist Richard Branson’s philosophy on success is to never “look back in regret” and instead “move on to the next thing”.

Branson’s approach directly applies to the situation Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby had found himself in. If he had chosen to relieve himself of his obsession with Daisy and move on, he could have preserved his sanity and perhaps found success elsewhere. Furthermore, the article also includes how Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein’s best career advice is to “chill out”, although he admits to never have followed it himself in his youth. His renewed philosophy is especially meaningful because it was his company that was partially to blame for the Great Recession, as seen in the documentary Inside Job; if the executives from Goldman Sachs and other companies had “chilled out” the way Blankfein himself suggests, the outcomes could have been very different. By acknowledging the importance of drawing the line between passion and obsession, one can manage to pursue their dreams with minimal harm.

Obsessive behavior towards achieving a particular goal or passion can only lead to harmful and inimical effects. If one fails differentiate an obsession from a passion, they risk sacrificing their sanity and mental health in pursuit of their dreams.