Life & Living: A Good Watch — David Rubenstein’s Peer to Peer Conversations.

 

Even before David Rubenstein bought the Baltimore Orioles this year, I’ve often extolled the virtues of his Peer to Peer Conversations on Bloomberg TV. Of course, buying the Orioles sealed the deal.

 

In any case, I just finished his interview of David Solomon, the CEO of Goldman Sachs. Goldman gets 300,000 applicants for entry level jobs; they hire 2,500. What struck me was how Solomon described the enjoyable parts of his job: the opportunity to work with extraordinary people committed to excellence … on really interesting and challenging stuff … stuff that is purposeful, that makes the world a better place.

 

When I reflect on my career, almost all those 50 years were wonderful and had those same characteristics.

 

Note that “purposeful” and “making the world a better place” is in the eye of the beholder. You can make the world a better place in so many different ways. I can’t think of a job that doesn’t provide that opportunity. It was true from the time I delivered papers and climbed telephone poles to the time I served as a COO and CIO.