Financial author and frequent CNBC contributor Anthony Scaramucci wrote in Goodbye Gordon Gekko: How to Find Your Fortune Without Losing Your Soul (2010):
“In 1989, I sat there, eager to be initiated into the Goldman (Goldman Sachs—ed.) way, and heard John Weinberg, the legendary former CEO and chairman of the firm, say simply: ‘Some people grow, other people swell. You’d better figure out who you are.’ That was the core of the Goldman pedigree. Individual ambitions had to be sublimated to the mission of the group. Everyone there was smart, talented, and filled of potential. The key was keeping everyone working for each other, not having each boy genius’s ego and ambitions swell to crowd out his colleagues.”
John Weinberg (1925-2006) ran Goldman Sachs from 1976 until 1990. Scaramucci frequently mentions the quotation, although it doesn’t seem to be recorded elsewhere.
Wikiedia: John Weinberg
John Livingston Weinberg (January 25, 1925–August 7, 2006) was an American banker and businessperson, running Goldman Sachs from 1976 to 1990.
Googe Books
Goodbye Gordon Gekko:
How to Find Your Fortune Without Losing Your Soul
By Anthony Scaramucci
Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
2010
Pg. 17:
In 1989, I sat there, eager to be initiated into the Goldman way, and heard John Weinberg, the legendary former CEO and chairman of the firm, say simply: “Some people grow, other people swell. You’d better figure out who you are.” That was the core of the Goldman pedigree. Individual ambitions had to be sublimated to the mission of the group. Everyone there was smart, talented, and filled of potential. The key was keeping everyone working for each other, not having each boy genius’s ego and ambitions swell to crowd out his colleagues.
The Huffington Post
Anthony Scaramucci
Of Politics and Piñatas
Posted: 10/11/10 05:37 PM ET
(...)
The legendary Goldman Sachs senior partner, John Weinberg, often said, “Some people grow; other people swell. You better figure out quickly who you are.”
Twitter
Anthony Scaramucci
@Scaramucci
@MrAndersn some people grow other people swell. Grow and stay humble.
11:00 AM - 28 Apr 12
Twitter
Mesfin Fekadu
@MusicMesfin
“Some people grow, other people swell. You’d better figure out who you are.” http://tmblr.co/Z5k1dxLseasf
11:43 PM - 20 May 2012
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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