Arriving at Harvard: culture shock

Lloyd recounts culture shock at Harvard, fitting in, and early academic differences with prep-school peers.

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Episode notes

Lloyd Blankfein never chased a master plan. He focused on whatever was right in front of him, and those small decisions carried him from a Brooklyn housing project to leading Goldman Sachs through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

In this episode of Big Shot, Harley and David sit down with Lloyd to explore how that path unfolded. He talks about growing up in public housing and sharing a room with his grandmother, then suddenly finding himself at Harvard at 16, arriving in a suit because he had no idea what college culture looked like. He reflects on the dislocation of moving between the projects and the Ivy League and how he learned to navigate both worlds without ever feeling fully at home in either.

Lloyd traces his shift from law to commodities, what he absorbed inside J. Aron, and how a crisis inside Goldman in the 1980s reshaped the firm and opened unexpected doors. He also shares what it was like to lead Goldman Sachs through 2008, why Warren Buffett’s support mattered at a defining moment, and what it took to keep the firm intact while the global financial system was breaking apart.

It is a conversation about chance, focus, resilience, and the surprising places a life can go when you simply take the next step.

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In This Episode We Cover:

(00:00) Intro

(05:15) Lloyd’s early days

(07:05) How Lloyd graduated early

(08:53) How Lloyd ended up at Harvard at 16

(10:56) A glimpse at just how humble his beginnings truly were

(13:42) What it was like arriving at Harvard with no roadmap

(19:37) Why top public-university talent can match (and sometimes surpass) the Ivies

(20:27) What it was like moving between worlds

(25:05) Why it took a long time to adjust to the burden of great wealth