Alan Waxman

It was lucky that I even got into that group.

I met a guy on an airplane.

Basically, I was an international relations major at Penn.

No finance history or anything.

Got out of school, and I was basically working in the mailroom for a bond-only management firm called Fisher, Francis, Trees, and Watts.

And I was punching books, and all my friends, they all had jobs.

Basically, at Penn, I had 35 interviews.

Didn't have a job offer out of college.

That's why I ended up in the mailroom.

But I was always interested in companies.

I just didn't know a lot about it because I didn't have a corporate finance background.

I was on an airplane coming back from Texas, my home, and I met a guy on an airplane, this guy by the name of Jody Linasson.

I was just asking him a bunch of questions.

I ask a lot of questions.

My wife makes fun of me because I ask questions often.

all the time i go to dinner sometimes people say well you asked me a thousand questions i didn't get a chance to ask you that's just how i am so i was on the airplane and this guy joe del nasa who had started in this group he was reading like research reports like thousand miles per hour processing speeds i'd never even seen before so i just started asking him questions about what are you doing and what's your group we just started talking on the airplane he came from walktel

a principal investing group at Goldman that literally is highly flexible, could really do anything, which by the way, is a predecessor of the group that I was ultimately in.

We ended up forming a relationship just because what I learned is the good thing about being curious, as you know, is you go relationships, you learn a lot and it just creates opportunities.

He ended up getting me an interview and I got into this group, which ultimately became the special situations group at Goldman.

That group was the largest principal investing business at Goldman.