David Enrich

It is looking for what Ace Greenberg likes to call PSDs, which stands for Poor, Smart, and Deeply Desirous of Being Rich.

Wow.

And Epstein goes in to meet Greenberg for a job interview.

And Epstein fits the bill.

Greenberg is bowled over by the guy's charisma and charm and apparent math prowess and offers him a job.

So he arrives at Bear Stearns, and he quickly becomes the protege to some of the firm's top executives.

One is Greenberg, the guy who hired him, who is so taken with Epstein that he introduces him to his own 20-year-old daughter, and they start dating, which affords Epstein something akin to protected status at the firm.

And that really quickly comes in handy because within a couple of months of his arrival at Bear Stearns, Epstein's boss, a guy named Michael Tenenbaum, learns from the HR department—

that Epstein had lied on his resume about having graduated from college.

And so Tenenbaum summons Epstein into his office, is not really sure what to do about this because, you know, this is a very serious infraction.

On the other hand, the guy is dating the boss's daughter and confronts Epstein with this, expecting Epstein to lie and dissemble and deny, which in that case would allow Tenenbaum to easily fire him.

Instead, Epstein says, you're right.

It's true.

I did lie.

And the reason he lied, Epstein goes on to say, is that if he didn't lie, there is no way a firm like Bear Stearns or anyone else is going to give him a chance without having a college diploma.

And Tenenbaum is so taken aback and disarmed by this honesty that he decides to give Epstein a second chance.

And this is a pattern we'll see repeating over and over and over again.

Yeah, and to Tenenbaum, you know, this is now, what, 40 or 45 years later, when I spoke to him, he was still kind of marveling at Epstein's knack for understanding human dynamics so well that just on the spur of the moment, he understood that that would be something that was likely to get him a second chance.

And sure enough, it worked.

Well, he keeps his job, and he starts very quickly climbing through the ranks at Bear Stearns.