David Solomon

We have access to the most interesting people in the world.

You learn every day.

And it's an incredible organization that I feel fortunate to steward.

I applied the first time when I was graduating from Hamilton College, and I got a very quick letter back, no thank you, but I got a lot of those.

I mean, I think I remember I got, back in the early 1980s when you applied for jobs, you wrote formal letters, sent your resume, applied for a job, you got a rejection letter back.

I got a lot of those.

I was very fortunate to get a job at the Irving Trust Company in a credit training program in 1984, and that kind of set me down in this path.

I was very lucky to be recruited to join Goldman Sachs in 1999.

I really thought it was an opportunity to work for the best financial firm in the world.

I think I've worked very hard over a long period of time.

But the real reason that I'm sitting in the seat is a confluence of things, a big portion of which is just luck and serendipity.

I mean, one of the things you might have heard me say before is.

You know, if the leadership of the firm had transitioned at a different time, I wouldn't be running the firm.

I mean, one of the things, you know, I can point to Lloyd Blankfein.

I mean, this is well known.

You know, Lloyd Blankfein had cancer in 2015 and he stepped back, you know, to deal with his treatments.

for a period of time.

He chose to step back but to stay at the firm.

Someone else might have decided, you know what, I have to deal with this and I'm gonna step away.

If Lloyd had stepped away in 2015, someone else, probably Gary Cohn, probably would be running the firm.