Streetwise

Getting To and Through Goldman Sachs

By: Lloyd Blankfein

Narrated by: Lloyd Blankfein

From the long-tenured head Goldman Sachs - an institution legendary for its culture of success - comes a candid memoir of global leadership in an age of extreme turbulence

'Lloyd Blankfein is scary smart about people, markets, and life generally. During the 2008-2009 financial crisis, Lloyd acted decisively, and he tells the story of what happened with unique insights' WARREN BUFFETT

'A sharp insider's guide to the era of when the financial industry spun out of control before nearly collapsing, then getting larger than ever ... As much as a Wall Street story, it is a wider narrative of culture and leadership' FINANCIAL TIMES

When Lloyd Blankfein was attacked as a Wall Street fat cat, he had to smile, thinking of his precarious childhood in the notorious public housing projects of East New York, Brooklyn, and attending a high school so chaotic he didn't feel safe leaving class to go to the bathroom in his time there. Harvard University was a total moonshot, and his outsider status never wore off, there or at Harvard Law. When he struck people as street-y, it wasn't Wall Street they were thinking of. But if the chip never quite left Blankfein's shoulder, neither did a wry, resilient spirit and a lucid, democratic intelligence that saw through airs and found talent and ideas in unlikely places.

Streetwise is a delightfully honest, sharp and often very funny reckoning with Blankfein's education - in finance, human nature and the workings of the world. It abounds with lessons about leading teams of brilliant, aggressive, competitive people and harmonising them around shared goals; changing when times are hard and when they're good; managing risk; and knowing a crisis is at hand before it swamps you so you can guide your team to the further shore. Blankfein is famed for his calm hand on Goldman Sachs's tiller during the global financial crisis, and that story is told in full here, among many other decisive episodes.

A powerful blueprint for the wise stewardship of a cause that is larger than yourself, Streetwise will inspire and inform readers throughout the global business community and beyond.©2026 Lloyd Blankfein (P)2026 Penguin Random House Audio

Critic reviews

A sharp insider's guide to the era of when the financial industry spun out of control before nearly collapsing, then getting larger than ever ... As much as a Wall Street story, it is a wider narrative of culture and leadership: an explanation of how Goldman became such a powerful force by blending individual ambitions with collective purpose (John Gapper)

A pacy, often wry account . . . Anyone with corporate ambition and an interest in recent financial history should read this book (Lionel Barber)

Lloyd Blankfein is scary smart about people, markets, and life generally. His 10,000 Small Businesses idea proved to be a huge winner, and I personally witnessed the time and effort he devoted to its success. During the 2008-2009 financial crisis, Lloyd acted decisively, and he tells the story of what happened with unique insights. (Warren Buffett)

Lloyd Blankfein has always been a straight shooter, but his journey from public housing to the heights of Wall Street wasn't a straight line. Streetwise is packed with important lessons about leadership, risk-taking, decision-making, and giving back. (Michael Bloomberg)

Streetwise is a disarmingly honest account, full of insights about the changes in the business of finance, as down-to-earth and sharp-witted as the man himself, a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand the power dynamics within a giant investment bank. (Liaquat Ahamed, Winner of the Pulitzer Prize)

Having survived every financial crisis from 1987 to 2008, and all the lesser busts and panics in between, Lloyd Blankfein has written an autobiography that answers the question: How did Goldman Sachs do it? Under his leadership, Goldman did more than survive Wall Street's biggest storms-it thrived despite them. Yet Streetwise is also a very personal story of American social mobility, describing with dry humor the challenges the author faced as he ascended from the housing projects of Brooklyn via Harvard to the heights of Wall Street. As "a worrier, not a warrior," Blankfein came to personify the hallowed Goldman principle of "marking to market," believing in today's prices, not yesterday's promises. Every serious student of financial history will have to read Streetwise. Those who appreciate the gritty realities of the American dream will enjoy it, too. (Niall Ferguson)