I turned down Goldman Sachs for Lehman Brothers, and fifteen years on still have no regrets.
I turned down Goldman Sachs for Lehman Brothers, and fifteen years on still have no regrets.
And, fifteen years on from the bankruptcy, I still have no regrets turning down Goldman to join Lehman’s Global Real Estate Group. Goldman are leaders and winners in Global Investment Banking, but that doesn’t take away from what Lehman was or is. As soon as I received the call from Lehman with the offer, I called Goldman and let them know that I would not be joining them (even their travel team was shocked).
Lehman had a reputation that reflected who I was: an underdog, scrappy, hardworking, hustler, and less-aristocracy and more blue collar (less arrogant). Above all, they were known as the ‘nice guys on Wall Street’.
Lehman was the undisputed Bond King of Wall Street, and, if you wanted to be in real estate it was all about the debt capital markets. The real estate group ran Lehman. I’d still argue that it was Lehman’s stretch into the equity markets that brought the bank down. And, as Barry Sternlicht frequently recommends, you should go where the action is. In the 2000’s, one can argue there was no better place than Lehman’s real estate group. My small team alone closed billions a year of debt and equity transactions, including the MetLife/PanAm tower in NYC, Archstone Residential, John Hancock in Boston, Coeur Defense Towers in Paris, and Devonshire House in London, among many others. If JMB was the place to be in real estate in the 80’s, Lehman was the place to be in the 2000’s.
If I wanted a corporate banking or government career, Goldman clearly would have been a better choice. That’s not me though. I sought out an entrepreneurial career in real estate.
And, a decade and a half later I run a rapidly growing real estate private credit business. We’re still underdogs, we’re still hustlers, and we are still the nice guys on the Street. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Follow Sean Kelly-Rand on LinkedIn
And, fifteen years on from the bankruptcy, I still have no regrets turning down Goldman to join Lehman’s Global Real Estate Group. Goldman are leaders and winners in Global Investment Banking, but that doesn’t take away from what Lehman was or is. As soon as I received the call from Lehman with the offer, I called Goldman and let them know that I would not be joining them (even their travel team was shocked).
Lehman had a reputation that reflected who I was: an underdog, scrappy, hardworking, hustler, and less-aristocracy and more blue collar (less arrogant). Above all, they were known as the ‘nice guys on Wall Street’.
Lehman was the undisputed Bond King of Wall Street, and, if you wanted to be in real estate it was all about the debt capital markets. The real estate group ran Lehman. I’d still argue that it was Lehman’s stretch into the equity markets that brought the bank down. And, as Barry Sternlicht frequently recommends, you should go where the action is. In the 2000’s, one can argue there was no better place than Lehman’s real estate group. My small team alone closed billions a year of debt and equity transactions, including the MetLife/PanAm tower in NYC, Archstone Residential, John Hancock in Boston, Coeur Defense Towers in Paris, and Devonshire House in London, among many others. If JMB was the place to be in real estate in the 80’s, Lehman was the place to be in the 2000’s.
If I wanted a corporate banking or government career, Goldman clearly would have been a better choice. That’s not me though. I sought out an entrepreneurial career in real estate.
And, a decade and a half later I run a rapidly growing real estate private credit business. We’re still underdogs, we’re still hustlers, and we are still the nice guys on the Street. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Follow Sean Kelly-Rand on LinkedIn
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