Gary Cohn owes his first job on Wall Street to a cab ride1.
Cohn was twenty-two and working as a salesman for U.S. Steel in Cleveland. On one particular day, he found himself in Long Island and decided to venture down to Wall Street. While he was there, he decided he wanted a job.
The only problem? Cohn didn’t know anything about finance.
Since he had no connections on Wall Street and little experience that would qualify him for a job, he couldn’t pursue the ordinary route of handing in a resume. So, he went after a different angle. He stood outside of the commodities exchange until he overheard a well-dressed man catching a taxi to LaGuardia. Without missing a beat, Cohn asked if they could share a cab ride.
This gave Cohn an hour in the car with a higher up in one of the top brokerage firms on Wall Street.
Throughout their conversation, Cohn discovered the firm was entering the options business. However, the higher up didn’t know the first thing about buying or selling an option. He asked Cohn how much he knew.
Malcolm Gladwell recounts Cohn’s response in David and Goliath:
When he said, ‘Do you know what an option is?’ I said, ‘Of course I do, I know everything, I can do anything for you.’
That, of course, was a lie. Cohn knew nothing about options trading. But, he was able to score an interview. He spent the next few days reading books on options trading and landed the job.
Cohn knew the best way to improve is to commit to action before you’re ready.
Superordinary 