modern man // sam polk
Pinterest is all about collecting and sharing content online. Mostly visual content, yes, but I’ve come across quite a few good reads through the platform including last week’s New York Times Opinion piece, For the Love of Money, by Sam Polk. The first few paragraphs paints the picture of a self-destructive, unfaithful, drug addict, and stereotypical banker wannabe (no judgments here, honest). I almost stopped reading at this point, because how many more times did I want to hear, “I grew excited at how much money was available”, “Still, I was nagged by envy” and “I wanted a billion dollars.”? These phrases seemed never-ending..
Polk’s eyes are opened and sees that his bosses, his company and the industry are so caught up in their own wealth, addicted to money and power. He gets real and says, “it was incredibly difficult to leave. I was terrified of running out of money and of forgoing future bonuses. More than anything, I was afraid that five or 10 years down the road, I’d feel like an idiot for walking away from my one chance to be really important. What made it harder was that people thought I was crazy for thinking about leaving. In 2010, in a final paroxysm of my withering addiction, I demanded $8 million instead of $3.6 million. My bosses said they’d raise my bonus if I agreed to stay several more years. Instead, I walked away.”
He shares how difficult that first year not working in Wall Street was for him, but “over time it got easier — I started to realize that I had enough money, and if I needed to make more, I could.” You can read the rest of the article here to see what Sam is up to now.
Respect for a man who admits and accepts his faults and wrongdoings, for finding the truth and acting on it, and for sharing his story so that his former colleagues and peers, and people in every industry, know that they are not alone. A true modern man is honest with himself and has the courage and strength to make a change for the better (even though it may not seem that way in the short-term).
