“Part coming-of-age story, part recovery memoir, and part exposé of a rotten, money-drenched Wall Street culture” (Salon), Sam Polk’s unflinching account chronicles his fight to overcome the ghosts of his past—and the radical new way he now defines success.
At just thirty years old, Sam Polk was a senior trader for one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street, on the verge of making it to the very top. When he was offered an annual bonus of $3.75 million, he grew angry because it was not enough. It was then he knew he had lost himself in his obsessive pursuit of money. And he had come to loathe the culture—the shallowness, the sexism, the crude machismo—and Wall Street’s use of wealth as the sole measure of a person’s worth. He decided to walk away from it all.
For Polk, becoming a Wall Street trader was the fulfillment of his dreams. But in reality it was just the culmination of a life of addictive and self-destructive behaviors, from overeating, to bulimia, to alcohol and drug abuse. His obsessive pursuit of money papered over years of insecurity and emotional abuse. Making money was just the latest attempt to fill the void left by his narcissistic and emotionally unavailable father.
“Vivid, picaresque...riveting” (NewYorker.com), For the Love of Money brings you into the rarefied world of Wall Street trading floors, capturing the modern frustrations of young graduates drawn to Wall Street. Polk’s “raw, honest and intimate take on one man’s journey in and out of the business…really gives readers something to think about” (CNBC.com). It is “compellingly written...unflinchingly honest...about the inner journey Polk undertakes to redefine success” (Forbes).
- 288 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Author’s Note
- Prologue
- Chapter 1: Unconscious Inheritance
- Chapter 2: The Cheerleader
- Chapter 3: Camp Fox
- Chapter 4: Numbcake
- Chapter 5: Chicken-All-Together
- Chapter 6: Fifteen Pounds
- Chapter 7: There’s a Bomb in My Stomach
- Chapter 8: The Boy with the Dragon Tattoo
- Chapter 9: The Burglary
- Chapter 10: ON24
- Chapter 11: Fight Club
- Chapter 12: Sex in the City
- Chapter 13: Spiritual Counselor
- Chapter 14: Like Father, Like Son
- Chapter 15: Brand-Name Life
- Chapter 16: The Fulcrum
- Chapter 17: Remnants of an Accident
- Chapter 18: The Easy Confidence of Millionaires
- Chapter 19: Nurturing Love
- Chapter 20: Protector of the Stupid
- Chapter 21: The Least Cool Thing to Order at a Bar
- Chapter 22: The Ice Melteth
- Chapter 23: The Ephemeral Prison
- Chapter 24: Charleston
- Chapter 25: The Land of Ambition and Success
- Chapter 26: A Castle on a Cloud
- Chapter 27: A Handwritten Note
- Chapter 28: The Navy SEALs of Bond Trading
- Chapter 29: The Anniversary Presents
- Chapter 30: Sacred Creatures
- Chapter 31: Gatsby, Interrupted
- Chapter 32: The Mad Max Scenario
- Chapter 33: Fear, Love, and a Billion Dollars
- Chapter 34: Peter Luger’s
- Chapter 35: Hear It in the Deep
- Chapter 36: The Bright Light of the Afternoon
- Epilogue: Good-bye to All That
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Copyright
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Yes, you can access For the Love of Money by Sam Polk in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Business & Business Biographies. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.