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Tearing Down the Walls
Book

Tearing Down the Walls

How Sandy Weill Fought His Way to the Top of the Financial World and then Nearly Lost It All

Free Press, 2003 plus...


Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative

Recommendation

Monica Langley follows Sandford Weill, a shy Jewish boy from Brooklyn, through his youthful struggles against adversity, his journey to the absolute top of the financial world and his tainted success. Seen through the prism of Weill’s tumultuous career, the financial world is small, despite its importance, internally more like a village than a city. The book just confirms your suspicions that practical finance bears almost no resemblance to what you learned in economics class. getAbstract.com commends Langley for skillfully molding the saga of this titanic financier’s career into such a compelling, well-constructed narrative.

Take-Aways

  • Son of immigrant Jews from Poland, Sanford "Sandy" Weill worked his way to the top of the financial world.
  • His father betrayed the family, leaving them for a mistress and selling his business, so Sandy had no job when he graduated.
  • Insecurity and fear fueled Sandy’s ambition and drove his success.

About the Author

Monica Langley, formerly a practicing attorney, has written on finance for The Wall Street Journal for twelve years.