“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).
Lo venden como "una mirada nueva a las interioridades del mundo de los Hedge Funds" y es en realidad la historia de un drogadicto con problemas de familia desestructurada que, de pura casualidad, se dedica a la banca de inversión. El problema es que algún insensato ha comparado este libro con el Liar's Poker de Michael Lewis, cuando aquél no le llega a éste ni a la suela del zapato. En todo el libro hay unas diez o quince páginas que hablan (y lo cuentan muy bien) de las interioridades del mundo trader. Pero el resto son disquisiciones y recuerdos personales ligados al dolor, el sufrimiento y la redención. Que no es que esté mal, oigan, si ése es su rollo, pero no es lo que uno busca en un libro que dicen que es el nuevo Liar's poker. decepcionante.
