Source: a16z

Compiled by: Felix, PANews

a16z partner David Haber and former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein discussed leadership, risk, and how to navigate periods of extreme uncertainty. Drawing on his experience leading Goldman Sachs through the financial crisis, Blankfein shared insights on building corporate resilience, making decisions under pressure, and maintaining corporate culture while scaling. PANews has compiled the highlights of their conversation.

Host: Your tweet about the White House Correspondents' Dinner was fantastic. We need you to tweet more often. That tweet later got about 1.4 million views, which is amazing.

(PANews Note: Lloyd Blankfein was present at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner shooting in April 2026. He remained remarkably calm and even asked those around him if they wanted to finish their salad. The following day, he published a summary of his attendance on the X platform.)

"Last night I attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner, a rare trip to Washington without a subpoena for me. The good things were the lively atmosphere, no one died, and it ended early. I noticed a new litmus test for status among the government elite: whether you're quickly taken away by the Secret Service or left to fend for yourself."

Lloyd: You know what's interesting? You might think you'd see something and immediately want to tweet about it. But for me, it felt like, "Oh, I haven't tweeted in ages, let me find something to tweet about." At the same time, because I'm in risk management, I always know that everyone is constantly expressing themselves, and eventually you'll get "cancelled" because you might have unknowingly crossed an invisible line that nobody knew about. So I realized that from a risk-reward perspective, tweeting doesn't really have any real value other than satisfying yourself . But then again, when you retire, it's like grasping at a straw, "Why not tweet?" I remember saying when I retired that I was free from my old constraints; because I started using Twitter at Goldman Sachs, I realized I was playing a dangerous game because I had been sarcastic about presidents and had a lot of back-and-forth exchanges with them. My interactions included Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Host: There are reports that during the shooting, you said to the person next to you, " Are you going to finish your salad? " Is that true?

Lloyd: It's true, but not because I was hungry. In a crisis, I always try to defuse tension, and by the way, hiding under the table is a wise move. I wasn't thinking things through; I was just enjoying it like watching a movie, with people in tuxedos suddenly pulling out pistols, and fully armed men running in pointing guns outside. Someone pulled my leg down, and I said, "You're absolutely right," which was also a moment I was glad I was short. Seeing that everyone wasn't too panicked, to break the ice, I leaned down and asked, "Are you going to finish your salad?" I thought it was quite amusing at the time.

Host: Have you always been this calm since you were a child?

Lloyd: Yes, some people at Goldman Sachs say I'm very good at handling crises, so I'll even create crises to give myself a chance to shine. My normal rest is that I don't rest; I'm always a bit tense. But during a crisis, things slow down for me, like slow motion. I become very sensitive to the thoughts of those around me. The most important thing during a crisis is to get everyone doing their jobs well, not to freeze up, and not to succumb to chaos.

Host: Is this something you're born with or something you developed through childhood experiences?

Lloyd: I don't know, and I've never made that kind of prediction for myself. We have a crisis of the century about every four or five years, it's always like that. It doesn't mean I like crises, and I don't actively seek them out. It's just that when a crisis happens, I'm usually confident I won't panic. If I panic, everyone else will collapse before me. By the way, it's also taught me how to identify the people you need to rely on, because you really can't judge a book by its cover. I was through the financial crisis, and we had a great athlete, a real man, who would go rodeos on weekends, but he performed terribly during the crisis. And as co-president of the company, I had to teach them how to breathe deeply. Conversely, some people who looked like they couldn't even climb one flight of stairs performed exceptionally well during the crisis. So that's why I suggest that when you're selecting board members, the best option is to look for people who have already experienced crises.

Host: You have a very ordinary family background, and I'm curious, what role did living in New York City or near Manhattan play in fueling your ambition? Where did you grow up?

Lloyd: I grew up in the far reaches of Manhattan, where I could vaguely see it. I'd probably only been there three times before college (twice to Radio City Music Hall, once for a Harvard interview). It felt like 5,000 miles away to me; I lived in public housing and had to transfer to get to the city. Because I didn't know much then, I didn't have the burden of high expectations. Compared to now, when I see the burden of high expectations, I see it as an advantage. Going to Harvard was a culture shock for me because I went to a bad high school, didn't have much education, my Chinese score was low, but my math score was almost perfect, around 790. My only ambition at the time was to go to a college out of town, away from Brooklyn.

Host: Goldman Sachs has a remarkable history. Unlike JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, it wasn't built through mergers, but rather brick by brick by generations of entrepreneurial partners. The acquisition of J. Aron might be an exception. Did people at the time think that this company would have such a significant impact on Goldman Sachs?

Lloyd: I was the one being acquired, so I don't know what they were thinking at the time, but I later realized it was a "disaster." Like Columbus trying to find India but discovering America instead, they unexpectedly acquired an entrepreneurial culture they hadn't intended to buy. In the early 1980s, inflation was high, and gold had just been allowed for private ownership. J.Aron exploded during this period of inflation, selling its most valuable asset to Goldman Sachs. At the time, Wall Street firms all needed commodity departments. Goldman Sachs was an upper-class firm, recruiting from Ivy League schools; while J.Aron had a street style, almost like the Mafia, where the best entry-level job was as a driver for traders. After graduating from college and law school, I worked at a law firm for a few years, but felt it wasn't a good fit, and was rejected by every Wall Street (including Goldman Sachs) job interview. The only company that hired me was J.Aron, a commodity trading firm I'd never heard of, which put me in precious metals sales. Later, after being acquired by Goldman Sachs, I joined them.

Host: Is that where you learned to become a risk manager? Viewers may not know what trading was like for J. Aron or Goldman Sachs in the 80s or 90s.

Lloyd: The essence of trading hasn't changed; the tools have changed, but the judgment and perspective remain the same. Anyone involved in investing does two things: try to make money for themselves and their clients (by taking risks), and simultaneously try to be a risk manager. You have to split yourself in two, asking both, "Are we taking enough risk?" and "Are we overcommitting? What contingency plans do we have if X, Y, or Z happens?" Sometimes things don't go well, and people don't want to take risks. But we're hired to take risks, and you have to encourage people to take more. And at other times, you have to ask them, "What can you do today to mitigate potential catastrophic consequences at a very low cost?" When everyone needs insurance, when a hurricane is coming, insuring your beachfront property is very expensive. But in the dead of winter, it's much cheaper. My nature is always a bit fatalistic, a bit tense, and always looking for where things might go wrong, which gives me a strong sense of direction in risk management. The biggest challenge for management is spending about a third of the time getting people to restrain themselves from risk, and most of the time getting people to take on more risk when they don't want to.

Host: Ashok (Head of Trading at Goldman Sachs) mentioned that one of the cultural imprints J. Aron left on Goldman Sachs was "Market Monitor" (MTM). He also said that you are a manager who is not afraid of losses and is very good at gathering information from within the organization. You will even bypass your supervisor and talk to the second-in-command of the department.

Lloyd: I never want to disrupt hierarchy, but I try to make everyone feel comfortable talking to me. If a junior employee tells me something, I never say, "I already know that." I don't want anyone to self-criticize, and even if multiple people tell me the same thing, I sit down and listen. This not only lets me understand the information, but also lets me understand the person delivering it.

Regarding losses, people lose money either because of foolishness or because of mistakes. Smart people generally don't do stupid things, but they do make mistakes, just like the best baseball hitters are out two-thirds of the time. When smart people make mistakes, never treat them like fools. The biggest mistake in risk management is allowing "after-the-fact information" to infiltrate judgments about decisions made at the time. No one can predict the future, or even see the present clearly, but everyone becomes a genius after the fact. Most of our risk management efforts focus on contingency plans. Through simulations, we have a plan to quickly get going when things happen, leading others to believe you predicted it, when in reality you simply heard the starting gun earlier than others.

Host: How did you view technology during your time at Goldman Sachs?

Lloyd: Technology is always changing everything, and in the financial industry, it's often a "winner-takes-all" situation. For example, in trading execution systems, a difference of milliseconds can secure an order, leaving others helpless. The financial sector is the best adopter of technology. As a regulated company, we can't afford to make mistakes (unlike Silicon Valley, where mistakes can be apologized for, we can't). We must run old and new systems in parallel, testing them 50 times until they're perfect 49 times before we dare to switch. So technology always increases costs initially, but it improves efficiency over time. This also led to our early investment in risk systems (like SecDB), whose core logic is still in use 25 to 30 years later. It's like my HP 12C calculator, which I've used for 40 years; it has stood the test of time.

Host: You spend half your time before the company's IPO (during the partnership period) and half your time after the IPO. How do you maintain that partnership culture?

Lloyd: Partnership culture and corporate culture are very different. Our biggest concern when going public was losing our partnership culture. Partners are co-owners of the company; their wealth depends on the entire enterprise, not just their individual departments. They care about the big picture and expect influence and a voice. Senior management needs to communicate with them, listen to their opinions, and foster a sense of ownership, thus creating a stable organization. Former employees still refer to themselves as former Goldman Sachs alumni, and we even have an alumni office to maintain relationships. We went public because after repealing the Glass-Steagall Act, we needed to expand our balance sheet to provide lending and financing services. To avoid destroying our culture, we spent 25 years maintaining a partnership-like election process, with compensation based on company-wide performance, allowing teams to sacrifice short-term gains for the overall benefit, thus leveraging the platform for growth. Private companies value earnings, while publicly traded companies value the price-to-earnings ratio (P/E).

Host: Goldman Sachs performed very well during the financial crisis, but it also faced unfair public backlash. What helped you get through it?

Lloyd: Risk management and the lack of a large consumer business (though this also resulted in a lack of public support and reputational damage after the crisis). Our partnership culture allows us to be extremely focused on risk, as partners even take risks with their own homes. We strictly adhere to mark-to-market (MTM). We have an independent department responsible for pricing, and if traders disagree on a valuation, our approach is simple: sell a portion on the market to test it. If there are no buyers, we must continuously lower the valuation. This mechanism is our early warning system for detecting crises.

Furthermore, we required collateral agreements from institutions like AIG, and at the time, we were probably the only company with the courage to do so. During the crisis, we also kept our promises to our clients because we are a 150-year-old institution, and we were responsible for our reputation after the crisis. This is also my advice to young people: your peers will be in charge of important institutions in 20 or 30 years, and your actions now will determine how they will evaluate you in the future. Don't just be a "good friend" to your subordinates; be an outstanding leader who makes them feel better by following you.

Host: Today's tech companies (such as those working on AI) may face the same public scrutiny and criticism that Goldman Sachs faced back then. What advice do you have for OpenAI, Anthropic, or Elon Musk?

Lloyd: Goldman Sachs used to be a wholesale firm with no retail branches. We even had a dedicated PR department to ensure our name didn't appear in the newspapers. But during the crisis, our sheer size made us a prime target, and officials easily turned their attacks on us. My advice is: get out there before the crisis hits and let people know who you are and the value of your work. Don't wait until people think you've messed up before scrambling to explain. Technologies like AI are incredibly important, and the hyperscale computing companies currently being bet on are all being invested in by founders with their own money; their conviction is very strong. Markets can have bubbles, but investing now due to a lack of information about the future isn't foolish.

Host: What risks in the market do you think are currently underestimated?

Lloyd: The risks lie in reliability and leverage. Previously, if someone reported a wrong price in the trading floor, everyone would stop, and you could intuitively spot the error. But now, large language models and other software can silently execute tens of thousands of trades in the background. You lose intuitive judgment and the ability to trace your thought process. If these tests themselves are flawed, the consequences could be devastating. However, we cannot reverse the tide of time; leverage allows us to create more wealth. Perhaps in the future we can work three days a week and spend the afternoon as a poet or hunting. I support these technological advancements.

Host: Finally, what advice do you have for young people just starting their careers?

Lloyd: Become a complete person. Study history, study the humanities, study for yourself. Opportunities exist at the intersection of professional fields, beyond your visible horizon. As you live longer, don't think that only 18 to 24 years old are your productive years. You will have a more resilient and fulfilling life and business career by becoming an interesting and well-rounded person.

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