Giants abound on Wall Street.
To excel to great heights in the world of finance requires a rare combination of exceptional intelligence, political savvy, business acumen, tireless dedication and motivation, a genuine work ethic, and an unusual level of persistence.
Family relationships, privilege, and access to power and resources may play a role in an individual’s corporate ascension. Others may possess extraordinary cunning and ruthlessness to seize control within the inner sanctum. Still others may be intractably corrupt and vanquish all foes, as they do not follow the written and unwritten rules of the Street.
Regardless of how they get to the top, once they get to the top, most corporate chieftains all share one distinctive quality.
They feel special.
This is a different brand of special unavailable to most mere mortals. In their minds, they have moved financial mountains, parted regulatory seas, and put down brazen shareholder insurrections. They know what consumers want, before they want it. They are repulsed at the sniveling minions that do their bidding and gullible shareholders that follow their lead like so many lemmings. They crush competitors and save civilizations with their benevolent/malevolent omniscient omnipotence.
Yes, they do feel quite special.
Many have actually had the courage and gall to share these sentiments with me. Their needs to impress and be revered are enormous.
It is difficult to exaggerate the hyper-inflated self-image that many of these movers and shakers possess. Even those who do not suffer personality disorders see themselves quite differently than we do. When it comes to self-image, I have found that among Wall Street’s elite there is a thin line between success and excess.