I said “How are you doing Mr. Dimon?” he turned to me and my two friends and said “Pretty good boys how are you?” and continued to the hotel elevator. So basically, you could say this is the first biography I’ve read of a person I know well.
It’s a great biography and one of the best ways to learn about large banking in the US. I find biographies to be an important way to learning about subjects. I learn physics better when I study Newton, and I learn banking better when I study Dimon.
The problem with banking is that there’s more banks than bankers. JP Morgan has a banker running the show.
Following Jamies career is almost intimidating because it’s this mix of hard work, high intellect, good wiring, and luck. He earned his way there, but he was picked by Sandy Wiell to be essentially his #2. I think students should study Jamie because I’m not sure I would have made the correct choice of getting into trouble with Wiell as Dimon did. They eventually had a falling out but it’s hard to imagine Dimon would ever have run a bank if he was thrown into an investment banking job out of college. Who knows, but the odds certainly would have been different.
I read this maybe a year and a half ago. It was sitting at my father in laws house down in Georgia, and having finished whatever two books I brought to travel with, I picked this one up and finished it in three days. I might have made my wife angrily wait 2 hours before our 9-hour drive back home in order to finish it….(we’re actually doing that same drive on Saturday only now that I’m in Philadelphia it will take us 12 hours).
Today’s banking crisis made me think reviewing a 2008 book would interest someone. I was between this one and Too Big to Fail. Both excellent but I went with Dimon. Two tidbits stuck with me. from memory:
Not many people know this, but it’s better to get 10 things done and get 8 of them right than to get 5 things done.
I thought that was just interesting career advice
He would every so often stop work at 4pm and mandate a happy hour in his office.
This only works if you’re the boss, but what a great move. It’s a great way to have the team shift gears, and spend quality time together. People will work together better if every now and then they just hang out.
Like all good value investors, Dimon because enamored with Buffett when he discovered him reading through 10ks of American companies. Like all good value investors, he scratched his head when many on his team didn’t understand the appeal.
I’m doubtful that this crisis will turn into a 2008. The core issue can be fixed quickly, lower interest rates (and raise the value of bank assets). In 2008 we couldn’t fix the core issue (nobody knew what a MBS was worth). While doubtful, I won’t be caught off guard if this turns into a financial crisis all over again. These things just happen.
My daughter asked me when she came home from school, “What’s the financial crisis?” and I said it’s something that happens every five to seven years.
-Jamie Dimon