I became intrigued by books on finance, and, hence, at NYU I majored first in finance and, as my interest broadened, in economics and in what was then called mathematical statistics and now econometrics. In retrospect, that choice probably was not surprising since math was my most engaging course in high school. I graduated and joined an economic research organization.
But my education did not stop. I earned a masters degree and went on to further studies at night at Columbia University. At the age of twenty-seven I joined a very small Wall Street firm as a partner and was essentially in charge of making it grow. It did, and I eventually became the senior partner.