It is a lot easier to keep things straight and be happy if your public persona and private persona are not in conflict – you are one integrated person. Being true to yourself also means facing up to problems and mistakes early. Early on in my career as a professional economist, I got involved in writing a paper about tax reform with the head of the firm’s research department. The night the paper went to the printers, I woke up with complete clarity that there was a mistake in the paper. The mistake did not affect the conclusions of the paper. It just slightly changed all the numbers and was obscure enough that no one would probably catch it. What to do? I decided to take my medicine. I walked into the office of my co-author the next morning and said that we needed to throw out the 10,000 copies of the paper that had been printed. The head of research – Leon Cooperman – was known for his – let me say this delicately – strong personality. But rather than blowing up at me, he said fine, let’s fix it. Facing up to the error must have actually worked in my favor since I won his respect. A few months later, he introduced me to Robert Rubin – who, as you know, went on to become the U.S. Secretary of Treasury. And through Robert Rubin I met all sorts of interesting people in the Clinton administration.
Think of the chain of events for me to get my “dream job” – head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. I had to decide to leave Goldman Sachs at the end of 2005; be asked by Timothy Geithner to be head of the Markets Group in 2006 and be smart enough to take him up on his offer; Barack Obama had to win the presidential election; Tim had to be selected to be Treasury Secretary; and the Board of Directors of the Bank in collaboration with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., had to agree on me as Tim’s successor. If you ever thought that train of events was even remotely likely, I think you would have been considered delusional! My final piece of advice is the most important one: Don’t forget all that they have taught you here about thinking critically and speaking up. So, let me sum up. Go into the job market with enthusiasm and don’t be daunted by the inevitable rejections. That’s part of the process of getting started. Don’t feel in a rush to figure out all the details of your career. If you are true to yourself, continue to build your human capital and don’t forget everything that they have taught you here, I know that you will meet with every success. Thank you and, most importantly, good luck! 4  BIS Review 71/2010