Whether you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, an intraday trader, someone with a 401k, someone who thinks everyone on Wall Street is a crook, or just doesn’t care about the economy, you should read Transforming Wall Street because there are so many things. that you may not know about capitalism in America today, and there is reason for hope. Yes, there are some shady deals, but author Kim Ann Curtin believes that there is also much to celebrate, many good people working in the financial world, and a better future for all that can be achieved when we re-evaluate capitalism and start living. consciously.
Known as “The Wall Street Coach,” Curtin set out to write this book after a diverse career that included being the operations manager of a bookstore, working as an executive assistant to a chief executive officer of a bankers association, being a personal assistant to a hedge fund. manager, and finally become a personal and executive coach. Early in her coaching career, convinced that capitalism needed a dose of mindful living, Curtin decided to give free coaching to the people of Wall Street, and so, she tells us, “On October 7, 2008, I went to take my coaching those who hoped they could use it. A couple of hours after sitting there on my concrete bench at the corner of Broad and Wall Street, there was some static in the air. I could feel the tension. I asked a passerby what was going on and he said, “The market is in free fall.” Then people started coming up to me, the kind of executives who didn’t expect them to. “
As the stock market crashed and the Great Recession began, the seeds were planted for Curtin to train capitalists about conscious living, and hence the idea to write this book. She understood how disgusted many people were with Wall Street as many unethical behavior and dealings were revealed in the months that followed, but Curtin had also always been a firm believer in capitalism, and she believes that instead of opposing the two concepts , one can make money and continue to do good in the world. Beyond that, he believes that capitalism is still the best economic answer; he states, “Balancing capitalism with conscious living is what can and will transform our economy, Wall Street and the world.”
A great and noble belief, but perhaps easier said than done. Still, Curtin is not fooled or based on fanciful theories. In Transforming Wall Street, he begins with the fundamentals of capitalism, its foundations, and separates the facts from the myths, shedding new light – or rather revealing what was always there but often overlooked – on the theories of Adam Smith and Ayn Rand on how capitalism should work and why those beliefs are still valuable and viable today. She includes discussions with professors who are experts in the theory of capitalism and points out what capitalism really is versus how it is often misconceived and distorted.
Then, convinced that she could find ethical people on Wall Street as role models, Curtin set out to interview the group of people she calls “The Wall Street 50,” though she eventually found more than fifty. These are ethical people who work in the financial sector; some of them refused to be unethical and left corrupt companies on Wall Street, others have established their own companies with ethics guiding them, and others are trying to change the world by using capitalism as fuel. Non-profit organizations. Curtin spent hundreds of hours interviewing The Wall Street 50, and excerpts from those interviews are included in the book. Those interviewed included John Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group, Bill Ackman, founder of Persing Square Capital Management, and Jim Rogers, founder of Beeland Interests. He also interviewed more than a dozen people whom he refers to as “Masters of Conscience” to gather their thoughts on ethical living and how capitalism can be compatible with it. These teachers include Neale Donald Walsch, author of Conversations with God, Rasanath Das, a former investment banker turned Buddhist monk, and Patricia Aburdene, author of Conscious Money.
The interview sections take up the majority of the book and are organized by topics of discussion, including what Curtin calls the five practices for being more awake: self-responsibility, empathy with oneself / others, no emotional resistance / present moment awareness, the inner and outer journey, and self-awareness / mindfulness. He also discusses with the Wall Street 50 how they balance being a capitalist with conscious living, what to do when morally tested, what advice they would give to those who enter Wall Street, and what they would do to change Wall Street if they had magic wands. .
The result of all this research and interviews is a diversity of views on what Wall Street is and what it can become. Not all the interviewees agree with the others, but that allows us to think a lot and choose many paths that can lead us in the right direction. Curtin’s purpose is not to offer a “solution” for Wall Street, but rather to open the conversation, encourage people to rethink the definition of capitalism and how it operates, let go of jaded sentiments and instead see the hopeful ones. possibilities that capitalism offers. . If we all start to think and live consciously when it comes to our own money and how it is used, I don’t think we can underestimate the positive change that can occur. I welcome how Curtin has pulled the “curtain” on the Wall Street deal to reveal not only the bad, but also all the hope there is. Transforming Wall Street is a ray of hope that comes through the window of a dusty room and allows us to rediscover the possibilities of capitalism that were always there.