The Real Deal: My Life in Business and Philanthropy [Hardcover]

Sandy Weill (Author), Judah S. Kraushaar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2006

Shortly after we set up shop, the four of us and our wives convened at Arthur's home on Long Island to celebrate. It was a festive occasion, and we all openly shared our aspirations. To this day, I remember the others stressing over and over their desire to become wealthy. Given that Joanie and I were raising two toddlers and lived nearly hand-to-mouth, the talk was certainly seductive. Still, what I remember most from that dinner was my declaration that the money should be secondary-what mattered more to me was to build a great firm: one that would lead the industry, employ lots of people, endure over many years, and, importantly, command respect.Over the next forty-three years, I never altered my priorities."-from THE REAL DEALThe Sandy Weill story is truly one for the ages. Starting with $30,000 in borrowed cash in 1960, and relying on uncanny entrepreneurial instincts, Sandy created one of the leading securities firms in the U.S. and became one of the best known businessmen in the world. After selling his company to American Express and becoming its president, he experienced a professional setback. Undaunted, he cannily parlayed it into a second career, starting over with a sleepy consumer loan company called Commercial Credit, which over the next seventeen years he transformed into the leading global bank, Citigroup. During this span, Weill as chairman and CEO delivered an astounding 2,600 percent return to investors-better than legendary CEO Jack Welch or investor Warren Buffett during that same period.Yet success is never an easy path, and Weill divulges the highs and lows. His ascent to power has been documented by the media over the years, but never before has Weill revealed the brutally honest and unvarnished side of an astonishing life and career.And Weill goes further, sharing his love of philanthropy, a journey that took him "from a mediocre bass drummer in my high-school marching band to the chairmanship of Carnegie Hall." He brings readers into his personal life, introducing them to his wife, Joan, his daily inspiration, and discussing his relationships with competitors and colleagues alike, including proteges like Peter Cohen and Jamie Dimon. Along the way, he shares the most important lessons he learned in business and in life. From a middle-class Brooklyn childhood to corporate legend, philanthropist, financier, and chairman emeritus of Citigroup Inc., THE REAL DEAL tells a remarkable story-that of a financial superstar who always loved the game more than the gold.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

More than an autobiography, CitiGroup CEO and renowned philanthropist Weill delivers an ambitious project that spans more than 50 years of business history and provides real-world advice for investment neophytes and market insiders alike. Weill, a Brooklyn native, started his career in 1960 with a $30,000 loan and a dream, and slowly created an empire; at present, CitiGroup is the largest financial institution in the world, its share price having grown 2,644% since its initial public offering in 1986 (when it was known as Commercial Credit). An inspiring story told with subtlety and candor, Weill's memoir offers something for everyone-from his ten golden rules of leadership to a first-hand explication of the 1990s bull-bear battles on Wall Street, and a candid interview with his wife Joan (complete with her advice for the "Corporate Spouse"). At times emotional and self-congratulatory, this book's purpose is always clear-to celebrate and enshrine Weill's successes. Nonetheless, it also includes salient criticism, and some painful explication of his mistakes along the way. Like the man himself, this book tells it like it is, and has little to hide.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From the Back Cover

"I've been friends with Sandy Weill for nearly thirty years, and this book is vintage Sandy: at every turn it's spirited, passionate, and brutally honest."

--President Gerald Ford

"A consummate innovator, Sandy Weill has written a memoir which uniquely brings to life the dramatic evolution of the modern financial services industry."

--Dr. Alan Greenspan

"THE REAL DEAL doesn't mince words on what it takes to be successful in business and life. Sandy's drive and hard-earned lessons resonate throughout this fascinating book."

--Dr. Henry Kissinger

"Sandy Weill reinvented Wall Street, redefined banking, and reshaped the world of financial services. He is a visionary who changed the world of business for all of us, and in doing so became that rarest of all breeds--a legend in his own time."

--Ken Chenault

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Business Plus (October 9, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446578142
• ISBN-13: 978-0446578141
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #460,363 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Good Read but Quite Biased. And nothing new from other books... March 1, 2007

By R. Ghai

Format:Hardcover

This is actually quite an interesting book and a fairly good and fast read. However compared to the previous two books on Weill, this offers maybe only 5% new information and some extra personal view on events that were reported by other authors.

My main gripe with this book is that it shows everything in a very biased view. Everyones "leaving" Sandy for whatever reason gave him a feeling of betrayal and as someone who did not appricate what was done for them by Sandy.
Jamie Dimon is depicted as a strong personality, maybe inflexible (Joan Weill also cites this as reason for why everyone close to Jamie left him), but this is not considered the reason why everyone (and really everyone) close to Sandy left and did not continue working for him.
While a lot of associates were described as people who could not change the way they worked, Sandy himself writes about having "issues" leaving day to day runnning of Citibank to Chuck Prince.

And frankly, Joan Weills section on giving her perspective of things seems to be another attempt to defend the actions of Sandy Weill.

Maybe the only way for a really different perspective on this will be if other executives (especailly Jamie Dimon) ever pen down their side of the story.

Sandy Weill - A really interesting character - achieved a lot despite his humble beginning and background; a maverick who shook up the biggest financial industry. But as a book on him, I prefer other books, especially "King of Capital"

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Boring and Lacking in Useful Information January 1, 2007

By Loyd E. Eskildson HALL OF FAME

Format:Hardcover

I read "The Real Deal" in the hope of gaining insight on how to be a good manager. The book did not help; the main "insight" I gained was the suspicion that Weill's success was largely due to his having strong people as operational assistants - eg. Cohen at Shearson, and Dimon at Citigroup.

The one other potential insight I took away from the book was Weill's endorsement of requiring top executives to hold most of their stock until retirement (thus avoiding the incentive for short-term manipulations); it was also somewhat interesting (and disappointing) to read of the key role played by politics at American Express while Weill was there.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars You Catch a Glimpse of the Man October 19, 2006

By C. Kurdas VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Business memoirs are usually way too self serving to tell you anything useful, but this one is an exception. Weill has many dramatic stories and, despite the co-author, conveys enough of what appears to be his real thoughts to be interesting. This is one of the toughest and wiliest - no pun - players on Wall Street, but one actually feels for him when he describes the trap New York attorney-general Spitzer set for Citigroup just as Weill thought the bank's legal problems were under control. Analyst Grubman's emails were leaked, the scandal was all over the press, but Weill and Citigroup couldn't really respond. He was like a mouse trying to dodge a menacing cat, while forbidden to make any noise. So powerful a chief executive was forced into a pitiful situation--yet the government didn't have a case with the Grubman revelations and nothing came of it. In the meanwhile, Citigroup's stock tanked. Some poor innocent investor who happened to own it lost money as the prosecutors played with Weill until they decided there was no case against him. Life isn't fair and the government much less so. Not that Weill has reason to complain, all in all: he went to the bank and came out with a fortune. As distinguished a career as possible, through the ups and downs and despite the tribulations toward the end with Spitzer. Definitely worth reading.