Like Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker, the classic memoir of the Salomon Brothers’ investment bank in the 1980s, STREETFREAK: Money and Madness at Lehman Brothers (Touchstone Hardcover / Simon & Schuster; September 13, 2011; 978-1-4391-8126-3; $26.00) takes readers behind the scenes at Lehman Brothers, exposing its insane and often hilarious corporate culture. Jared Dillian gives a colorful account of the final years of Lehman Brothers, from 9/11 at their Ground Zero offices through the firm’s bankruptcy, including vivid portraits of volatile workers, the financial meltdown, and the company’s ultimate collapse – all while Dillian fought his own personal battle with mental illness.
On the day that Jared Dillian, a young Lehman Brothers associate, had an important interview that would decide which division he would be assigned, the world changed forever – the day was 9/11 and across the street at Lehman Brother’s World Financial Center offices, Dillian watched the World Trade Center destroyed before his eyes.
In this ultra-competitive Ivy League world where men would flip over each other’s ties to check out the labels (also known as the “Lehman Handshake”), Jared Dillian was an outsider as an ex-military, working-class guy in a Men’s Wearhouse suit. Dillian was scrappy and determined; in interviews he told potential managers that, “Nobody can work harder than me. Nobody is willing to put in the hours I will put in. I am insane.” As it turned out, on WallStreet, insanity is not an undesirable quality.
A couple of years later and Jared has risen to become Lehman’s head Exchange Traded Fund trader at time of unprecedented prosperity for Lehman Brothers. Dillian is an integral part of its final years and more than $1 trillion in wealth passed through his hands. But the exhilarating and explosively stressful job took its toll on Dillian, exacerbating the symptoms of his undiagnosed bipolar disorder, leading to a downward spiral that landed him in a psychiatric ward. Dillian put his life back together coming back to work healthier than ever before, but he soon realized that Lehman has gone mad, making outrageous bets on the commercial real estate market and was quickly headed for self destruction.
STREET FREAK is a raw, visceral, and wholly original memoir of seven years inside the belly of the beast during one of the most tumultuous times in financial history, bookended by the crucibles of 9/11, where his career with Lehman truly began, and September 15, 2008, the date the firm ceased to exist except for a name on a historic bankruptcy filing. In his electrifying and fresh voice, Dillian takes readers on a wild ride through madness and back – both inside Lehman Brothers and himself – and he’s got one hell of a story to tell.
Jared Dillian is the founder of the subscription-based, daily financial market report The Daily Dirtnap (www.dailydirtnap.com). He was a trader for Lehman Brothers from 2001 to 2008, specializing in index arbitrage and ETF trading. Dillian is a graduate of the United States Coast Guard Academy and earned his MBA from the University of San Francisco. He’s lived in NYC, CT, NJ, San Francisco and currently resides in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Please visit Jared at http://www.jareddillian.com/.
My Take on the BookThis book takes you on a ride from beginning to end looking at the highs and lows of working at Lehman Brothers. What I loved most about this book was the intimate look that the book provides into this company that so many of us have heard of (whether positive or negative).
You can just feel the stress oozing out of the pages of the book as the author explains the wild ride that was working at this company. You can see the crazy days and nights, the high powered meetings, lunches as well as power suits that had to be bought and worn to be seen as a part of the company culture.
While I have never worked for this company or for a company that exudes such stress on its workers (IMHO) I have to applaud the author for doing such a superb job at sharing the experience in such vivid detail with us!
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