Joining the chorus of other CEOs, former Goldman Sachs leader Lloyd Blankfein is dispelling the myth that an Ivy League degree or supreme intellect is a prerequisite for success. It’s a pattern he’s witnessed through his decades-long career in banking, rising to the top of the C-suite at one of the biggest banks in the world.
“I’ve met people who’ve worked hard, who’ve done well, who had lucky opportunities—and give them credit, they took advantage of those opportunities—but they weren’t geniuses,” Blankfein recently told CNBC International. “They just applied themselves, they had their ears open, they had curiosity about the environment around them, and they saw things, and they went through little doors that other people wouldn’t have seen.”
Looking back on his career in finance, Blankfein pointed to a specific instance that exemplified that lesson. He spent years working at Goldman Sachs’ J. Aron—a relatively small commodity trading firm—where he strived to prove that the operation had the potential to be even bigger. And Blankfein picked up on cultural differences between the two finance firms: J. Aron employees were “streety” and not all had gone to college, while Goldman was chock-full of Ivy League graduates. Blankfein said he had a “chip on his shoulder” to show that they were great workers; they “worked harder, took a little less for granted, [and] were much more curious about learning.”
The value of hard work
Putting in the elbow grease can be more powerful than a flashy college degree or pedigree—and the former Goldman Sachs CEO said great careers are actually ripe for the picking if professionals seize the moment and work hard.
“A lot of these opportunities are more accessible than you think,” Blankfein continued. “If you think that someone can only get to this spot because he’s brilliant and genius and had this charmed life at every stage, you kind of give up.”
Blankfein has lived this lesson; the billionaire finance leader was born into public housing in Brooklyn, sharing a bedroom in his small New York City apartment with his grandmother or sister until he went off to college. At the time, his high school was on the brink of shutting down—but the then-teenager battened down the hatches, studied hard, and became class valedictorian. He became a student at Harvard at age 16, where he studied history as an undergraduate, later graduating from Harvard Law School. After a brief stint working at a private law practice, he joined J. Aron, which was acquired by Goldman in 1981. He spent the next five decades advancing his career, eventually ascending to the top and serving as Goldman Sachs’ CEO for 12 years.
“My career is not only relatable, but accessible,” Blankfein said. “Statistically, not a lot of people are going to get those same kinds of breaks, but you can go pretty far in this world taking advantage of opportunities and working hard.”
More CEOs endorse the idea of success outside of the Ivy League
Blankfein isn’t the only business leader who believes that working hard is more powerful than natural intellect or pricey diplomas.
David Solomon, the current CEO of Goldman Sachs, says he’s in the “camp of smart enough.” And he looks for the same in deciding who would be a successful hire at the bank; the chief executive said that the most attractive job candidates are in touch with “human elements” like the ability to connect, be resilient, and determined. And experience, Solomon said, is “hugely underrated” and “a big differentiator for the firm.”
“You have to be smart enough, but the smartest person in the world without a whole package of other things [is] not going to navigate Goldman Sachs well, not going to be successful in Goldman Sachs over the long run,” Solomon revealed on Sequoia Capital’s Long Strange Trip podcast last year.
“You can’t teach experience,” Solomon explained. “Experience matters in these big organizations and when it matters it doesn’t matter when things are going well. It matters when the bumps come. You’ve got to make difficult judgments.”
Last year, Blackstone President and COO Jon Gray also told new analysts that working hard and being collaborative are essential skills for success in today’s challenging job market.
To succeed, Gray told employees they should “work harder and care more; this is not complicated.” He also encouraged them to think like entrepreneurs and “treat people in a really great way, the way you would like to be treated.”
Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett looked past Ivy League degrees when it came to hiring, too. The hedge fund mogul, worth $143 billion, didn’t care if his employees went to Stanford or Princeton—or any college at all.
While discussing Berkshire Hathaway’s 2005 acquisition of Forest River, an RV manufacturer led by Pete Liegl, Buffett said, “no competitor came close to his performance” despite Liegl not hailing from an incredibly prestigious university. Buffett also pointed to Microsoft entrepreneur Bill Gates, who achieved billion-dollar success without a college diploma.
“I never look at where a candidate has gone to school. Never!” Buffett said in his 2025 annual letter to shareholders. “Of course, there are great managers who attended the most famous schools. But there are plenty such as Pete [Liegl] who may have benefited by attending a less prestigious institution or even not bothering to finish school.”
