Rich Newman joined BlackRock around the time I did (at a far more senior level after acquired his startup). For a few (intense) quarters, he was one of the leaders I’d update on a weekly product call around “Aladdin Studio”, BlackRock’s API & data software platform. I knew him from afar, and what stood out to me the most was his obvious decency - he treated people well when based on his position and the pressure of the job he could have easily acted differently.

A few years ago, Rich retired, and a few months ago, I saw he’d written an autobiography. I listened to it, and learned much more about him, including how we overlapped in multiple ways (a bit regarding family history similarities, experience running distance races, love of building software, etc). I really enjoyed Rich’s book, and have shared a few quotes that stood out to me the most.

The biggest thing I took away is that there is a lot of benefit to knowing our colleagues better. I realized I left on the table what could have been a lot of helpful questions and conversations by thinking of Rich mainly as a “senior leader” and seeing just that iceberg from work meetings instead of everything underneath. I don’t propose we all write biographies and have our colleagues read them, but if we did I think it would make our careers and companies stronger, more connected, and more interesting. 

A few lines that stayed with me from “Don’t Be Such A Bigshot”

• On startup life: “It was lonely. It was a grind. Endless small decisions, long nights, and a constant hum of fear underneath it all…You had to believe in something no one else could see yet. Our founding engineer slowly pulled his technology vision out of his head and into code. We collectively willed something new into existence.”
• On the essence of marathon running: “Just continued forward motion.”
• “Looking back, what amazes me most is how easily people who, persecuted in one area of life, can turn around and participate in persecuting others in another.”
• “You don’t need to come from a world to succeed in it… Any success I had in learning the inside game came from never fully letting go of the outside one, the Queens one, the immigrant one.”