Only 2% of minor league players make the pros
Lloyd Blankfein cited minor league baseball to illustrate how only about 2% of players ever earn enough to make a living as professional athletes.
Snapshot · My First Million
How the Ex-Goldman CEO actually invests his own money
Explore episode
Jun 16, 2026
Where this was said
Warren Buffett's handshake deal
At 10:34 · chapter starts 9:54
Blankfein describes the aftermath of the financial crisis inside Goldman, where traders had become so loss-averse they were talking themselves out of every opportunity [1] — Lloyd Blankfein "Most people think a risk manager's job is to suppress risk. Blankfein argues the opposite: after a period of losses, sometimes the risk man…" 14:13 . His point is elegant and counterintuitive: a good risk manager doesn't only restrain risk — sometimes they must actively encourage it, because a firm that never takes risk is a firm that never grows. He draws the parallel to entrepreneurship directly, noting that Sam Parr himself couldn't have built his company without accepting a real chance of failure. The section closes with Blankfein's broader philosophy: risk and progress are inseparable, and trying to legislate away risk means forgoing the 99 years of growth between 100-year storms.
Why Risk Management Sometimes Means Promoting Risk
Most people think a risk manager's job is to suppress risk. Blankfein argues the opposite: after a period of losses, sometimes the risk manager must promote risk-taking because refusing to act is its own form of failure.
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