Give with your warm hand, not cold hand
Lloyd Blankfein advocates giving wealth away while still alive — 'with your warm hand, not your cold hand' — echoing the premise of the book Die with Zero.
Snapshot · My First Million
How the Ex-Goldman CEO actually invests his own money
Explore episode
Jun 16, 2026
Where this was said
Scarcity
At 37:43 · chapter starts 31:35
Sam Parr raises the topic of having a supportive partner, and the conversation shifts into something more personal and candid. Blankfein's wife Laura — herself a former big-law attorney and now chair of Barnard College — was the operational backbone of the household during his CEO years. When they moved overseas, she found the car, the house, organized the schools for the kids; he showed up and 'took victory laps' for doing well at work. He has not personally paid a bill in over 40 years. Blankfein is careful to extend the credit in both directions — plenty of men in his Goldman cohort stepped back professionally to support high-achieving spouses — and notes that the asymmetry remains real but is changing. The section is unusually frank about the gendered economics of elite dual-career households, with Blankfein noting that 'guys don't have babies' as a persistent structural constraint.
Tech, energy, financials — 3 core sectors
Lloyd Blankfein concentrates his personal investment portfolio across three sectors: technology, energy (his trading background), and financial services (his professional expertise).
Missed SpaceX at $100 Billion
Blankfein passed on SpaceX when it was valued at $100 billion because he thought it was too expensive. The company is now being discussed at a $1.75 trillion valuation — a 17.5x miss. He also passed on early cellular investments because he didn't see the point of portable phones.
SpaceX missed at $100B valuation
Lloyd Blankfein passed on investing in SpaceX when it was valued at $100 billion, which has since grown to a proposed valuation of $1.75 trillion.
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