17 Year Old Uses His Make A Wish To Become An Investment Banker At Goldman Sachs For A Week
Business Insider – Goldman Sachs is helping a California teenager battling cancer live out his dream of being an investment banker. Last December, Terry “Tre” Grinner, 17, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. His mom wrote a letter to the Make-A-Wish Foundation–a national children’s charity that grants wishes of kids with life-threatening medical conditions–explaining how her son’s dream is to work on Wall Street. Now that he’s finished with chemotherapy that dream is coming true. Make-A-Wish teamed up with Goldman Sachs and to give Grinner a week-long investment banking internship in New York City. “It’s meant so much to me. It’s something that I’ve always dreamed of,” Grinner told Business Insider in a telephone interview. “I used to work a 40-hour work week to support my family back home. The fact they are giving me this opportunity is truly amazing.” The bank and various other Make-A-Wish partners have pulled out all the stops to give him the ultimate Wall Street experience. Grinner’s itinerary includes ringing the opening bell at the Nasdaq with BlackRock, touring Yankees Stadium and meeting Derek Jeter, visiting the New York Stock Exchange and meeting floor brokers, making an appearance on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” and meeting with Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein and the firm’s other top executives. As part of his internship, he also received made-to-order suits from Ralph Lauren and a pair of designer shoes. Grinner graduated from high school this June. His favorite subjects include economics and history. He loves things that are complex and said this is what attracted him to finance. “I have a deep interest in complicated things,” Grinner told us. “So far, investing has been the most complicated thing I have ever attempted to understand – bonds, futures, IPOs, mergers & acquisitions–and the way they connect to global markets and global news is amazing to me.”
Listen different strokes for different folks, and I’m glad this made it through chemo and had his dream come true, but this has gotta be the worst wish in the history of wishes. I mean don’t take this the wrong way Tre you sound like a great kid – worked hard to support your family and you’re fighting the good fight against leukemia – but you’re an asshole. One wish – the one thing in this world you want most – and you say you wanna rub elbows with the most uptight douchebags on the planet. Designer suits and fancy shoes. You’re 17 dude! You shouldn’t be worried about meeting floor brokers and making appearances on CNBC. Stop worrying about global markets and making money. Your wish should have been to go out for a night with Jeets. Forget about the Nasdaq opening bell and go out to the bars in Florida with Derek Jeter as your wingman. Thats the sorta wish a 17 year old kid should ask for. Not hanging out with the dicks over at Goldman. Get yourself a couple “Yeah, Tre” moments and leave the I-banking shit to the guys who wanna work 100 hour weeks and pretend Boiler Room is real life.
PS – I will say Lloyd Blankfein’s story is awesome. Wouldn’t mind sitting down and having a beer with that dude. He grew up poor as fuck in the Bronx and sold peanuts at Yankee Stadium and he made $23 million last year. True real life American Dream Horatio Alger sort of stuff. But I’m still wishing to get blow jobs from chicks because I was hanging out with Derek Jeter.