Welcome to Three Things with Rick Elias, featuring fascinating conversations with some of the world's most insightful people and three inspiring life lessons at the end of every episode.

Today's guest is Erskine Bowles, a visionary leader who's driven transformative change in both the public and private sectors over the

course of an incredible career spanning more than 50 years and dozens of impactful roles.

You might know him as the former White House Chief of Staff during the Clinton administration,

or as the former president of the University of North Carolina system from 2005 to 2010.

Or you might know of his notable career in investment banking

in private equity, founding two successful firms and later serving as a board member for

companies like Facebook, Morgan Stanley, and others. In this episode, get to know who Erskine

is behind his public profile. What led him to such a wide-ranging career, how life in public service impacted his

family, and how he's continuing to make a difference now. This is three things with Erskine Bowles.

Well, today on the podcast, we have somebody that many of you will recognize as a very famous

investor, investment investment banker someone that

serves in the government but for me today i have a dear friend erskin balls sitting here with me

erskin welcome to the podcast thank you rick especially like the dear friend part it's this is long time

coming i i have been blessed to hear a lot of your wisdom on life,

and hopefully we can get to some of that today.

So Erskine, you grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina.

What was that like?

I grew up with every advantage somebody could have.

You know, if you talk about somebody starting on third base,

man, I started on home plate.

And I was so lucky to have a mom and dad who had great values and worked hard

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