William Cohan: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Iconic Company, General Electric | Business E243

Young and Profiting with Hala Taha (Entrepreneurship, Sales, Marketing)

YAP Media Network | Hala Taha

Business, Entrepreneurship, Marketing

4.8 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 8 September 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

William Cohan worked as an investment banker for 17 years at some of the most prestigious firms on Wall Street. But after he lost his job at JPMorgan Chase in his mid-forties, he decided to pivot to writing, and he's now one of the world’s premier financial journalists. In today’s episode, William shares his journey on and off Wall Street, provides his insights on some of the most influential business leaders in history, and breaks down the rise and fall of one of America’s most influential companies, General Electric. William Cohan is the author of multiple New York Times bestselling books. A former longtime special correspondent at Vanity Fair, he is also a founding partner of Puck, a daily digital news and opinion publication. His most recent book is Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon, which is about the astounding rise and precipitous fall of General Electric. In this episode, Hala and William will discuss: - His journey from journalist to investment banker and back - Working on Wall Street in the 1980s - How not to get hoodwinked by the Street - Why it’s never too late to change careers - Creating a new business model for journalism at Puck - The rise and fall of General Electric - Channeling the energy of GE’s legendary CEO Jack Welch - Why you don’t need to be a founder or inventor to make it big - And other topics… William Cohan was a senior Wall Street M&A investment banker for 17 years at Lazard Frères & Co., Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase. He is the New York Times bestselling author of three non-fiction narratives about Wall Street: Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World; House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street; and The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co. A former longtime special correspondent at Vanity Fair, he is also a founding partner of Puck, a daily digital news and opinion publication. His most recent book is Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon, which is about the astounding rise and precipitous fall of General Electric, once the world’s most valuable and respected companies. Resources Mentioned: William’s Website: https://williamcohan.com/ William’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamdcohan/ William’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/WilliamCohan William’s Newsletter (Dry Powder): https://puck.news/newsletters/dry-powder/ William Cohan’s most recent book is Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Failure-Rise-General-Electric/dp/0593084160/ LinkedIn Secrets Masterclass, Have Job Security For Life: Use code ‘podcast’ for 30% off at yapmedia.io/course. Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap Youtube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship podcast, Business, Business podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal development, Starting a business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side hustle, Startup, mental health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth mindset. Finance, Financial, Personal Finance, Wealth, Stock Market, Scalability, Investment, Financial Freedom, Risk Management, Financial Planning, Business Coaching, Finance podcast, Investing, Saving, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Yeah, fam, as you know, we are big believers on this podcast about learning from the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurs, executives, and companies that have come before us.
0:21.4	Sometimes those leaders are up-and-coming influencers, sometimes they are giants in their field,
0:26.1	and sometimes they are larger-than-life figures from history, like Thomas Edison and Jack Welch,
0:31.0	whose lives and careers offer us a host of lessons that are still relevant to us today.
0:36.0	My guest today is going to take us through some of those
0:37.9	stories and much more. William Cohan has worked as an investment banker on Wall Street. He's been a
0:43.3	financial writer for the Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and Bloomberg. He's the author of multiple
0:48.3	New York Times bestselling books and is one of the co-founders of the new media company, Puck.
0:53.7	Along the way, William has become one of
0:55.4	the world's premier financial journalists. His most recent book, Power Failure, is a fascinating look at
1:01.2	the rise and fall of one of the most influential companies in history, General Electric.
1:06.2	William, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast. Thank you for having me, Hala.
1:11.7	It's great to be here.
1:13.8	I'm excited for this interview.
1:23.3	And before we get to GE and Jack Welch and so much more, I really think there's a lot that our listeners can learn from when it comes to your own backstory and career.
1:25.0	And so let's start here.
1:27.1	You've changed course several times in your career.
1:29.7	I'm always interested to hear about those pivots.
1:33.3	And early on, you got your degree from the Columbia School of Journalism.
1:38.5	And you got your big first break as an investigative reporter for a newspaper in Raleigh, North Carolina in the early 80s.
1:41.3	Can you talk to us about what you were doing there and what made you decide to
1:44.7	ultimately pursue a career on Wall Street instead later on? Sure. So after graduating from
	...

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