I have never been fully satisfied in my wish to hang out regularly with celebrities, but occasionally I have brushed up against them. And even shaken hands!
In 1986, at the tail end of my senior year at Harvard, I interviewed for an analyst position at the boutique investment bank, Lazard Freres. One of my interviewers was a second-year analyst who had majored in finance at Georgetown named .... ta da! .... Jenny Sullivan. A few years later she married Mark Sanford, who eventually became the governor of South Carolina. Now they are both REALLY famous, whether they want to be or not.
I did manage to get an offer from Lazard (my only actual offer that year, so thanks, Jenny!) but then turned it down because I was scared about moving to Manhattan, didn't know anything about finance, and thought I should live near my family in California. (I would have done well to examine all three beliefs, but there you are.) So I moved to L.A., worked as a temp for a few months, and finally got a job in a small investment bank, which job I never quite understood. But then I got the call from the Foreign Service, joined, and moved off to Calcutta. So I guess things worked out for the best.
Incidentally, Jenny Sullivan Sanford in her Lazard analyst days seemed to be extremely hardworking and serious, to the point of total physical exhaustion. I remember her telling me that her days consisted of getting up, going to work, coming home, sleeping, and going to work again.
That's my celebrity report for today. Go, Jenny!
