About this item

In 2014, a former hedge fund trader's New York Times Sunday Review front page article about wealth addicition instantly went viral. This is his unflinching memoir about coming of age on Wall Street, fighting to overcome the ghosts of his past - and the radical new way he now defines success.At just thirty years old, Sam Polk was a senior trader for one of the biggest hedge funds on Wall Street, on the verge of making it to the very top. When he was offered an annual bonus of $3.75 million, he grew angry because it was not enough. In that moment he knew he had lost himself in his obsessive pursuit of money. And he had come to loathe the culture - the shallowness, the sexism, the crude machismo - and Wall Street's use of wealth as the sole measure of a person's worth.



About the Author

Sam Polk

I am a former hedge fund trader, the author of the book For the Love of Money, cofounder and CEO of Everytable, a social enterprise that sells fresh, delicious meals at prices everyone can afford, and the founder and Executive Director of Groceryships, a nonprofit that helps low-income families struggling with food-related illnesses like obesity and diabetes. For The Love of Money is about my awakening to a new definition of success, one that includes an intentional contribution to the world. On Wall Street I pursued my personal ambitions. And while I haven't forsaken those, I have come to understand that fulfillment comes from doing work I care about, that improves the world, and helps people who need it. My mission is to help foster inclusive capitalism that works for everyone. I believe that businesses are for solving problems, but they've become something that creates problems by externalizing costs and funneling all their profits to those at the very top. I want to be part of creating a new economy that harnesses the dynamism of capitalism and also fosters the connectedness of a true democracy in which every vote and every voice counts the same. I graduated from Columbia University in 2002 with a BA in English and hold the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. My writing has been published in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, and CNBC. com. I live in Los Angeles with my wife and daughter, and soon our son. You can find me on Facebook at



Report incorrect product information.