I knew what intellectual passion felt like — because I'd felt it here, at Princeton — and I wanted to feel it again. I was 26 years old. Had I waited until I was 36, I would never have done it. I would have forgotten the feeling.
Michael Lewis
Princeton University Baccalaureate 2012, 2012
Video starts at 5:34 — the moment this quote was spoken
The Story Behind This Quote
Michael Lewis, the bestselling author of Liar's Poker, Moneyball, and The Big Short, returned to Princeton thirty years after his own graduation to deliver the Baccalaureate address he titled 'Don't Eat Fortune's Cookie.' He told the story of how he accidentally stumbled into Wall Street at Salomon Brothers, then called his father to say he was quitting a job that promised millions to write a book for an advance of $40,000. His father urged him to stay ten more years, but Lewis knew he had to act while the intellectual passion he'd discovered at Princeton was still fresh. The resulting book, Liar's Poker, sold a million copies and launched his career.
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