Mike Offit
After about 20 years on Wall Street, with some success, I decided to return to my first love, writing. I was lucky enough to be picked up as a columnist for Departures Magazine, the American Express luxury lifestyle bible. My column, titled "Material Comfort: Smart Advice for Smart People" ran for about two years,and covered topics from how to hire domestic help safely to the absurdity of planting your own vegetable garden, to New Year's resolutions for dealing with the financial crisis. I also contributed several feature articles on travel and golf, notably a piece on renting a gorgeous sailboat in Turkey, and the developments on the Caribbean island of Anguilla. In other words, hard-hitting gritty journalism!
A few years ago, I sat down and decided it was time to address the great gap in my life. I have a great wife and kids, four dogs, and parents who have always offered unconditional love and support. But, I had never written a novel. I had started one years back, only to be distracted trying to call attention, starting in mid 2007, to the gathering financial storm I saw coming. The novel waited while I bombarded various publications with articles about what was going to happen, then what was happening, and finally, what had happened and how to fix it. One piece did get published online by Marketwatch.com, and it proved prescient. Some six months after the President of SIPC, the organization that insures and monitors customer accounts at all brokerage firms responded to my warnings with a dismissive letter,Bernard Madoff Securties, one of his charges, collapsed, and the truth of my piece became apparent.
There is scant satisfaction in having warned about, but not prevented, financial disaster. So I returned to the novel. Not too long after, I had discovered inside myself a fun, interesting financial thriller that brought together my experiences and imagination, composites of characters inspired by some of the colorful folks I met or wished existed, and a fictional plot that, while set in the 1980s, could have happened in 2008 or even 2013.
There's an old joke about a matchmaker convincing the mother of a poor homely girl to allow her to arrange a marriage with a dashing, wealthy young Prince. after objecting at first, finally the girl's mother consents to the match, The matchmaker collects her fee and says "Well, that's half the job done!" Writing the book was relatively easy compared to getting a first novel published in the current landscape. Then I broke my neck, and everything went back on hold for a while.
After a brief and discouraging foray with a few literary agents, I sent off one blind submission to a top publisher, and set about the process of self publishing. To my astonishment, the publisher responded, and shortly thereafter agreed to purchase and publish my novel! I was told the odds of this happening were astronomical.
Now, a year or so later, the book has come out to generally positive reviews from pros and regular readers. I've gotten some great comments and quotes from a variety of writers and businessmen, and a lifelong dream has come true. If the book catches on and is a success that would be great. Regardless, I have been bitten by the bug, and will try to finish my second novel, with perhaps a non-fiction humorous book on Economics as well, health and time permitting.
Nothing Personal is an engaging coming-of-age story that evolves into a financial expose and thriller as bodies start turning up, and a huge amount of money comes into play in an unexpected twist. The reader will accompany the protagonist, Warren Hament, as he advances through the crude, morally bankrupt world of "white shoe" investment banking,and the high octane drama of the trading floor, where he soon learns that bankers, to paraphrase the Chris Rock joke about men's fidelity, are as honest as their opportunities. The police are stumped trying to catch a serial killer whose victims are increasingly close to Hament, and the stakes and intensity build as he pursues the love of his life, and tries to keep the bulls-eye off his back.
Nothing Personal is a novel of Wall Street, but it is also a novel of lost naivete, found love, and ultimately the message that everything is personal and no one is immune.
I graduated from Brown University in 1979, traded commodities briefly, and graduated from Columbia Business School in 1983. My career included two stints at First Boston and one at Goldman Sachs where I served both as the senior trader of commercial mortgages and asset backed securities. There was a brief episode at Prudential Securities, where I ran the Mortgage Trading Desk which became a market leader, and after a serious illness at Goldman, I was recruited to start and run the Commercial Real Estate Group at Deutsche Bank, which became and remains one of the top groups in the business. Becoming a top executive at most Wall Street firms is far more about politics and eliminating threats than it is about generating profits or serving clients. There were times that it was great fun, and others when it was like the chill grip of death. I got out with my health barely intact, saved my money, and have been a consultant to a handful of clients and friends in the real estate capital markets when the opportunity arises.
Today, I live in New York and Westchester with my wife, the retired Head of American Paintings for Sotheby's and a respected art consultant, and our two wonderful children who live nearby and visit constantly. I'm relieved that my wife has given up serious show jumping, where her skill did nothing to lessen my terror, for less stressful and dangerous horsing around.
