Trader Quits After Getting A $3.6M Bonus

What is the world coming to when a $3.6 million bonus is not enough? Well, when it comes to Wall Street, sometimes you can’t be too greedy.

Sam Polk wasn’t happy with a $3.6 million bonus because it just wasn’t enough. He wrote in a 2014 New York Times op-ed that went viral, “I wanted more money for exactly the same reason an alcoholic needs another drink: I was addicted.”

That same op-ed transpired into a book of the same title, “For the Love of Money,” and it was just released this week.
“For the Love of Money,” is a memoir about Polk’s rise on Wall Street during the go-go years of the new millennium. He believed being rich was the most important thing in this world.

He became a rising star on Wall Street, moving from a summer intern at Credit Suisse to the top ladder of a major hedge fund.
Polk was no stranger to addictions which makes it easy to understand why he would become addicted to money. In his past he suffered from overeating/bulimia, and alcoholism and drug addiction.

Today, Polk is the CEO of Everytable, a social enterprise that sells fresh, ready-to-eat meals, affordable for all. He even founded the company and its a new success a bank account could never provide him.

“More than anything, the difference is that I feel like, for the first time in my life, I’m fulfilling my potential as a human being. I’m using all aspects of myself: my brain, my heart, my experience, my spirit, to do work that I think is really valuable and important,” Polk said in an interview with CNBC . “I’m finally becoming the man I always had the potential to be.”

“For the Love of Money” is not just a memoir but also explain why someone would walk away from the kind of money Polk was offered.