Many young people dream of making bank on Wall Street. But industry titan John Studzinski said it was generosity, not greed, that fueled his career success.
Studzinski, 69, held senior roles at Morgan Stanley, HSBC, and Blackstone over five decades and is now Pimco’s vice chair.
He started giving at age six when he volunteered in a soup kitchen, ran a health hotline as a teenager, worked with Mother Teresa in New York during the AIDS crisis, and set up the Genesis Foundation in 2001 to nurture young artists, and the Arise Foundation in 2015 to combat modern slavery and human trafficking.
Studzinski, who published “A Talent For Giving” this month, shared five reasons young people should start giving and continue throughout their lives.
1. Giving helps you connect with others
Studzinski told Business Insider that giving has “enhanced” his career by helping him connect with people and expanding his professional network.
Engaging with a broader range of people means “people will be more engaged with you,” and inclined to trust you, work with you, and share their contacts with you, Studzinski said.
He said he found, from his early years at Morgan Stanley, that clients and colleagues were more interested in him because he was a more “eccentric or eclectic or diversified character” than his peers.
Studzinski said that people have called him “out of the blue” and asked to meet him because of his giving, and spent the first half hour of their conversation discussing his philanthropic work.
2. You don’t need millions to make an impact
Wealth isn’t a barrier to giving, as the quality of your impact on others matters more than the quantity of people you help, Studzinski said.
“You can accomplish quite a lot with very little money,” he said, as you can focus it on “changing the world one person at a time.” That approach can have a “domino effect” as each individual you help could become a mentor, a guide, or a teacher to others, he said.
Cash-strapped youths can also use their “talent as a currency,” he said, as they can apply their skills to solving social problems.
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3. It helps you see the big picture
Making giving a habit teaches you “patience and the ability to listen and observe,” which can help give you perspective when you make decisions, Studzinski said.
That’s important in navigating a “very volatile” US economy that’s being buffeted by uncertainty over AI, tariffs, and the Federal Reserve’s independence, he added.
4. Your impact can multiply quickly
Postponing giving until old age means “depriving yourself of lots of great opportunities” to grow and develop, Studzinski said. If you give throughout your life, your giving can compound and multiply, he added.
He said that’s why he still works in finance: because the more he earns, the more he can give away as part of his commitment to donate half of his income.
5. Giving can be a way to address what you’re unhappy about in the world
Giving provides an avenue for young people to harness their talents to address what they’re unhappy about in the world, Studzinski said.
It can also help to focus on someone else and realize “they’re much worse off than I am,” he said.
Studzinski added it could be a “very nurturing process” that’s best viewed as a two-way street, Studzinski added.
He said ongoing engagement, rather than a one-off donation, can result in a “real partnership with a reciprocal set of benefits” that helps people better understand themselves and their strengths.
Studzinski added that helping someone, then seeing that person help someone else can give a “much more positive view not only about themselves but about the world.”