Book Review: Living the job: Financial Express 24th November 2024

 

As the book deals largely with SoftBank, the epithet of ‘grand fortunes and lost illusions inside the tech bubble’ is relevant, as most investments made were in these companies.

Books on individuals who made a difference to business are normally on promoters or CEOs of companies as they are the ones who do things differently to achieve success. The Money Trap by Alok Sama is different, as it is more of a business autobiography with some personal anecdotes thrown in. Sama was former CFO of SoftBank and had worked closely with Masayoshi Son, the founder. As may be expected, there is a lot of Son in this narrative.

Sama has a flair for writing, and he keeps the reader engaged with his escapades. SoftBank has a fairly interesting history of acquisitions and taking of stakes in companies where the bets may or may not have worked. The book is more about how the author went through with these deals for SoftBank. There are some detailed narrations on deals made with Masa, including his facial expressions and his dressing. This could have been fiction but it is not.

At times one would wonder whether this book is more about Masa or Sama, which is inescapable, as the two are closely interwoven in most of the pages. There is, of course, a lot about the author too, with some references to his college life, especially St Stephen’s College, Delhi, where he earned a gold medal. This was followed by a management degree from Wharton in the Eighties when it was generally only the privileged who managed to make it. His first job was with Morgan Stanley.

The book in places reads like fiction as the author swings through different incidents and deal-makings. This also hampers the flow and affects continuity. At times it seems as though random thoughts and incidents have been clubbed together in a chapter. Some bit of editing could have helped here

As the book deals largely with SoftBank, the epithet of ‘grand fortunes and lost illusions inside the tech bubble’ is relevant, as most investments made were in these companies. The journey that the author takes us through are the micro tales of several of these deals where some heads of states are also involved. SoftBank was associated with some big names like Yahoo, TikTok, Uber, T-Mobile, DoorDash, Alibaba and WeWork. It was the sponsor of some of the largest technology investment funds in history. These parts make interesting reading for sure.

The life of an investment banker is tough, as was the case with Sama, though in retrospect hi story is narrated with humorous panache. He does provide some perspective of an industry that affects all our lives in some way or the other. His narrative includes negotiations on Gulfstream jets and even terraces of castles in Germany. One gets to see Son’s private sanctuary with its exquisite Japanese garden. A touch of Wodehouse comes in as Sama refers to Japanese versions of Jeeves in Son’s empire.

There are analogies drawn to books and art besides music which is a very good alloy when presenting what could have been an ordinary story. Hence there are some mentions of his dog and the golf course, where he accidentally meets up with Elle McPherson. These parts are more his story than business dealings at the highest level.

Sama is evidently an aficionado of rock music as can be gathered from the titles of the chapters. The prologue, which could read like a crime mystery, has a layer of intrigue, and is aptly called ‘brain damage’, reminiscent of legendary rock group Pink Floyd. Floyd’s songs figure on the pages in one of his family interactions where he talks of being ’uncomfortably numb’. The chapter of ‘Born to run’ makes one remember Boss, Bruce Springsteen, and so on. Here he likens the lives of investment bankers to ‘martlets’ or birds without feet that are condemned to a life of continuous flight.

Contrary to expectations, this book is not quite a guide on investing, especially when it comes to making deals. Therefore, one should not read it to derive inspiration or pick up insights on how to be a successful banker. Neither is it an expose on the deals that are made in this world. There is not much detail about such outcomes and hence there may be no lessons to be learnt. Therefore, the reader should not pick it up to get advice on how to go about the job.

It is more about an individual’s tryst through this world which has a lot of intrigue. Would this be the way all the deal makers and investment bankers lead their careers? One would not know for sure; but if his story is typical of any deal maker, it may not be for the faint hearted. Money and power dominate all through and the culture of the rarefied group of people who wield it stands out. Things are not straight forward and making large investments where stakes are high is not akin to buying shares of a company. One has to deal with several forces that could be political which have to be kept in mind. Moreover, it does take away a lot of one’s personal life (he talks of the smear campaign against him) and there cannot be the peace of mind that one could get in a conventional corporate job.