A
globally-respected financier has revealed that he quit his job running a
$2 trillion investment fund after his young daughter wrote him a note
pointing out that he had missed 22 landmark events in her life.
Mohamed
El-Erian's ten-year-old told her dad that he had skipped her first day
of school, Halloween parade, her first soccer game of the year and many
recitals because he was too busy at work.
The
California-based investment guru's resignation in May 2013 shocked the
financial world. However in a recent interview, Mr El-Erian, who made
$100 million in 2011 alone, explained that his young daughter and wife
Jamie were at the heart of his decision.
Mr El-Erian, pictured with his wife
Jamie, who is a lawyer in Laguna Beach, California. The top financier
quit his role as head of PIMCO last year so she could spend more time
with his family
In an essay for Worth in June, El-Erian, 56, explained his decision. He said: 'About a year ago, I asked my daughter several times to do something - brush her teeth, I think it was - with no success.
'I
reminded her that it was not so long ago that she would have
immediately responded, and I wouldn’t have had to ask her multiple
times; she would have known from my tone of voice that I was serious.
'She
asked me to wait a minute, went to her room and came back with a piece
of paper. It was a list that she had compiled of her important events
and activities that I had missed due to work commitments. Talk about a
wake-up call.
'The
list contained 22 items, from her first day at school and first soccer
match of the season to a parent-teacher meeting and a Halloween parade.
And the school year wasn’t yet over.I felt awful and got defensive: I
had a good excuse for each missed event! Travel, important meetings, an
urgent phone call, sudden to-do.
Mr El-Erian, 56, said that since
stepping down from his job, he is available to make his daughter's
breakfast and run her to school from their mansion in California
(pictured)
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, who studied
Cambridge, and his wife Jamie El-Erian along with Lord Eatwell after
they made a $3millon donation to the university this year
Life at the top: Mohamed El-Erian (pictured second left) attends a dinner with President Obama and other business high-fliers
He
added: 'But it dawned on me that I was missing an infinitely more
important point. As much as I could rationalize it - as I had
rationalized it - my work-life balance had gotten way out of whack, and
the imbalance was hurting my very special relationship with my daughter.
I was not making nearly enough time for her.'
As
much as I could rationalize it - as I had rationalized it - my
work-life balance had gotten way out of whack, and the imbalance was
hurting my very special relationship with my daughter. I was not making
nearly enough time for her.'
Mohamed El-Erian
El-Erian was born in New York and grew up in Egypt before his father returned to the city to work at the United Nations.
In his recent essay, he admitted he was spending far too much time away from home while working for PIMCO.
According to Business Insider, El-Erian kept an extremely grueling schedule at PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company).
He
would sleep from 9pm until 1am, then work on his newspaper columns, get
to the office at 4.30am and then move from trading floor to his office
to take up management duties at 9am.
Since
resigning, the investor said he and his wife take turns in waking up
their daughter, preparing her breakfast and bringing her to school.
He said he is also planning a holiday just for himself and his daughter.
Jamie El-Erian is a successful lawyer who practices in Laguna Beach, California.
El-Erian
said instead of one, full-time position, he has taken a 'portfolio' of
part-time roles which require far less travelling and allow him greater
flexibility.
The
investor, who was educated at Oxford and Cambridge in the UK, said that
he even now had time to pick up his daughter from school.
Speaking
to Bloomberg after his resignation, El-Erian said: ' I've gone through a
transition after 14 great years with PIMCO and I've put together a
portfolio of part-time activities that I'm really excited about. I'm
also really excited to spend more time with my family and my daughter.'
He later told Reuters: 'If I had known that there would be this media circus, I would've done a lot of things differently.
'Was
there a way of not going 100 miles an hour and maybe going 50 miles an
hour? To be perfectly honest, I didn't explore that option. I never
explored.'
El-Erian
said wanting to spend more time with his family is a cliche but he
decided that 'his need to be a good father was greater than his desire
to be a good investor'.
He decided that he had to readjust his work-life balance in May 2013 after receiving the note from his daughter.
Mr El-Erian described his work-life
balance being 'out of whack' - so he resigned from PIMCO to spend more
time with his wife and daughter. He is pictured in 2011 helping clean up
the Orange County coastline with a volunteers as part of PIMCO project
In
an interview with Reuters, El-Erian refused to comment on his former
boss Bill Gross, only describing the 70-year-old as brilliant.
Since leaving PIMCO, El-Erian has become the chief economic adviser at Allianz where he spends 50 per cent of his time.
In 2012, President Obama announced El-Erian as the Chair of the president's Global Development Council.
The
high-flying investor also comments widely in the media - he is a
columnist for Bloomberg and contributes to the Financial Times and
CNN.
DAILYMAIL.CO.UK
No comments:
Post a Comment