Working in a sales role in an investment bank is notoriously bad for your health. There are early mornings, late evenings, client meals, and a lot of alcohol. Graham Ambrose, a London-based Goldman Sachs’ managing director (MD) in Asia Pacific, lived this life as a junior equity salesman in Singapore and his physique suffered.
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“We would go out at 8pm-9pm at night for a big dinner, then we’d get incredibly drunk and leave the club at 1 in the morning,” said Ambrose of his Singaporean lifestyle, speaking recently on his podcast. “Then we’d get up 7am having had four to five’ hours sleep, and have a massive McDonald’s breakfast.”
Ambrose was in his 20s at the time. He would swim and play squash, but his diet made itself known. “I can remember a colleague saying to me – wow, it’s amazing that in your 20s you’ve got this gut,” he recalls.
Three decades later, times have changed. Ambrose doesn’t eat McDonalds. He doesn’t have a gut. He still works for Goldman Sachs, but is also a fitness influencer known as “G-Dog.” Ambrose is self-confessedly “obsessed” with exercise, which he says is a “fundamental part” of his being.
Speaking on his podcast with his personal trainer, Ambrose says being fit makes him better at his job at Goldman Sachs: “My fitness has actually become part of my career. Every day, my client and colleague conversations involve fitness.”
On a normal day, Ambrose gets up at 5.30am, is in the office at 7am, works out at lunchtime and seemingly works out again. He doesn’t have sit-down meetings. He doesn’t have client meals in the evenings. He eats with care. Staying fit and doing his job well are the same thing. “I know that going to the gym makes me better at my job, and I know that on the days I don’t go to the gym I am worse at my job,” he explains.
What if you’re a Goldman Sachs analyst or associate whose lunchtime absence from the desk would be viewed unfavourably? Ambrose has no sympathy. While he’s in the gym, he says a lot of his colleagues are sitting at their desk “reading stuff.” This is no good for your health. Younger colleagues in particular are noticeably “unproductive with their time.”
For all his emphasis on fitness, Ambrose does confess to weekend working. Every Sunday, he says he sits down at 3pm to review what happened the past week and to plan the week to come. During the week itself, his time is almost entirely scheduled in 30 minute to one hour intervals, and his to-do list includes bench presses and other feats in the gym.
It’s in the interest of his career, but it’s also in the interest of his longevity. “You see a lot of people my age looking as if life is draining out of their body,” declares Ambrose. If you don’t go to the gym now, he warns you will suffer in 20-30 years: “You are sacrificing your health, your lifespan, your family’s ability to look after you because you need to go into a care home because you can’t walk…You are sacrificing time with your grandchildren…You are sacrificing time with your wife, who might want to go on holiday, but you might not be able to go on a plane any more…”
Ambrose himself will hopefully suffer none of these things. In the meantime, he says he’s just had “the best summer of his life,” which is not bad when you’re aged 56 and previously went clubbing until 1am on weekday nights.
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