
Private Equity
A Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Carrie Sun
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By:
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Carrie Sun
About this listen
One of TIME Magazine's Must-Read Books of the Year
"The joys of Sun’s memoir lie in the absurdity of her tasks: coaxing a famous athlete to a company party, sourcing Mitt Romney’s phone number on a deadline, coordinating private-jet departures… It’s [Sun’s] personal revelations that elevate the book above a typical tell-all.”—TIME Magazine
A gripping memoir of one woman’s self-discovery inside a top Wall Street firm, and an urgent indictment of privilege, extreme wealth, and work culture
When we meet Carrie Sun, she can’t shake the feeling that she’s wasting her life. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Carrie excelled in school, graduated early from MIT, and climbed the corporate ladder, all in pursuit of the American dream. But at twenty-nine, she’s left her analyst job, dropped out of an MBA program, and is trapped in an unhappy engagement. So when she gets the rare opportunity to work at one of the most prestigious hedge funds in the world, she knows she can’t say no. Fourteen interviews later, she’s in.
Carrie is the sole assistant to the firm’s billionaire founder. She manages his work life, becoming the right hand to an investor who can move mountains and markets with a single phone call. Eager to impress, she dives headfirst into the firm’s culture, which values return on time above all else. A luxury-laden world opens up for her, and Carrie learns that money can solve nearly everything.
Playing the game at the highest levels, amid the ultimate winners in our winner-take-all economy, Carrie soon finds her identity swallowed whole by work. With her physical and mental health deteriorating, she begins to rethink what it actually means to waste one’s life. A searing examination of our relationship to work, Carrie’s story illuminates the struggle for balance in a world of extremes: efficiency and excess, status and aspiration, power and fortune. Private Equity is a universal tale of self-invention from a dazzling new voice, daring to ask what we’re willing to sacrifice to get to the top—and what it might take to break free and leave it all behind.
©2024 Carrie Sun (P)2024 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“The joys of Sun’s memoir lie in the absurdity of her tasks: coaxing a famous athlete to a company party, sourcing Mitt Romney’s phone number on a deadline, coordinating private-jet departures . . . It’s [Sun’s] personal revelations that elevate the book above a typical tell-all.”—TIME, The 100 Must-Read Books of 2024
“[Sun is] a keen observer of [wealth’s] subtleties and signifiers . . . The first chapters of the book engage in a form of concealment and restraint—the sort of writing that seems fitting for someone who succeeds in a job that demands compartmentalization and competence . . . As Sun starts to come apart under the pressure of her job, the writing gets more fragmented, and more experimental . . . There is a beautifully written section, catalyzed by a weeklong vacation to China, in which Sun offers a portrait of her parents during and after the Cultural Revolution, and tries to make sense of the volatile home she was raised in . . . It’s a smart structure, and well-executed: just as Sun’s self-abnegation becomes unsustainable, her writing breaks loose. The maneuver is unusually stylish for a memoir.”—Anna Wiener, The New Yorker
“Sun writes clearly about the demands and privileges of the job, though this isn’t a tell-all about abuses in the industry but rather a more probing inquiry into what we deem success and the values underpinning it.”—Vogue,
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Steve Osborne has seen a thing or two in his 20 years in the NYPD - some harmless things, some definitely not. In "Stakeout" Steve and his partner mistake a Manhattan dentist for an armed robbery suspect and reduce the man down to a puddle of snot and tears when questioning him. In "Mug Shot" the mother of a suspected criminal makes a strange request and provides a sobering reminder of the humanity at stake in his profession.
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Great Book for Traveling
- By Johnnie Walker on 05-15-16
By: Steve Osborne
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The Mirage Factory
- Illusion, Imagination, and the Invention of Los Angeles
- By: Gary Krist
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 11 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Little more than a century ago, the southern coast of California - bone-dry, harbor-less, isolated by deserts and mountain ranges - seemed destined to remain scrappy farmland. Then, as if overnight, one of the world’s iconic cities emerged. At the heart of Los Angeles’ meteoric rise were three flawed visionaries: William Mulholland, an immigrant ditch-digger turned self-taught engineer; D.W. Griffith, who transformed the motion picture from a vaudeville-house novelty into a cornerstone of American culture; and Aimee Semple McPherson, a charismatic evangelist.
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Great start, weak completion
- By steve on 05-11-21
By: Gary Krist
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For Blood and Money
- Billionaires, Biotech, and the Quest for a Blockbuster Drug
- By: Nathan Vardi
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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For Blood and Money tells the little-known story of how an upstart biotechnology company created a one-in-a-million cancer drug and how the core team—denied their share of the profits—went and did it again. In this epic saga of money and science, veteran financial journalist Nathan Vardi explains how the invention of two of the biggest cancer drugs in history became (for their backers) two of the greatest Wall Street bets of all time.
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Must-read for biotech enthusiasts and scientists
- By Anonymous User on 03-16-23
By: Nathan Vardi
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Church of Spies
- The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler
- By: Mark Riebling
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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The Vatican's silence in the face of Nazi atrocities remains one of the great controversies of our time. History has accused wartime pontiff Pius the Twelfth of complicity in the Holocaust and dubbed him "Hitler's Pope". But a key part of the story has remained untold. Pius ran the world's largest church, smallest state, and oldest spy service. Saintly but secretive, he skimmed from church charities to pay covert couriers, and surreptitiously tape-recorded his meetings with top Nazis.
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Pius XII Vindicated
- By James Clark on 04-17-16
By: Mark Riebling
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The Banished Immortal
- A Life of Li Bai (Li Po)
- By: Ha Jin
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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In his own time (701-762), Li Bai's poems - shaped by Daoist thought and characterized by their passion, romance, and lust for life - were never given their proper due by the official literary gatekeepers. Nonetheless, his lines rang out on the lips of court entertainers, tavern singers, soldiers, and writers throughout the Tang dynasty. The Banished Immortal is an extraordinary portrait of a poet who both transcended his time and was shaped by it and whose ability to live, love, and mourn without reservation produced some of the most enduring verses.
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Bold and unstoppable, like an overflowing river
- By Joselo on 02-09-19
By: Ha Jin
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Madam
- The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age
- By: Debby Applegate
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 20 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Simply put: Everybody came to Polly's. Pearl "Polly" Adler (1900-1962) was a diminutive dynamo whose Manhattan brothels in the Roaring '20s became places not just for men to have the company of women but were key gathering places where the culturati and celebrity elite mingled with high society and with violent figures of the underworld - and had a good time doing it.
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Story of 20 through the eyes of a madam
- By HMY on 12-12-21
By: Debby Applegate
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The Golden Thirteen
- How Black Men Won the Right to Wear Navy Gold
- By: Dan Goldberg
- Narrated by: Sam Manual
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Through oral histories and original interviews with surviving family members, Dan Goldberg brings 13 forgotten heroes away from the margins of history and into the spotlight. He reveals the opposition these men faced: the racist pseudoscience, the regular condescension, the repeated epithets, the verbal abuse, and even violence. Despite these immense challenges, the Golden Thirteen persisted—understanding the power of integration, the opportunities for black Americans if they succeeded, and the consequences if they failed.
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The Golden 13 is a must read for American history
- By BE on 03-24-21
By: Dan Goldberg
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The Confidence Men
- How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History
- By: Margalit Fox
- Narrated by: Richard Elfyn
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Imprisoned in a remote Turkish POW camp during World War I, having survived a two-month forced march and a terrifying shootout in the desert, two British officers, Harry Jones and Cedric Hill, join forces to bamboozle their iron-fisted captors. To stave off despair and boredom, Jones takes a handmade Ouija board and fakes elaborate séances for his fellow prisoners. Word gets around, and one day, an Ottoman official approaches Jones with a query: Could Jones contact the spirit world to find a vast treasure rumored to be buried nearby?
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home run as usual
- By thaichicken on 01-17-23
By: Margalit Fox
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Paradise Falls
- The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe
- By: Keith O'Brien
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny, and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an elementary school, a playground, and rows of affordable homes. In the spring of 1977, pungent odors began to seep into these little houses, and it didn’t take long for worried mothers to identify the curious scent. It was the sickly-sweet smell of chemicals.
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Incredible work of everyday people
- By J. C. Edens on 11-20-24
By: Keith O'Brien
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The Warburgs
- The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Jonathan Reese
- Length: 35 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Bankers, philanthropists, scholars, socialites, artists, and politicians, the Warburgs stood at the pinnacle of German (and, later, German American) Jewry. They forged economic dynasties, built mansions and estates, assembled libraries, endowed charities, and advised a German kaiser and two American presidents. But their very success made the Warburgs lightning rods for anti-Semitism, and their sense of patriotism became increasingly dangerous in a Germany that had declared Jews the enemy.
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The Warburg's Dynamic Family History
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-18
By: Ron Chernow
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Showdown
- Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America
- By: Wil Haygood
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Thurgood Marshall brought down the separate-but-equal doctrine, integrated schools, and not only fought for human rights and human dignity but also made them impossible to deny in the courts and in the streets. In this stunning new biography, award-winning author Wil Haygood surpasses the emotional impact of his inspiring best seller The Butler to detail the life and career of one of the most transformative legal minds of the past 100 years.
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Haygood is master of the ticktock narrative
- By Jean on 12-12-15
By: Wil Haygood
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An Unsung Hero
- Tom Crean – Antarctic Survivor
- By: Michael Smith
- Narrated by: Gerry O'Brien
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Tom Crean was the farmer’s son from Kerry who sailed on three major expeditions to the unknown Antarctic over a century ago. He served with both Captain Robert Scott and Sir Ernest Shackleton, spent longer on the ice than either and outlived them both. But Tom Crean returned to Ireland and never spoke about his exploits, taking his incredible story to the grave - until the publication of An Unsung Hero, which unearthed his story and saw him rightfully placed amongst the annals of the great explorers.
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Not much new here
- By Lucy D on 06-21-23
By: Michael Smith
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A First-Rate Madness
- Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness
- By: S. Nassir Ghaemi
- Narrated by: Adam Barr
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Historians have long puzzled over the apparent mental instability of great and terrible leaders alike: Napoleon, Lincoln, Churchill, Hitler, and others. In A First-Rate Madness, Nassir Ghaemi, director of the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center, offers a myth-shattering exploration of the powerful connections between mental illness and leadership and sets forth a controversial, compelling thesis: The very qualities that mark those with mood disorders also make for the best leaders in times of crisis.
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Excellent read.
- By TvK on 07-12-24
By: S. Nassir Ghaemi
What listeners say about Private Equity
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Sean
- 02-18-24
Great story albeit don't agree with the politics
I have spent 15-20 years at a hedge fund and loved all the anecdotes in this story. As such, I do think billionaires, including Chase/Boone, do often serve a valid purpose of efficient capital allocation which improves GDP and innovation, thus contributing substantially to society through their "invisible hand." This aspect of fund management/billionaire-ism was not explored, despite many stanzas questioning if billionaires "can" be good, if they are societally necessary, etc. That said, the author "came to play" and shared ultra-raw and intense chunks of her life both during and before working at the hedge fund. That's incredibly rare in a memoir these days, especially by someone in a semi-"notable" position writing about notable people and institutions. As such, the book really has to earn an A+ despite my lack of political alignment with the author.
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- Allyson O'Rourke
- 05-06-24
Truth = Great Story Telling
Loved, love, loved this book! It was a window into a family dynamic and arduous work experience I have no frame of reference. I abandoned all my podcasts for the past week and couldn’t stop listening to this book. Bonus: the author did the audio book & has a great voice!
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- Amazon Customer
- 03-26-24
Thought it would be more about PE Firm Carbon
Thought it would be more about the day to day life of being in PE and what makes a successful PE firm such as Carbon. A good third of the book is about the author’s personal struggles that are non Carbon related. Although I appreciate the author’s vulnerability, I felt most of the book could be summed up as “burnout.”
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 03-14-24
Honest great insight into the financial industry.
I appreciated the depth and engaging storytelling of the book, though I found that at times, the narrative seemed overshadowed by what felt like complaints from a position of privilege. It made me wonder about the relatability of the protagonist’s journey, considering many people remain in less-than-ideal jobs out of necessity, gradually shaping them into their dream roles. This raised a question for me: if faced with no other choice, could the protagonist have done the same?
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- Vivienne Avetoom
- 04-03-24
Interesting behind the scenes look at PE
The performance was dry but forgivable as the author is not an actor. It was a quick, engaging read. Falling into cliches sometimes. Sort of Devil Wears Prada meets high finance.
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- William
- 04-08-24
Topic
Liked the performance very much. Topic was interesting. Liked the pacing. Liked the word usage.
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- maggie
- 02-28-24
Cerebral prose
Pivotal, honest, and sublimely written— can’t say enough about it. This book broadened my horizon on so many unexpected levels.
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- RT
- 03-19-24
What a great memoir!
I loved listening to this story in Carrie’s own voice. I fell so come into this story that I sometimes forgot that it was a memoir. It was so beautifully written and I loved how she went back and forth in time describing her childhood and how she got where she was. I definitely recommend this book!
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- Niny Pagan
- 03-26-24
Two books in one
Strong insights into the private equity world and growing up as a China born woman in America
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- Igivufitz1968
- 02-23-24
Promising Writer
Private equity provides an insider’s view of the people behind the scenes. Basically a portrait of the servants of the masters of the universe. It also gives an interesting insight into a woman’s struggle with imposters syndrome.
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