A top international financier quit his job running a
$2 trillion investment fund after his daughter
wrote him a note complaining he had missed her
first day of school, her Halloween parade and her
first game of soccer.
Mohamed El-Erian's daughter wrote him a note
complaining that he had missed out on 22
landmarks in her life because he was too busy at
work.
The California based investment guru resigned
from Pimco, who have more than $2 trillion
invested, after his daughter sent him a note
outlining 22 milestones he had missed from her
life.
After receiving the letter from the 10-year-old, El-
Erian handed in his notice which was a shock to
the investment world.
In an interview with Worth , El-Erian 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.
'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.'
El-Erian said he was spending far too much time
away from his home while working for PIMCO.
Since resigning, he 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 the
pair of them.
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.
He 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.
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.
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