Ellevest Founder Sallie Krawcheck Reveals How She Stays Energetic

By Annie Baker • Nov 3, 2019
  • In a recent interview, Ellevest co-founder and CEO Sallie Krawcheck revealed how she stays energetic

Sallie Krawcheck is one of the most active executives as she runs an investing platform tailored towards women. In an industry dominated by males, Krawcheck had fought her way to executive positions on Wall Street during the Great Recession.

For example, Krawcheck worked as the CEO of Citigroup’s wealth management business and she also worked as a president of her division at Bank of America.

A few years ago, Krawcheck founded Ellevest intending to close the investment gap. Women are less likely than men to invest money in the stock market.

Krawcheck has a philosophy that helps her stay very energetic. This was revealed in a recent interview with The Cut.

In the interview, Krawcheck revealed that she turns to a combination of frustration and anger while also countering that attitude with gratitude.

“I hold two competing thoughts in my head all the time. One is that I’m just so frustrated and angry that we’ve built a society where women have less money than men. I’m energized by that anger, and driven by it. That’s half of my brain. The other half is like, how fun is this? Seriously! I walk through airports with my Ellevest bag and young women stop me and say, ‘Do you work at Ellevest? You’re changing my life.’ That happens all the time, and it’s amazing. And to be able to build a company where I want to work, and where I would have liked to work when I was younger — it’s so much fun. So I’m pissed off and grateful, simultaneously, and I’m ignited by that. I had one week, two months ago, when I took two red-eyes in the same week because I just didn’t want to wait an extra day for the next flight. I wanted to take that red-eye and get off that plane and get back to it.”

While anger can sometimes be a bad thing for productivity, it can be used for motivational purposes by linking it to an activity like exercise or completing a major task on your to-do list. Krawcheck’s strategy for getting things done through the use of anger and gratitude could work well for you also.

Earlier this year, Ellevest had raised $33 million in funding from a group of all-star investors. And the company is seeing rapid growth in several new product areas like Ellevest Private Wealth Management — which was built for high net worth clients and has over $100 million in assets under management. And Ellevest’s Premium services also give women access to a team of Executive Coaches and Certified Financial Planner pros.