Ed Hajim shares his remarkable journey from a tumultuous childhood—moving through foster homes and orphanages after being kidnapped by his father—to becoming a successful businessman and philanthropist. Hajim explains how his experiences became advantages later in life, teaching him adaptability, resilience, and self-confidence that fueled his success at the University of Rochester and beyond. Now dedicated to giving back, he focuses on helping young people through scholarships and education initiatives, guided by his philosophy that “anything is possible, education is the solution to everything, and never be a victim.” Hajim offers powerful insights on finding purpose in later life stages through volunteerism, mentorship, and philanthropy, emphasizing the profound satisfaction that comes from helping others succeed.

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Ed Hajim, the son of a Syrian immigrant, is a seasoned Wall Street executive with more than 50 years of investment experience. He has held senior management positions with the Capital Group, E.F. Hutton, and Lehman Brothers before becoming chairman and CEO of Furman Selz. Hajim has been the co-chairman of ING Barings, Americas Region; chairman and CEO of ING Aeltus Group and ING Furman Selz Asset Management; chairman and CEO of MLH Capital; and chairman of High Vista, a Boston-based money management company.

In 2008, after 20 years as a trustee of the University of Rochester, Hajim began an eight-year tenure as chairman of the university’s board. Upon assuming that office he gave the school $30 million—the largest single donation in its history—to support scholarships and endow the Edmund A. Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Through the Hajim Family Foundation, he has made generous donations to organizations that promote education, health care, arts, culture, and conservation.

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For More on Ed Hajim

Island of the Four Ps: A Modern Fable About Preparing for Your Future

Website

On the Road Less Traveled: An Unlikely Journey from the Orphanage to the Boardroom

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Podcast Conversations You May Like

Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller

How to Live a Values Based Life – Harry Kraemer

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About The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

There are many podcasts on retirement, often hosted by financial advisors with their own financial motives, that cover the money side of the street. This podcast is different. You’ll get smarter about the investment decisions you’ll make about the most important asset you’ll have in retirement: your time.

About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

Schedule a call today to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host 

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.6 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

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Wise Quotes

On Reviewing Your Interests

“Go back and look at your passions. If you left some passions behind, did you really want to paint or play the piano? Or had you always wanted to find out about France or Belgium or Argentina? Well, the passions you left behind, and now you have to really have the time and the energy to pursue them. One of my passions, as you’ll see in my book, is to help people do better than they thought. And that’s a lifelong passion because no matter what you’re involved in, if you can pursue that, you’ll get a great response. So you have to go back and look at your passion and maybe in an athletic experience. And I do believe this concept of taking time to reflect. I like to take the holidays at the end of the year and sit down and spend time to do a really deep dive and ask questions. Now, passions are not only my interests, my likes, my dislikes, my talents, and also contextual. You may be in a situation where I don’t know how long it’s going to take California to come back, but you can commit yourself to getting involved with the problems there. That could take five years of your life if that’s what excites you.”

On Testing Your Pursuits

“Start writing early as possible, write things down and look at them monitor them. Sit down and write down here’s what I want to do.  And then I think every once a year, do a very simple dive, to say that I accomplished it. And every three years, do a real deep dive, maybe I’m on the wrong path. I wouldn’t question every year where I’m at. I mean, it takes you by mind three years to see whether this thing is good enough, but write it down, but also spend time in what I call contextual sense. Think about what the world, where the world is going, like AI or biotech. You don’t have to be really knowledgeable, you just get interested in them. What are the trends in Alzheimer’s? A friend of mine runs it, has been involved in Alzheimer’s. And he’s got a foundation, which he’s now working to solve the problem. But write it down, write it down. Go back to some of the old things you did once. There are a lot of places, or finding another organization that fits something you’re really interested in.”

On Purpose

“Well, finding the new purpose is more difficult. You go through life and your first purpose will be to be financially independent and my second purpose was to have a family that I could support. The third purpose was to be successful in business and so forth. Older people in my mind, you have to reach back and find a purpose that you want. The fourth part of life is community, giving back.  It’s pretty easy to find a purpose in giving back. The other purposes are material, and they’re ephemeral by the way, too.”