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Grow Your Network: Andrew Cohen Is The Wall Streeter Turned Professor Who Survived Bernie Madoff
Here's HOW and WHY to connect with Andrew Cohen
Matt Zeigler
May 30, 2025
For years, I've been connecting with interesting people and documenting insights that might help my clients and myself. What was once private is now (mostly) public.
People often ask: "How do you know all these people?" and "How do you connect these (re: random) ideas?" The answer is simple: consistent relationship cultivation and thoughtful note taking. My north star is trusting my instincts, my maps are the constellations in these reflections.
Find my Personal Archive on CultishCreative.com, watch me build a better Personal Network on the Cultish Creative YouTube channel, and follow me on social media (LinkedIn and X).
This approach has helped dozens of clients strengthen their networks and unlock new opportunities. You can:
Steal these ideas directly
Create your own combination that works for you
I can't promise you'll learn from me, but you'll definitely learn something with me. Let's go. Count it off: 1-2-3-4...
PERSON INTRODUCTION
Do you know Andrew Cohen? Former Goldman Sachs trader, Madoff survivor, and current Old Dominion University professor who embodies resilience in the face of financial catastrophe?
If not, allow me to introduce you. Andrew navigated Wall Street's highest peaks and deepest valleys while maintaining his moral compass throughout. From his early days as a market maker to surviving the Bernie Madoff scandal as an investor (not participant), he's transformed personal devastation into wisdom that he now shares with the next generation. I wanted to connect with him because he embodies something I value deeply: the ability to maintain integrity when everything falls apart.
Our conversation is LIVE now on The Epsilon Theory YouTube channel (and this Cultish Creative Playlist). Listen and you'll hear how a poppy seed bagel potentially saved his life, why relationship quality matters more than wealth, and how teaching became his path to redemption.
Three Key Lessons
In the meantime, I wanted to pull THREE KEY LESSONS from my time with Andrew Cohen to share with you (and drop into my Personal Archive).
Read on and you'll find a quote with a lesson and a reflection you can Take to work with you, Bring home with you, and Leave behind with your legacy.
WORK: Focus on Learning, Not Just Grades
"When I went to school, I always thought, I want to get an A in the classroom. And it was such an - I wish I can go back and tell myself, forget the grade, just learn as much as possible. Whether you get an A or B, it doesn't matter. It's the knowledge that you learn, that you take away from it."
Key Concept: The pursuit of grades and external validation can blind us to the real purpose of education and professional development. Andrew's biggest regret about his academic journey wasn't about missed opportunities, but about focusing on the wrong metrics. True professional growth comes from absorbing knowledge and developing skills, not from achieving perfect scores. This mindset shift from performance to learning creates deeper expertise and more meaningful career advancement.
Personal Archive Note-To-Self: This one time, in 7th grade, I took a pop-quiz or pop-Latin test that not only had I not studied for, but - let’s be honest, I had no (I’m talking ZERO) clue what I was doing with in the first place. This was the first class in my academic journey that I was pretty sure an F was an option. I was coasting on C’s in the class up to that point, but this was part of a new experience in a new school, and I remember the stomach drop when the teacher announced pop quiz.
I stared at the page when she passed them out. I remember the ditto smell. I remember the, “I am so f***ed” feeling as I started picking multiple choice answers with no discernible reason. We passed them on. I resigned to eventually having to admit my fate to my parents and whatever grounding scenario awaited.
A day or a week or some amount of time passed and she had the grades for us. She passed them out and… I got a 97. A damn near perfect score. I had blind guessed every single answer and I got all but one right. I smoked it. A+ on top in red ink.
What did I learn from this? I can’t tell you what grade I got on a single other quiz, test, or paper from my 16ish years of school, but I can tell you that in 7th grade, I aced a Latin test by accident and it still feels ridiculous. The numbers and grades didn’t matter then, they don’t matter now.
I may not have learned anything useful in that Latin class, but I am so, so, so grateful for so many other details I learned back in school. The grades, the measurements, those details - they are dwarfed by the information my brain was selecting to download and hold onto (and there is a surprising amount of that).
That test taught me then, and still reminds me today, to focus on what I’m actually absorbing, not what anybody else is measuring me on. And, as for Latin? Last I checked… still dead!
Work question for you: What are you chasing in your career - the appearance of success or the substance of real learning and growth?
LIFE: When Bad Things Happen, Look for the Silver Lining
"Sometimes things happen beyond your control. I had no idea, at the time, that I shouldn't eat a poppy seed bagel, right? When I was eating that bagel, there's absolutely zero thought in my mind that THAT’S gonna affect a drug test. I had no idea. So sometimes you don't know things, but, I guess, the idea is when things that happen negatively, you gotta think, how do you make it a positive?"
Key Concept: Life is full of random events beyond our control - from poppy seed bagels affecting drug tests to global financial scandals. Andrew's story illustrates that while we can't control what happens to us, we can control how we respond. His poppy seed bagel "failure" led him to Madoff, which ultimately led to his teaching career. The key is developing resilience and the ability to extract lessons and opportunities from setbacks rather than being defeated by them.
Personal Archive Note-To-Self: I like to joke, when the elevator gets me to my floor without stopping, or when I - pass a 7th grade Latin test without studying, “Some people win the lottery. But me? This is what I got.” It’s a little cynical. It’s a little dark. But, life is random, and I like to think about how that luck is distributed to other areas with nearly the same odds and pointless outcomes.
What I do know, is that I’ve had a lot of stuff where I didn’t win a great lottery. I’ve got a lot of life I don’t ever want to repeat and wouldn’t wish on anybody else. And yet, I’m grateful for the hardships. I’m grateful for the weird twists and turns because even the bad stuff, it’s part of where I am today. And, you know what? I’m overall pretty happy with where I am today.
So life sucked a bit to get here. So you ate a poppy seed bagel and failed a drug test and - maybe you dodged a 9/11 sized catastrophe in exchange for losing your shift in a Madoff sized ponzi scheme but, did you figure out how to be happy along the way? That’s really the only grade that matters.
Life Question For You: When was the last time something "bad" happened to you that you later realized was actually a blessing in disguise?
LEGACY: Helping Others Beats Making Money
"I tell you, being in academia has been wonderful. I've loved teaching there. I've loved managing the trading room. I love working with Bloomberg. I've loved the presentations there... it's so much better being in a place where you're helping people, like teaching, rather than when I was on Wall Street just trying to suck money out of it, you know?"
Key Concept: True fulfillment comes from contributing to others' growth rather than just accumulating wealth. Andrew discovered that his Wall Street success, while financially rewarding, paled in comparison to the satisfaction of teaching and developing the next generation. This shift from extraction to contribution represents a fundamental change in how he measures success - from what he can take to what he can give.
Personal Archive Note-To-Self: I’m going to be stuck on that Elizabeth Banks graduation speech for a long time. This is her message again. You can chase your little crumb of the piece of the pie. You can do that forever, if you want, but your life will always be small.
The only way you can be bigger than another rat chasing your piece of the pie is to let go of the myth of the pie. You have to step back and ask, “What pie can I grow for the benefit of others?” Teaching is one of those pies. It doesn’t take much to get going, but if you can get some wisdom or even practical skills into another persons hands, you’ve made the whole pie bigger, to everyone’s benefit. Andrew models this in the most wonderful ways.
Legacy question for you: Are you building a career that extracts value or creates it for others?
BEFORE YOU GO: Be sure to...
Connect with Andrew Cohen on LinkedIn
Check out Old Dominion University's Finance program and their Lumsden Trading Room (with a great picture of Andrew on the website by the way!)
Take a moment to reflect on all these ideas!
You have a Personal Network and a Personal Archive just waiting for you to build them up stronger. Look at your work, look at your life, and look at your legacy - and then, start small in each category. Today it's one person and one reflection. Tomorrow? Who knows what connections you'll create.
Last thing: Don't forget to click here and tell me who you're adding to your network lately and why! Plus, if you already have your own Personal Archive too, let me know, I'm creating a database.