When Giannini died at the age 79, his total net worth was less than $500,000. That was a lot of money for the time, but nowhere near the amount he could have accumulated had he been money hungry; he wasn’t. “Money itch is a bad thing,” Giannini once said. “I never had that trouble.”
Giannini could have been a billionaire and, indeed, one of the richest men in the world if he had wanted to. However, Giannini looked upon great wealth with disdain. “I don’t want to become too rich,” he said, “because not one rich person controls richness, but is controlled by it.” Giannini didn’t want to lose touch with the people he was serving. After all, if he wasn’t one of them, how could he ever understand their financial needs?
When Giannini was first starting up the Bank of Italy and looking for employees who would fit well within his vision, he immediately thought of a teller by the name of Pedrini. The only problem was that Pedrini was working with Columbus S&L at the time. That didn’t stop Giannini. In order to lure Pedrini to his camp, Giannini offered to double his salary. Naturally, Giannini’s partners at the Bank of Italy protested. They didn’t care that Pedrini was supposedly a good worker, courteous with all types of people; they didn’t see the need to pay someone so much money to do a job they presumed someone else could do just as well. In order to ease his partner’s complaints, Giannini offered to give half of his own salary to Pedrini. While this clause was withdrawn soon after Pedrini had lived up to his reputation at the Bank of Italy, it nonetheless demonstrates Giannini’s nonchalant attitude towards wealth.
On a similar note, Giannini never wanted to be president of the Bank of Italy. He didn’t feel the need for the power or the wealth that accompanied that position, and so he resigned himself to acting as vice president. After the Bank’s first year of operations, he even made his stepfather, Lorenzo Scatena, the vice president. He, of course, stayed on with the bank, but all the while accepting virtually no salary. When Giannini was once given a surprise $1.5 million bonus, he unhesitatingly gave it all to the University of California to fund their research into agricultural technology.
By 1922, the Bank of Italy had over 60 branches. It was expanding at a rapid rate and realizing unprecedented success. Would that tempt Giannini to keep a larger slice of the pie for himself? Far from it; when the Bank’s board recommended increasing his yearly salary by $50,000, Giannini refused. He had already saved nearly $500,000 and commented that anyone who wanted to have more than half a million dollars should leave their office and head straight to a psychiatrist’s.
Giannini was no slouch of a businessman. Of course he wanted to make a profit; he just didn’t see the need to pocket that money for himself. It was in maintaining that attitude throughout his entire life that Giannini was able to build both his reputation and his bank into things that people could have faith in.
Lesson #3: Money May Have Much Worth, But It Has Little Value
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