It takes a lot of talent, hard work, and luck to be a successful bank CEO if you play by the rules. The invest imprudently while the sun is shining is a much easier strategy to pull off.

I dont follow. If youre already bank CEO then you’ve already “made it” in the sense of having a career that’s paid you tens of millions of dollars.

Why not just be prudent and keep making money rather than gambling it all on red?

You become the CEO of a small regional bank. You can draw small regional bank pay for several years until they find someone else to be caretaker or you can invest imprudently, massively expand the size of the bank and be a growth CEO with growth CEO pay until the whole thing blows up.

Which strategy has a higher expected value?

How do you "massively expand the size"? Please explain step by step.

1) invest in riskier but higher yielding bonds than all the other banks

2) with part of the proceeds from #1 pay more interest than other banks

2b) optionally use part of the money from #1 to give free ski trips to “influencers” like VCs in a position to recommend banks

3) watch the deposits roll in