I wrote this in response to a piece in the FT about Junior Finance burnout.
I’d consider myself one that this article is describing: 26 years old, working for a storied American bank, trading currencies around the clock, managing P&L, and making a healthy mid six figures. We were not under any delusions when we charted this path – at least anyone that will actually pull weight in the trenches. You have to put a lot in with the trust that a lot will come out.
By most metrics we have the trappings of post graduation success and have been rewarded with tremendous mental and social accoutrements, and for those so inclined, yes relatively material ones as well. Out of the University gates we bolted past our more exploratory friends and graduates.
As I look around now though, a few who went into unpromising, nascent — and no doubt at the time — totally unproven fields are now key knowledge players and forming equity capital that will well surpass my savings and earnings in some time. But, and in no consolation to myself, it’s a very small fraction. I’d pin it at about 15%. What I can say is those 15% took very unconventional paths that some of us laughed at early on in good jest but privately worried.
What they all carried was a near crusade like belief in their sunrise industry. Now, as I take inventory of those that leapt from the same starting gate, I’m not sure who should be worrying. What I do know is that many of my best investments were the ones I was laughed at for at inception. So, if you get a laugh from someone, maybe you’re onto something. Or at the very least, you can laugh at it too when it’s all said and done.
“Happiness is like hunger, it ebbs and flows. Subject to the push and pull of those times when we are riding high and others when we are not”…Well said Joe Rogan…I’ve made that line a preamble to my life.
Teddy Roosevelt said it is the man in the arena that counts. I’m still not sure I’m in the right arena, or any arena at all…More likely I’m just in the one from yesterday’s paper…I’ll still keep his speech in my wallet anyway.
https://www.ft.com/content/2f5d2587-d9a7-4cd5-ac84-e36d75b13a24