What I’ve Learned: Week 4
He probably won’t brag about it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do it on his behalf.
I heard a sound. I was working in Barcelona, but a shout of pure, unadulterated joy carried over the hundreds of miles/kilometers that separated us — he was in Croatia on a well-deserved holiday.
Samuel Gil, one of JME’s partners, had received the email that said he had passed the Level III CFA Exam.
This is noteworthy because, if you’re not familiar with the CFA exam, becoming a Chartered Financial Analyst is QUITE a challenging proposition.
- 42% of test takers pass Level 1.
- 46% of test takers pass Level 2.
- 54% of test takes pass Level 3.
Each of the 6 hour-long tests requires hundreds and hundreds of hours of studying and covers topics like derivatives, portfolio management, quantitative analysis, equity investments, etc. And he passed them all on his first try. Now he’s one of less than 550 CFA’s in Spain.
So, at a minimum, Samuel dedicated three years of studying to reach this point. Oh yea, and he also took a two year break in the middle of his CFA path to receive an Executive MBA from IESE Business School.*
Why? One of my favorite quotes, attributed to Aristotle says:
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
Samuel is committed to excellence. Not as an act, like something that can be checked off a list — “Okay, now I’ve been excellent.” But excellence as a habit.
And I’m proud of him.
This week’s lesson then: Good venture capitalists are curious.
They’re hungry. They read, they talk, they listen, they learn. They seek excellence.
Constantly. Always. Perpetually.
*Correspondingly, IESE is where I’m currently obtaining my full-time MBA and where JME’s María Echávarri Toda will be starting her Executive MBA in just a few weeks.
You can also check out “What I’ve Learned,” or more accurately “What I’ve had Reinforced,” in Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3 of my Summer Associate role with JME Venture Capital.
