4 Things The Most Successful People Do That You Don’t
I have worked at the most elite institutions in Finance.
I have worked at bulge bracket banks and hedge funds.
I started out as an investment banker in NY putting deals together, then became a quant, then a sales guy and now a portfolio manager in London.
During that time I saw countless successful entrepreneurs, hedge fund managers, investors, bankers.
Here are the key characteristics of the best:
Resilience:
Finance is hard.
The people who succeed are the ones that can persevere in the game.
They get hit and get up.
They make mistakes and learn.
When I first started in 1999, I had a bunch of friends quit right after 9/11. They didn’t like what New York was like.
Then in 2002 I had some more friends leave at the bottom of the recession.
And again in 2008, and in 2011, and in 2016.
Many times over the 18 years, I doubted myself, my abilities, my profession.
I came close to quitting many times. Each time I talked myself off the edge.
You will be punched in the face and stabbed in the back by your colleagues, your clients will slam the phone down on you and pull an order, and your boss will either make you doubt yourself or throw you under the bus.
Don’t sweat it. Don’t be disheartened. This is the nature of the game. There is nothing wrong with you. Learn how to persevere and not break down.
And when it’s not the harsh environment, it will be your own failures.
Being immune to your own failures and in fact inviting mistakes in your life and learning from them is critical.
Ray Dalio’s entire life and his $16bn of net worth is because he was comfortable making mistakes and learning from them.
Everyone goes through self-doubt, but it’s important you learn and recover.
Don’t worry about winning, focus on growing. Be in the game, and enjoy its ups and downs.
Adaptability:
The industry changes quickly.
No one that started with me in 1999 is still doing the job that they had then. In fact most people aren’t even doing the job they were doing in 2010.
Markets change, trends change, and opportunities come up.
You have to be adaptable and nimble.
Remain flexible.
If you can keep growing and re-training your self you will rise faster, and you will catch more waves.
The trick to do this is:
Ask lots of questions of your self and others, read a lot, don’t psychologically get too attached to anything. Keep your eyes open for opportunities.
If you see something interesting going on in another area, go take a look, meet some new people.
If it seems interesting and you like it, switch.
Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs says it well:
I saw countless people that couldn’t change with the market as they became obsolete, while there were others that kept adapting to the new realities they found themselves in.
Adaption means switching from buy side to sell side, from banking to sales & trading, from research to technology, from finance to start ups.
Finance is a fairly fungible skill and you’ll be surprised how quickly you can learn and adapt.
I changed jobs six times in eighteen years, but staying in finance.
Passion:
If you don’t care about this game you may survive it, but you will never be the best at it. Over eighteen years I saw hundreds of analysts / associates join the rank and quickly realize in two years that this wasn’t for them.
There is nothing wrong with that.
You should do what you care about, something you would do even if they weren’t paying you.
Some days you will be working from 7am to 11pm, maybe longer. If you aren’t passionate about the game, you will be unhappy.
There is no point spending your time on something that makes you unhappy.
The most successful people I saw on Wall St were those that were passionate about what they did. They couldn’t wait to get into work and they were always the last ones there.
I remember running into work every day, I still do !
More important than anything in life, do what you are passionate about, you will make more money doing that, and even if that’s not true, you will definitely be happier.
Curiousity:
Finance is filled with very smart people, you will have to compete and win versus these people.
You don’t have to be born this way.
Most of us aren’t.
The key is that you become intelligent. The way to become intelligent is to be curious. Keep learning.
Warren Buffett says he reads 500 pages worth of annual reports every day — and he’s a very smart guy.
The trick to excelling is to be humble and admit you don’t know everything.
This way you won’t get complacent and you will recognize that there is a sea of things you don’t know.
If you ever find yourself sitting at your desk with nothing to do, or thinking that you have done your job — you have a problem !
My recommendation to you, regardless what you do in life, every day:
a) Ask 10 questions and find 5 new things to read
b) Call up subject matter experts and ask questions
c) Approach new people in your firm and figure out what they do.
Remember you are the young kid, they expect little from you, except that you are curious and interested. Sitting at your desk being shy or concerned people will think you are dumb will only not help.
If you can keep learning every single day, you can keep growing and getting better. I found finance to be so much fun, because every day I was learning something new.
What could be a better job than that?
Are You Ready To Take It To The Next Level?
We are a group of Finance veterans dedicated to helping the next generation. What I Learnt on Wall Street is focused on making you Smarter, Richer, Happier. Sign up to get our awesome ebook on Networking into any job and get our weekly VIP emails.
