How to turn career decisions into a successful and fulfilling life? From a Young Entrepreneur & Finance Professional’s Perspective

A little bit of background intro about the speaker I’m going to write about today.

1. Managed a team of 24 as an investment manager before graduating his bachelors
2. Co-founded one value investment company (company active as of today)
3. Co-founded a technology consulting firm (company active as of today)
4. CFA charter holder
5. A Supervisory Board member of an eastern European bank

He achieved all of the above in his early 20s. For privacy reasons please forgive me for not being able to be specific, but you get the picture. He is an overachiever. Now let’s deep dive into his 5 career &life advises:

1. Leverage The Power of Compounding

‟ The earlier you start doing something, the better you become in that field, that’s just how compounding works. „

As a finance professional who’s super passionate about value investing; he not only sees the power of compounding as a way of making money but also a way of living. ” The earlier you start doing something, the better you become in that field, that’s just how compounding works.” He strongly encourages us to learn something new or useful, eat healthily, exercise and invest as early as possible, regardless how little our improvements or efforts may seem to be, those baby steps will eventually compound into huge differences.

2. Focus on the Right Thing

‟ The most important thing you can do as a young person is to become an expert. There is no substitute for becoming the best at your craft. „

Robert Smith (Association of Tennis Professionals)

He quoted the famous tennis player Robert Smith, who’s prize money grew from $0.3 million to $15 million in 12 years of his tennis career; while improving his percentage of points won from 49% to 55%. ” The 6% improvement of points won had increased his percentage of matches won from 49% to 90%. ” That’s the power of focus.

3. Switching Jobs is easy; but switching industries is hard.

‟ The best industries are the ones where you’re flying the F-16, your pocket full of quarters, trying not to crash. „

Eric Schmidt (Author of “How Google Works”)

(*Note: “A pocket full of quarters” is a way of saying that you are prepared for something. e.g I’m going to do it and I have a pocket full of quarters.)

The third advice he gave us was to pick the right industry. ” Go work for startups or young industries that have not yet bloomed. Cultivate expertise that has not yet been fully developed; that’s how you become the leader of those industries afterwards.”

He encourages us to not fish at where everyone else is fishing; but rather where the fishes are. He thinks due to the fact that many people have been seeing traditional big firms and investment banking industry as a mean to make big money, there are only small fishes left in those ponds.

4. Value Your Time

‟ If a restaurant is only making a profit because the owner owns the place and doesn’t have to pay for the rent, then it is not profitable!„

For example, many finance professionals think investment banking as a mean to make big money, however, he doesn’t think so. ” If a restaurant is only making a profit because the owner owns the place and doesn’t have to pay for the rent, then it is not profitable!” The same logic goes with working in the investment banking field: ” You thought you were making big money because you didn’t value your time spent working. A professor who works less hours but earns the same amount of money as an investment banker do is actually wiser.” It is important to always value our time when trying to make career decisions.

5. Book Recommendations

‟ Read, meditate and do sport. „

Last but not least, he advice us to read more books, meditate and do sport. Here are some book recommendations he has for us:

🚩 Business Understanding & Investing:

1. ‟ Value Investing from Graham to Buffett and beyond „ by Bruce Greenwald
2. ‟ Competition demystified „ by Bruce Greenwald
3. ‟ Strategic Logic „ by Carlos Jarillo

🚩 Life:

1. ‟ Man’s Searching for Meaning „ by Viktor E. Frankl
2. ‟ Meditations „ by Marcus Aurelius
3. ‟ On the Shortness of Life „ by Seneca
4. ‟ The Power of Now „ by Eckhart Tolle
5. ‟ How Not to Die „ by Michael Greger
6. ‟ Smarter, Faster, Better „ by Charles Duhigg
7. ‟ The Go-Getter „ by Peter B. Kyne

Conclusion

I really enjoyed the speech because the speaker was super ambitious, sharp, honest and straightforward; he was also able to deliver his ideas with logical reasoning and a touch of financial knowledge, making those ideas easy to remember. And the book recommendations just look super awesome; I’ll definitely write a review after reading any of them. Hope you all enjoyed the 5 advises as much as I did!