Open Letter to Edmundo Braverman

Originally I was going to pm this to Eddie, however I don't have the banana credits to do so. Being that this is the next laziest option, I settled on making it an open letter:

First off, I wanted to say I really enjoy the content and candor of your blog, it makes for very entertaining reading, and I always look forward to your next post.

I am currently a sophomore at University of Connecticut . I really enjoy tracking the markets and just opened my first online brokerage account last month. I am looking forward to losing my money and hopefully learning a thing or two in the process. I definitely have a passion for finance and ideally would build a career around it. However, I consider myself a little more colorful, and a little less proper than your typical banker. I have restless entrepreneurial spirit that cringes a little every time I see IBD stint to buyside/HF being reinforced as the only way to be successful in finance. I have convinced myself, maybe naively, there is more out there than this.

Anyways, I wanted to reach out to you because you have a refreshing perspective that’s considerably less myopic than most on this board. And secondly, I can’t help but partly identify with Edmundo Braverman, whether he’s a persona or not. I am young, hungry, poor, and foolish, and want more out of life than a job on the buyside in 10 years. In short my question for you is: knowing what you know now, and having done what you’ve done, if you were 20 years old again how would you approach your future career/life? Would you do anything differently? Is there a field you would have gotten into earlier? Does everyone networking and scouring for a BB IBD role have it right? Am I creepy and delusional?

Insight into any of these would be greatly appreciated, as I highly value your experience and the place from which your point of views comes from.

 

"If you were 20 years old again how would you approach your future career/life? Would you do anything differently?"

A bit off-topic I would realize that confidence is they key to everything in life. Women, Work, Sports. You can't fake it - that is called cockiness. If you can develop it and cultivate it, then you will be years ahead of all your peers.

 

Enjoying the input and would love to see some more of the older/experienced members weigh in. While I didn’t originally intend to write an ode to Edmundo braverman if that’s what this becomes, well, I’m alright with that. I’m familiar with blackhat’s story as well and that’s certainly a life to aspire for.

As to why this is addressed to ‘Uncle Eddie’ is it seems to me he embraces life outside of banking more than some others around here. Plus, as somebody who likes to toe the line the ups and downs of his story are, for lack of a better word, strangely appealing.

Viva la Braverman

 
Best Response

One of the things I don't really talk about much is how laser focused I was on finance in my early 20's. It wasn't because I had some great love of finance, although I did, it was mostly because I was sick of being poor and frankly would have done anything to get rich.

If I were 20 years old right now I'd spend every waking moment that I wasn't getting laid in the computer lab. I frankly wouldn't give Wall Street the steam off my shit because it's a shrinking job market that is likely going to be harangued by regulators for the next decade at least. It's one thing to take a shitty job and just suck it up because you're well paid, but that's no longer the case.

Wall Street was never my end game; it was always just a means to an end. Which is why I came and went as much as I did. I wasn't loyal to any firm (because none of them were certainly loyal to me), and I basically went back to my finance career whenever I ran out of money doing something I enjoyed. Wall Street was like an ATM in a bad neighborhood to me - I hated going down there but I could always get cash.

I makes me sick sometimes when I think about the opportunities I threw away just because I was an asshole that had to do things his way. I grew up in Silicon Valley just as computers exploded on the scene, and half my graduating class in high school is filthy, stupid rich now on SV startup money. So you've got me on the one hand - who had a successful finance career by most objective measures - and then you've got my high school buddy who was employee #9 at Facebook.

Anyway, technology is moving so fast now that I wouldn't waste my energy on a dying field like finance. But it's important to remember that you're asking me what I would do if I were 20 today. Finance was very good to me, and I'm still passionate about many aspects of it.

 

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