Stories of late bloomers

This thread is inspired by a post in another thread. I love hearing stories of people who were considered "underachievers" and "mediocre" when they were younger and then eventually end up being successful.

Back in high school, i knew this kid who went to a rival school. The dude was a total slacker, just spent his time goofing around, hanging with the wrong crowd. The smart kids made fun of him for being a loser. He went to the flagship state school and got his shit together. He studied physics, did very well, and went to the Phd program in physics at Harvard. After getting his master's, he decided to leave and took a job at Goldman Sachs doing quant strategies. I was absolutely floored when I found out about this. Just proof that you can't judge a book by its cover.

 

Most of the people I know who were idiots in school still are and have either gotten pregnant, or gotten someone else pregnant.

-------------------------------------------------------- "I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcom
 
ke18sb:
@illini

I'm sure that kid is happy as hell living an amazing life. He probably has a more mature and developed outlook on life than most on this forum.

Absolutely; he's also a poet. That said, his parents are really pissed at what's happened and there's something to be said about getting burnt out too early.

PARENTS: Don't push your kids too hard. Also, it's best if one of you works only part time and spends some time with your kids.

 
Best Response

I thought you were talking about me here: " The dude was a total slacker, just spent his time goofing around, hanging with the wrong crowd." Except, you didn't mention the copious quantities of weed.

Yeah, I was really unmotivated and probably depressed in high school. I think a lot of it stemmed from social anxiety and introversion. I didn't want to go to college but I had a feeling things were going very wrong in my circle of friends and I enlisted in the Navy. 5 years there gave me the time to grow up, get some discipline and confidence and I came out very much ready to work hard.

So I did well in a JC, transferred to a semi-target (top 25 school with a top 3 business program) and got a pretty sweet job. I know being a Risk Analyst at a BB isn't golden on this site, but it's pretty damn stellar all things considered. Hell, the kids I went to high school with would be dumbfounded that I'm graduating from a college at all, let alone a much better one than most of our classmates went on to.

I think finding your own path keeps you humble and grounded. I'm not going to try to break into IB, I'm going to to do the best I can where I'm at, go to a good b-school (I was only enlisted, but military experience and risk should help me out there) and generally, just find what makes me happy. Actually, I didn't even apply to IB, I'm old enough to work hours that let me live my life.

 
RiskyBizness:
So I did well in a JC, transferred to a semi-target (top 25 school with a top 3 business program) and got a pretty sweet job. I know being a Risk Analyst at a BB isn't golden on this site, but it's pretty damn stellar all things considered. Hell, the kids I went to high school with would be dumbfounded that I'm graduating from a college at all, let alone a much better one than most of our classmates went on to.

I think finding your own path keeps you humble and grounded. I'm not going to try to break into IB, I'm going to to do the best I can where I'm at, go to a good b-school (I was only enlisted, but military experience and risk should help me out there) and generally, just find what makes me happy. Actually, I didn't even apply to IB, I'm old enough to work hours that let me live my life.

Props man. You figured out what works well for you. And whether or not the traders and capital markets guys want to admit it or not, risk management is the glue that keeps the whole system together.

Working 100 hours a week in IBD is waay overrated. Actually, I can say from experience that working 80 hours a week is overrated.

Thank you for your service.

 

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