He strolls into the office whenever he wants, looking sharp and slick. The only thing shinier than his new, freshly polished Ferragamo loafers is the 24K gold on his cufflinks. Or maybe it's his new Patek Phillippe, the one he bought on a whim after seeing an ad in the back of The Economist (which he reads every week as he travels first-class to major business centers around the world).
A lot of analysts tend to glorify MD's and put them up on a pedestal. It's not just the clothes. It's not even the money. It's the power they wield we lust after. To be a BSD in finance - one of the fat cats of Wall Street who are simultaneously hated and admired by regular folk. That's the end goal. When we get to MD-status, we've accomplished what we've been working so hard for our entire lives. And I'm not just talking about MDs in investment banking - I'm talking about the hedge fund manager, or the partner in a private equity or venture capital fund, or even the CEO of a large company. We lust after what these people possess - status. And all that comes along with it.
But would you trade places with one of these cats, if you could? Think about it. Your MD is probably 45 years old, so he's balding. He's overweight. The only thing keeping his wife from hating him is all the money he throws at her. She's probably sleeping with the pool boy, anyway, so she doesn't care about him anymore (in a relationship, apathy can be worse than hate). His kids barely know him.
And even if all these things weren't true...
Half his life is already gone. And more importantly, he got to where he is by working for it. If you traded places with him, you'd rob yourself the satisfaction of getting there by your own merit.
We tend to keep our eyes on the end-goal, thinking that getting there will make us happy. But happiness is synthesized by our brains, and we always overestimate how much happiness something is going to bring us, and underestimate how much happiness getting there will bring us.
Take college, for example. You worked hard for 4 years to get into a top school. Some of you made it, some didn't. Most got into a good school, at least. How happy did that make you? It was great for a little while, then you actually got there and your happiness "leveled off" as you set your sights on the next thing - banking.
My point here is that I think we should all take a deep breath from time to time, and enjoy our current situation in life. Stop to smell the roses. Happiness really is in the journey, not the destination. Clichés aside, I think a lot of us would be happier if we stopped focusing so much on where we want to be, and started focusing on where we are now. The future is uncertain anyway, so live in the present!
tl;dr stop to smell the fking roses
This is so stupid, of course, skip 20 years of working to be a baller on da street? lol dumb question
seriously though, i'm not happy at an ivy because there's more to be achieved - still need to go into banking, gunning for the top shops a la GS TMT, GS FIG, MS M&A and BX M&A in that order of prestige/exit oppys. At banking one is not happy because of the need to go to PE. I can imagine the Hellman&Friedman or Silver Lake guys being unhappy because they are not at the top funds, but once you get into KKR/BX and there's nowhere up, I can't imagine that you won't be happy for the rest (or a significant chunk) of your life.
Is this a joke? You tie your happiness and self-worth to the name on your business card? What a miserable way to go through life.
I thought it was a joke, until i saw his thread attempting to have a tournament of banking prestige....
Wow, simply, wow... If you really think the guys at Silver Lake give the slightest bit of a fuck about getting into KKR than you are a complete idiot.
Starting your own successful fund is a move up over getting 2nd hand glory out of working under someone else's name.
I chose a smaller firm for my first job because I could network my way around better.....so a BB would have been a disaster
There is a whole lot more to life than status
Talk to a couple of principal investing guys (PE or HF) about their view of investment banking MDs and you'll get a different view. Analysts may glorify their MDs, but I can tell you that the rest of the finance world sees them as highly-paid sales guys who, more often than not, don't earn their fees.
Really, I can't imagine a better / more prestigious job than partner at KKR - it is simply the pinnacle and definition of success and prestige. Almost definitely will make you a happy person. Money and status buys happiness baby. Maybe a fund manager at a top HF, but then it is similar.
Oh dear god this kid is exactly what's wrong with finance these days...
Are you kidding me? I mean PE is cool and stuff, but do you honestly believe it's the "pinnacle and definition" of success? First off, money after a certain point doesn't really make you happier on a day to day basis. And second, Mark Zuckerberg was a billionaire at 23, how many partners at KKR achieved that? None. Let's face it, if there were a "business hierarchy" entrepreneurship would definitely be on top.
But the truth is, most people don't really care about where you work. Sure, they might be in awe or envy for 5 seconds after you mention you work at KKR, but after that everything is back to normal. Life is too short to care about shit like that.
Youre talking about ONE INDUSTRY. Working at KKR is not prestigious to everyone...most people not in those circles have NO CLUE what KKR is or does.
You want prestige/best job?
What about partner in a neurosurgery practice, like the one who saved Gabrielle Giffords life.... the founder of Twitter, Google, Facebook a top movie producer a celebrated artist clothing designer famous architect civil engineer designing a city's infrastructure
Get out of your little world.
And I guarantee you guys 100% that firefighter is not a happy person right now since he's obviously putting all his eggs into the money/prestige basket (this is what ppl do when they suck at everything else)....when was the last time you got your tip wet buddy?
This is the exact kind of negative reinforcement this site needs in order to keep from being taken over by ass clowns...
You must of seen this:
Those downvoting me are just jelly. if it dont make dollars it dont make sense. paper + status what else is better? KKR or bust bro, so fucking prestigious
^^^^Firefighter has to be a poe/troll/what's the term?
I actually agree with the OP. There was a discussion on this subject recently. There is always a higher goal and people focus too much on that goal. Unless they achieve that gaosl they're not gonna be satisfied. But how big is the change you actually get to be a fund manager at a top hedge fund/ PE fund? And what if you're actually there? Is that it, pursuing a goal and than not having a goal anymore. Isn't that going to be strange. Referring to a post earlier Will Smit said something like "you have to build a wall brick by brick".
Don't some of you guys realize that you might get that super prestigious career one day after tons of hard work, and realize it's not all it's cracked up to be? Seems like this sort of thing happens all the time...
deleted
I wouldn't trade places with any 40 year old. Unless I could still be in my mid 20s and single, then yes obviously.
40 yr old MDs dont get college girls. period. so fuck that.
I was going to point out that Charlie Sheen seems to be doing fine there, but then I remembered that those girls aren't college educated. So your point still holds.
And Charlie Sheen isn't exactly an MD...but the girls aren't bad...for porn star rejects
Hell naw it's all about the journey
u kids are seriously delusional... u rather be a regular college kid than a PMD at the most prestigious wall street investment firms like KKR or BX. fucking dumbasses. this is why the us is in trouble. just wow
of course i want to be a bsd at kkr...but, i want to travel the path. yea, the odds arent great but i wanna not lose 20 yrs of my life to just "jump" there now.
u sir, can fuck off
I think the film artist Adam Sandler has already covered this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_(2006_film)
edit: no idea how to post links...
Time>Money
"If there's one thing I learned in prison it's that money is not the prime commodity in our lives... time is" -Gordon Gekko
"Focus on the journey, not the destination."
Go watch "Blink". Sums up everything I was trying to say, and it's a decent movie.
These forums aren't getting old.
In an ethics class at school, the professor dropped a logic bomb on every single kid in the class who thought he or she could willingly forego happiness at each level in life. Make it into target school, you'll be happy. Then make it into GS summer internship, then you'll be happy. Make it into banking, then you'll be happy. Make VP, then you'll be happy. He just cleverly waited till everyone had dug themselves into this hole before letting loose with:
"How do you guys feel about constantly delaying your happiness...and you might...not...actually...GET IT?" The faces and reactions were absolutely priceless.
I think happiness comes to some extent from fulfillment of one's goals(getting into top school,dream job or whatever). When you achieve the goal, you get that rush of feelings, but it doesn't last that long, once the daily grind kicks in or you see many people(esp friends or those who are close to you) who achieved similar or better goals. To be happy during normal times(or the journey towards the next goal), you gotta love what you do at that moment. One way to love what you do is, being good at it or if you are not, enjoy the challenge getting good at it. I feel its necessary to have both the kind of happiness(i.e rush feeling and being happy what you do).
I like that haha
Kids on here have no fucking perspective..prestige is just as important as happiness, and I guarantee that a $30million job as a fucking baller at fuckin KKR can give you more happiness than any shit firm you join because of fit or some other bullshit reason.
Hell, I'd trade places with my MD if it meant 40 years, especially if it's at a truly prestigious firm (aka KKR/ Blackstone / Carlyle / TPG / Bain Capital in that order of prestige and ballerness)
happiness is so fucking overrated. want to be happy? good luck making $500k a year when I'm partner at TPG
Don't you guys have some sense of fucking greed? What happened to all the Gordon Gekko followers? Are you guys saying that one should be happy with what is given? No wonder the US is going through a shithole.
Guys here is the path that one should take.
When at Middle School: Exeter/Andover/Hotchkiss or bust. When at High school: Ivy league or bust When at college: GS TMT/ MS M&A or bust When at banking: BX/KKR/Carlyle/Citadel/DE Shaw or bust When applying Business School: HSW or bust. When returning to PE/HF: MD/PM or bust When at MD/PM: Private jet + 3 yachts and mansion in the hamptons + Patek Philippe watch as your dick ring or bust
People say money can't buy happiness? Look at the fucking smile on my face. EAR TO EAR BABY!
Damn, so owning a bust is just as good as everything else you mentioned. that's awesome. what's more prestigious, a bust of caesar or alexander the great?
You guys are getting trolled. I don't understand why anyone is still responding to firefighter seriously.
Great inital post
@ Chubbybunny -I hope this a joke post ,if its not you need to stop watching re-runs of Wallstreet or you your self will end up like Charlie Sheens. The bud fox days are gone, the face of Finance has changed, we are in period of limbo now where we don't know whats going to happen, now more then ever geo-politcal events play a factor on market performance in any asset class. If you think you have your life planed out like that, I can only picture you on a Sunday night having your mom lay out your shirt and suit for every day of the week... "alright Randy.... this is for monday... navy is for tuesday... don't for get casual Friday!!"
Excuss me while I switch gears here for a moment (not trying to hijack post) until a sense of certanity and calm are resorted in the world which will only happen when a new world super power emerges and that is able to demonstrate its power to the world (ie. USSR- USA cold war, USSR collapsed, States shows uncontested "peace missions" in Iraq, then again Iraq, Afganhistan, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, etc)
From 1990 till 2008 the US of A was #1 no quesitons asked, now... a bit of a different story, you got China, and the Russian bear slowly standing up again on its ownclaws again. Unrest in the middle east playing havoc on all market, investor uncertainty etc..
Maybe I have gone on a bit of rant, fuck it, this is way the world is evolivig there are a lot more factors that come into play that I am not going into detail on some taboo, some more realistic and shocking.
At the end of the day and tieing into the original post you have to stop and "smell the roses" because if you don't you'll wake up to a life in shambles like Charlie Sheen's and be screeming for something that you once thought made you.
"EMILLIOOOOOOOO"
(reference to night at the roxburry - Emilio Estaves - Charlie Sheen's brother)
So far the word fuck has been uniquely mentioned 14 times in this thread.
fuck. 21. haha
I would hope that I stay smoking hot until at least 50's...
this site is seriously retarded.
All of you can blow your little happiness greater than all horn all day long, at the end of the day 99% of people signed up her and made an account to break into a high paying and prestigious job.
If on some zen meditation forum people talked about happiness being the goal then I might buy that, on here it just sounds like a lot of bull.
99% of the people on here would trade their left nut to become a partner at KKR right now.
If I only knew what being a partner at kkr meant. So I will keep that left nut, thank you very much.
The problem with these threads is that you have people currently in industry arguing with kids who are still in college. Different things become important as you get older and more mature. From my experience, the longer in industry, the less and less willing you are to make sacrifices. You start to ask yourself the question: Would I rather be a top MD, make loads of money, and not have much of a family life? Or, make less money working in strategy for F500, and be able to spend more time with the wife and kids? I'd say the latter. Many college kids would say the former. I'm sure there are college students out there who think I'm just some pussy who just can't hack it in backing. To each his own. However, I'd be willing to bet that some of those kids will eventually share my perspective. For me, banking is a means to an end... an end that will not be in banking.
To the OP -- no, I would not trade places with any one of my MDs.
Tell that to Silvio Berlusconi...
Welcome to trollapalooza...
Firefighter, I truly hope you never get to be a partner at KKR. not because i don't wish you every success with your life, but if you put that much hope on your single cause of happniess, when you get there you'll be verging on the suicidal.
Interesting that you say you want to be an MD and single. Maybe there's a reason that most of them aren't. You can't cherry pick parts of people's lives they come as a package.
Firefighter, no offense, but how old are you? Your responses reek of someone who's an upperclassman in high school or an underclassman in college. I'm not trying to pick on you or anything, I'm just saying that you might feel a little different as you mature.
If someone were to tell you they worked for the abc ad/pr firm would you know/give a fuck if that was the best firm around? No, because we are not in ad/pr, same goes for non finance people. Barely anyone has any fucking clue what PE is, let alone the top funds...
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