Your future empire: what’s it like?
WSO just hit 40,000 members and the last time I checked (minus the trolls and a few odd d-bags) you will probably find some of the most intelligent, entrepreneurial, and ambitious people the world has to offer, all in a single community.
The countless threads on exit ops, interview preps, school advice, and ballertude confirms this but what I find rare is what you want to make of your careers in finance.
The career path threads for Equity Research, Hedge Funds, and S&T always stop at PM. For the bankers it’s getting into Private Equity and then ends at making Partner.
We’ve already discussed whether you’re stiffs or players, and we’ve gathered that you’re in the latter. But true players have far loftier agendas than just making it to PM or partner.
What do you want to do from there?
What where your dreams and aspirations coming into finance? Your ultimate exit op?
Is it your own fund? Your own Investment Bank? A mammoth Real Estate shop or a tech firm to dwarf Microsoft?
Share it, and SB’s to those who could put the vampire squid to shame.
Mine’s to have my own fund like Tudor, a big macro shop with a VC arm, which will invest my hypothetical billions in power, tech, and financials.
Your turn.
"{Insert Childhood Street/Neighborhood Here} Industries."
A hedge fund/PE firm masquerading as a holding company a la Berkshire Hathaway, bootstrapping my way along like the notorious circle in the 80s, all of whom were profiled in "Predators' Ball" and served by Drexel.
Begin by buying some stable, undervalued company as a shell, and then let the acquisitions and the cash flow in.
A bit off topic, but did anyone see Buffett's comment about Berkshire being a $200 BILLION mistake? Come to find out (new to me) that Buffett acquired Berkshire out of spite because the tender offer he received for his shares "chiseled me for an eighth". The guy offered 11 and 3/8 instead of 11.50, which is what Buffett agreed to sell them at.
Regards
I want to own an industrial conglomerate with major operations in gas, oil, steel and copper. John D. R style.
I could really use a wish right now.
http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1809282
Privatize the world.
i want to use my billions from managing a hedge fund, to fund a coup, become a dictator, and then ultimately deal in nuclear arms.
Option 1: Come up with and successfully market revolutionary web idea Option 2: Run own fund with energy, tech, and real estate holdings. Option 3: Be a major player in next generation fuel technologies (probably biofuels)
My goals are unreasonably similar to san fransicans...though they have nothing to do with SF.
Though my school wouldn't be only a university it would start much earlier because I think the public school system in the US is terrible for gifted kids who have potential that is wasted by the fact that they dont get special attention.
Its an interesting dream to start a university. But I think even in a perfect storm of execution it is literally impossible to create a reputed college in one generation. I might be wrong, but is there a single target school that was started less than 50 years ago?
What could also be interesting is doing the same in an emerging market. Look up Moscow Business School -- a bunch of russian academics and financiers started a school, kept throwing money at it, and made it one of the best business school in Russia in less than 10 years. It is, in effect, one of the very few "target" MBA programs in Russia that can get you into IB (and remember pre-crisis comp in Moscow was more than NYC and London)
Hedge fund based in Monaco...
I want to own two islands.
WSO is a great forum, but "C'MON SON!!!".
I'm a real estate PE guy and my ultimate goal is to own a chain of hotels. I'm thinking two separate brands, one super-luxury 5/star and one larger, broader business-level brand good for conferences etc (also 5-star, but way lower end). Something like the Hyatt empire.
I want to give every little boy a league to play baseball or football and every little girl a place to be a ballet dancer or cheerleader for free. I want every inner city kid to be able to take the SAT and get some free prep. If college is not in their cards maybe learn a trade. I want to educate... i want to lead.. i want to make a difference
my exit op is to give others a beginning
LOL That's why there the word some in it, boy.
The most beautiful words ever on WSO, you've been one of the most generous members on here monty and I'd like to take this chance to thank you for all the help you've given us here man. I think you're already on your way to making a difference.
trying
I want to provide scholarships to needy kids so they can have a chance to go to school. Maybe extend that and offer private school for poor families. Do something to stop the cycle.
obviously after all the usual baller-esque things most people on here think of...
I would want to get into the entertainment/hospitality industry and own my own successful nightclubs/lounges and hotels (random right). Hotels because its a family business I want to expand on, the latter is because I love to party.
Currently working in PE but slooooooowwwwwly working on a web concept and trying to get it off the ground. Goal would be to get some serious funding and a partner with a shared vision and kiss the days of staring at a computer screen goodbye...
But if that doesn't work out moving up to partner, making a couple mil a year and being able to support my family and friends would be cool too.
haha, only on this site can making a couple of million a year equate to just "supporting the family" and nothing else :p
Sorry, to clarify supporting my family includes my sister and parents as well... not just direct family.
^ So true
@SF, what made you think about opening a school? Just curious.
ambitions: - Be known in the industry as one of the experts of my field (ala Derman) - Become fluent in mathematics. I'm a quant, and I want to reach a level of proficiency that would make most of Quant finance intuitive. - $10m a year comp - minimum. - Get a masters or PhD in applied mathematics at some point in my life.
ultimate exit opp: retiring and managing my own money after having achieved all of the above.
Have enough money and know-how to do the following:
Effectively fund and operate a network of clinics to provide basic/non emergent medical and dental care to impoverished urban areas around the country without pillaging the pubic coffers.
Use money and influence to start a program to increase financial literacy of at risk youth in low ses school systems in order to show them that the best way to be well off isn't through drugs and gangs, but through education and hard work. (Kinda already started on this one).
Fund an effective program for employing and compensating injured veterans at a level equal to their sacrifices.
Own the Baltimore Orioles so that Peter Angelos will stop fucking them out of every decent opportunity they've ever had ever. Maybe make him wear a dunce hat at all home games
Feasibly, buy a restaurant. It would be great to take clients to your restuarant.
Less feasibly, buy a professional football or european soccer team. I'd be ok with a totally profit neutral franchise.
Miscellaneous Fan- "Are you a Patriots fan?"
Me - "Yes. I own them."
My dream empire would be an energy conglomerate ala Exelon or maybe Cameco with operations in transportation fuels (hydrogen and/or electric vehicle charging stations.) The bottom line is that I'm still very concerned about the future of energy. Between global warming and peak oil, we need to move off of fossil fuels if we want to keep living in a modern and civilized world.
In reality, I don't need to get to that level of money or empire, and even if I could pretend I could pull that off, it wouldn't be worth sacrificing essentially everything else in life. Instead, in fifteen or twenty years, I will probably settle down on a farm on Lake Michigan or Huron, and spend my time writing gospel music.
I just watched Network last weekend. It was pretty damning to corporate-type folks. The fact is that simply sitting in corporate America for too long and not being deliberate about trying to do the right thing- not necessarily going out of your way to do the wrong thing- has the potential to turn you into someone you really don't want to become.
Yeah I read that, he said if he stuck to insurance companies BRK (or its equivalent had he bought it) would've been a $200 billion company. What about it?
Nothing, other than I hope to make a similar mistake in my life time, lol.
Regards
LOL
A university would be amazing to create, but I think that creating an elite prep school - and having it receive elite status - within 10-20 years is very feasible. The point was brought up earlier that a university will not be considered "target," or "elite," until probably at least a half a century of existence, and I couldn't be patient enough to wait for that to happen. I would also create a "portal" program, similar to the one developed by John Sexton at NYU and have the school paired with other schools internationally. I would be the headmaster of this institution; that is the dream.
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