Deal Tattoos are Paradise

I just closed my first deal and it is the single greatest accomplishment I've ever achieved. I have worked my whole life to break into IB. I started my love for banking in high school. I went to a private high school in California and a lot of my friend's dads were MDs at BBs. There was something about the allure of getting picked up in a 2017 Mercedes AMG that really drew me to the field.

I did my best in high school to get into an HYPF (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Florida State). While there, I excelled in my studies and made it to the top of my finance club and became the president of my fraternity. I learned so much in my time there and scored my first interview in a prestigious M&A group.

After countless bake-offs and late-night Seamless orders, I got staffed on my first deal. Throughout the whole thing, I was riveted. It was the most transformative experience of my life. My Associate would often tell me that I wasn't working fast enough, but his tough-love was exactly what I needed to ramp up during the process. The only way you learn is by getting thrown into the deep end and I appreciated every second of the learning experience. I stayed up until 2am every night doing everything that the client asked of us (by way of listening intently to every word my associate said about the email threads I wasn't included on). This deal became my life. I was so hooked.

We trudged through closing diligence like a battered army. Not only was the company that we were advising under LOI, I was too. I had signed a personal Letter of Intent to close this deal.Euphoria came the second that the SPA was signed. I got the email from my MD that we were done (I wasn't included on that email thread either, but I'm happy they looped me in afterwards). I threw my hands in the air and high-fived everyone at the office. It was the greatest feeling I have ever felt. All of the pain of the past 7 months was gone - I bled for this and I got my due.

That's when I knew I needed to memorialize that feeling forever. I was so proud of what the team had achieved. The countless hours working on the CIM just to have the whole thing deleted by the MD on a Friday review, the diligence requests that went unanswered, the emails from the client that I immediately forwarded to my associate to ask for guidance - it was all worth it.

So I've made my decision - I am going to have the tombstone of this deal tattooed on my chest so that I can wear it with pride. No one knows what I've been through and this is the way I prove to myself that it was all worth it. I will look at it in the mirror every morning and remember while I'm here.

Blessings.