Hazard of the Trade: Bankers' Health

As we consume sobering facts like these, it is important to reevaluate the reasons we want to go into banking. Although the negative externalities of the job scare me, I will still consciously make the trade-off and go into banking everytime. Personally for myself, there are things that I value highly and hold dear to my heart. Given a chance to achieve these personal objectives, I am willing to take on short-term health sacrifices and burden myself with stress.

For example, I am pursuing investment banking directly for the money, but indirectly for the opportunity to help out my parents. Although we grew up poor, my parents sacrificed everything they had to immigrate to North America for me to pursue my dreams. Everything I am and have, I owe to them. They are around 60 and still work manual labor jobs - so for me, making a lot of money and allowing them to retire early / comfortably means everything to me. Whether it be health or 120 hour weeks, I would gladly sacrfice a part of my own wellbeing to satisfy my own perceived raison d'etre.

Consequently, if we do believe that the markets are efficient and that humans are rationale, we should believe that most people in banking are doing in for a personal purpose (regardless of what that purpose may be). Thus, articles like these actually cement my interest in banking a wierd and perverse way... I often think to myself - gosh, is there another industry on earth where I will find so many committed and hardworking people? In some sense, this blind dedication is one of the reasons workaholics and ambitious kids these days continue flocking to banking. You work at virtually any company in any industry and you will find so many dumb, lazy and unmotivated people around. Banking has few to none of these people. The opportunity to compete in this environment among so many like-minded people continues to push me forward.