Need advice - IB vs entrepreneurship/family biz

Hello guysNeed some advice here: IB vs entrepreneurship/family biz?

Now, my situation is quite unique, so I'm going to give you as much context as I can below, to get the best advice possible, as currently feeling quite lost.

So I'm an analyst 3 in London, doing pretty well I'd say. Team likes me and I like them, been given pretty good exposure across live deals and situations etc, but I feel like I'm wasting my time with IB when I could be out building my own thing.

I'm from a third world country originally, parents founded a business which is at $6m+ in EBITDA as of last year and $20-30m worth of real estate. They've done well, and I feel as if they've passed on that enterprising nature to me.

Ifeel like I could go home and create something big, make good money and have time freedom.Now, given the background, I've never wanted to be someone who seems like they're coming from privilege. Chose the hardest first career possible - IB. Needed to go back home at some point as my own man, having accomplished my own thing, before taking "daddy's money".

2 years in, I've learned alot, matured, grown. But man is it miserable. This life, especially in London, is so painful. Sometimes I ask myself, is it worth it? Who am I proving anything to anyway? Or do I just not realise how good I have it now and should I be grateful?

I know this is open ended. Any anecdotes, similar stories or just advice from people who've been through the analyst grind, I'd appreciate it.

Essentially trying to understand: is it a good time to go back home, be with family, potentially start my own thing or stay slogging it out in IB as I'm still young?

8 Comments
 

Start your own thing. The amount of time you spend in IB can be used to start something huge, or develop your family business to the next level. You have the freedom to build, bolstered by a good safety net - something 90% of entrepeneurs do not have. You have the freedom to build but also to fail. And this is in your favour.

 

I mean if you don't want to do IB long-term and want to do your family's business long-term then do that. idk what u expect to get out of IB at this point now

 

I'm a prospect so idk if my opinion is that strong, but with that being said- if you want to do entrepreneurship long-term then another year of IB after you've already had 3 years won't bring u much im guessing. i mean your parents started this successful company and had 0 IB experience. Tbh idek how useful IB experience even is outside of high finance. i think the marginal gain will be worthless. i'm a prospect tho so u do u

 

No offence but this seems like a horrible idea. You want to waste your youth in a shithole when you're financially set to live an upper middle class lifestyle in a first world country? You could just move to a corp dev role and chill but if you enjoy playing oligarch then go for it.

 

No offence taken. If it was purely a decision based on where I want to live, I’d pick back home over London in an instant. London seems completely insufferable to me.

The decision is more than that - it’s the quality of experience and learning, work ethic, networking, understanding of finance etc that’s keeping me in banking - not London

 

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