The Impossible Trinity of IB

After I finished an analyst stint in the M&A group at a BB I got a lot of questions from incoming analysts, buddies, or people in b-school that would be taking the IB plunge: how do I survive, not fall apart physically, key tips etc. I always found the thing that they gravitated to most was what I came to call the Impossible Trinity in banking.

All you econ tools out there will recognize the term but more importantly the Impossible Trinity of IB means the following:
In the IB analyst life, you have essentially three things: Work, Partying, Health. These are all important. At any given period of time though, you can only have two of these things, therefore, the impossibility of the trinity. To illustrate: if you are busting your ass at work, and hitting the gym whenever possible, you will not be partying; you have only Work and Health. Or, if you are hitting the gym non-stop and know all the club promoters, you are dropping the ball at work; you have only Health and Partying. During any given short-to-medium term time frame, it is impossible to keep all three. Maybe you have a lucky strike and close a deal, leave early, hit the gym, and have a great night, but generally it is not possible. Over the long term you can have a balance.

Maybe this is common sense but I at least always found the formulation was helpful for people and always led to either knowing smiles, funny stories or “that’s a good way to look at it”. It is a straightforward way to keep things in perspective, keep you honest and prepare you for the fact that you will need to be prepared to focus and only have two sides of the triangle at any given time. Thought it might be food for thought for the kids getting into the mix.

Maybe some of the “vets” can say whether it resonates with them.