To what extent can success be attributed to the people who you surround yourself with?
Over the past few years, I've grown increasingly curious about the impact of one's social circle on their professional success. Let's take the scenario of college education as an example:
Suppose you attend a university full of intelligent individuals, yet the majority of them do not share much of an interest towards investment banking or finance, perhaps they're interested in science or engineering. I wonder, does this lack of a shared professional goal among peers diminish an individual's drive and therefore their chances of breaking into such a competitive field like investment banking?
This question particularly intrigues me when I consider the alternative. Imagine being at the same institution, yet surrounded by friends and acquaintances who are deeply motivated towards a career in finance. These are individuals who might spend their days avidly consuming material from Mergers & Inquisitions guides, engaging in conversations about finance, and diligently studying market trends. Would such an environment naturally foster a more intense dedication to your studies and a deeper understanding of the financial world?
I'd like to understand the extent to which our environment, especially the people we surround ourselves with, shapes our career trajectories and the passion with which we pursue our professional aspirations? Or is this mostly based on one's own intrinsic drive? Question applies to both banking but likely other areas in life as well
Insanely important. If WSO didn't exist I'd be finished.
I'll give you an example. I'd say >95% of the people I encounter in London IB come from the south of England. Now are the people in the North just dumb or do they simply have no awareness of finance careers? Fairly certain it's the latter as that's the background I came from.
Classic nature versus nurture case. There was a study done on a set of twins a while back and the result was that it is influenced by both
it is in my nature to work in finance 🤓☝️
I want to work at the Goldman Sacs. Please tell me how to get a job at the Goldman Sacs.
It may depend a lot on the people you surround yourself with, but it also depends on who you are.
From my experiences in high school, my closest friends were people who did not care at all about school. Complete degenerates and drug addict types who just wanted to drink, party and f around all day. I ended up having a low GPA in hs because I wasn't as driven to do well, I didn't take rigorous classes, and didn't get to the types of colleges I once wanted to attend.
In college I chose to surround myself with the brightest people I met, and constantly tried to learn new things from them. We helped motivate each other constantly and pushed each other to be our best in every aspect. Eventually managed to go from a state school to a top IB. I genuinely believe that if you surround yourself with a bunch of downers and people who don't even believe in themselves or their potential, you'll end up developing that mentality as well.
Who you surround yourself with is really important in my opinion. Probably more important than we consciously realize.
I don’t know if theres data out there supporting this, but I think we subconsciously “keep up” with high-achieving friend groups.
Same goes for IB, if your whole class wants to go to buyside, you likely would want to as well. If they just wanted to chill and do corporate, you may be more inclined to follow that path as well
I would 100% agree with your statement prior to the internet. Children of affluent parents were the only ones exposed to these career paths and what they entail. I believe the internet has been a huge equalizer where any kid can search desirable career paths and understand the steps they need to reach that goal. In this case, it comes down to how much an individual candidate wants it.
who you surround yourself is hugely important....but I don't think just being around finance types is especially helpful, the more deverse your network is the better and I think that applies to all career fields
take for instance a career in IB, sure it's nice to know a bunch of finance professionals at the beginning of your career as it helps you learn, but as you grow into the profession you're judged by the deals you bring in, if all you surround yourself with is finance types it becomes extremely difficult to source deals, if on the other hand you've got relationships from college and high school with successful people in other fields they help broaden your network and get you in front of decision makers at companies that will help you source deals
additionally a more diverse network helps spur creativity, my wife works in a science research lab, i throw some of my work problems her way a lot because she brings a completely refreshing perspective that i wouldn't get from any of my colleagues at work
Hm interesting perspective. Is this something you had effectively done over time in ib?
I believe that the internet has helped provide resources for students to learn. Historically you would have to attend a high quality school in a nice neighborhood or a private school to get good education, and if you grew up in a rough neighborhood you may have had suboptimal learning opportunities for a variety of reasons. Now the internet has provided students with the ability to learn about significantly more topics, so there should be fewer reasons for why student didn't do well at in 8th grade algebra or something
refrain the question, and instead ask "to what extent can success be attributed to the things you get exposed to or let influence you", and the answer is 100%
if you spend 90% of your time with your friends, then those will determine 90% of your mindset/ideas/etc., if you spend only 5% of your time with them, well... then not much. In the same way as someone listens to a friend, someone can listen to a video of Warren Buffett and this will have the same impact, there's no need to have physically someone there, but what matters is the idea that gets assimilated by what someone says.
the benefit of friends is the peer pressure it carries with, if you're surrounded by smokers you'll smoke, if you're surrounded by hardos you'll also be a hardo, so choose wisely. There's no friendship if you don't have at least 1 common topic of discussion/interest, so that's why it's hard to be friend with someone but also tell yourself "I would never want to end with him", because friendship is ignoring some flaws because he has some positives that you appreciate.
It makes a difference who you are around. I grew up some where where many people were not as motivate or sophisticated compare to people I have met here. I did not have as much drive when I grow up compare to now, when all my peers are smart and ambitious, but I have enough drive on the inside to move to the US to build better path forward
I don't think that it matters necessarily if you surround yourself with people who want to go into finance. It's more the overall quality of ppl that you surround yourself with. If you surround yourself with lazy, you're more likely to become lazy. If you surround yourself w/ ambitious/driven, you're more likely to be ambitious/driven, regardless of if those ppl are interested in the same profession
As long as they motivate and encourage you towards you doing your best id like to think its a net positive.
Not as critical but surrounding yourself with different inputs to have a wider exposure to different perspectives would be a plus.
Huge difference. It can lift the lid on what you think is viable.
About 2 years ago I made friends with a bunch of guys in the same space as me posting ~10x - 15x the revenue of the co I run.
I made it seem much more achievable and now I have changed the way I think quite a bit!
Maybe go to a college party once in awhile man.
Does this theory apply to getting laid?
Like if all your friends get laid a lot, you tend to get laid more too, but if everyone around you is a virgin, you tend to be a virgin also?
Speaking for myself, I think a big reason why I haven't achieved the level of success I desire is because I don't really have anyone in my life who is successful.
I personally had to cut my childhood friends out in my 20's because they were going nowhere, moved city, surrounded myself with smart people and am doing a lot better than my old friends in all aspects
Significantly - growing up the kids I knew from the Caribbean just didn’t have the same drive as people you meet in Uni in the US.
A lot of people back at home were content with just working as a tour guide or teaching surfing lessons, which is okay if that’s what they wanted, but they didn’t / couldn’t think bigger or beyond our local beach.
People here that I’ve met just think differently and have different drive which has been inspiring to me
If my mom didn’t play tennis with the Dean’s wife, I would have not gotten into my college of choice. 😂😂😂
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