Why do overachievers think that finance is the sole route to success and riches
Before you all come at me, i am currently an intern in finance at a BB. So I am one of these people as well. I go to an Ivy and everyone seems to think that the sole route to get rich is via finance and tech. Why is that? Like I am originally from the south and there are a lot of rich people down here who did not have such a linear route to success. Why do we think that since we didn’t get that internship at Goldman or Blackstone, that our lives are over. I mean, for Christ sakes, we go to an Ivy League school or ivy league equivalent. We are bound to get a job. But why is it that we believe finance is the only way when there are people in the south getting rich by selling car loans or owning a fucking car dealership or fucking starting a peanut farm. I know there is no prestige in any of those things but I 100% believe that most people at Ivies especially wharton think that the sole route to success is by finance lol. They literally will murder someone for an internship at goldman
different people have different goals/dreams. no one is "bound to get a job".
The Sole Route To Success And Riches is FLEX SEAL
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People who've done well by playing by the rules are attracted to the safest, most obviously laid out path to success. For Ivies that have OCR from every big firm, finance is that path and is an easy way to rank/compare yourself to your peers.
The value of this comment is under appreciated. Those who are good within a bounded system will do better in a field with minimal uncertainty. Analyst -> Associate/PE/HF so on an so forth... its a concrete path. This is even more so prevalent in “higher achieving” universities because those students did well in high school; they did well following rules and doing exceptionally well at what they were told to do. To some extent, it’s probably conditioning. I am told to study, I study, I do well on test -> teacher, classmates, and family provides me with positive reinforcement... repeat. How could you not feel comfortable knowing exactly what you’ll be making in 3 or 5 years? Break that path of certainty, and many high performing students at highly regarded universities start feeling lost. Fun fact: the most intelligent students in university tend to pursue academia and research, not finance.
This and what caeq have said. Couldn't say it any better or more succinctly.
Used to work in consulting with a buddy of mine who wasn't as good with "following rules". Questioned (legitimately) the work of an manager but wasn't too subtle about it. Basically asked to resign after a whole bunch of things, he told them to fuck off, got fired.
He now sells BMWs at a dealership and clears $450k per year and laughs so hard at the manager who never made partner and works in some shitty 5-person consulting firm in bumblefuck nowhere. I saw my friend's pay stub and the worst month he's ever had he made $20,000 pre-tax. Now he is an exception because he is amazing at that job (ranked something like Top 5 in the country) but it just goes to show that upper middle class wealth is achievable by anyone with talent, in any industry.
I think it takes a while for younger adults to figure out what "success" means to them... its money for some, family for others and time for another group..
and end of the day - thats cool. i am much more happy when i found what "success" was to me
Its a little surprising to me that despite being relatively smart most people don't realize you'll get rich trading time for money - you're the same as any blue collar worker until then.
Dealing with ambiguity is our generation's biggest challenge. Most decisions today are made based on social proof (peers, IG, etc.) and data. If competing against your peers within a set boundary of rules is what you're good at, you're going to continue that game and that's why Ivy Leagues feed into Wall Street training programs. It's an extension of the game.
Why does it seem like people back in the day were all-so-willing to start a random business and suddenly strike it big? Because they didn't have data or the internet to tell them "whoa hey, your idea is unlikely to succeed because trends show x, y, and z. Also your friends are all doing X and seem to be doing great so why not do that instead?"
The fallacy of the thinking above, however, is that placing yourself in limited, unambiguous competitive environments also restricts you from becoming an outlier, both in the sense of completely striking out or becoming a home run.
A perfect example is Steve Job's motivation to enter the computer industry in the first place. If you looked at the competitive environment and available data at the time he entered, every typical financial/strategic analysis would've told you "fuck it, new entrants have no shot and you're fighting corporate giants." Steve didn't care. He just wanted to add value and when you listen to recordings of the few conferences he spoke at, it really shows.
Here's something else to note as a devil's advocate: I cannot stress enough how large the unseen iceberg of LOSERS exist the sales/entrepreneurship path. If you've been immersed in the startup world, you'll see a fair amount of wicked smart, well-connected people get blown out of the water and some NEVER EVER recover. Even companies with $100M exits will give founders jack shit because VC's are ahead in the preference stack; you can end up working 100 hour weeks for $100k/yr, worthless common stock, and get acqui-hired into being a corporate drone again.
The worst part of all this? You'll see the true colors behind all the people you associate with. You'll see the judgment, the embarrassment of being associated with you. You'll become that case study for people as to why they should stick with their job. They'll label you as the wannabe who drank the Gary V kool-aid.
This is why finance/tech/consulting is so attractive. If you more or less can grind, you will be in the 1%. You could get blown out from acts of god but there are enough people also on the path that have been blown out that you can follow a playbook to recover. Entrepreneurship doesn't necessarily have that. If you venture on your own without a strong enough network, you might dig your own ditch and end up forced to get a low-paying job just to get yourself out the hole.
Can you deal with pushing on even when everyone thinks you failed? Can you deal with no one empathizing with you? Can you keep resilience when your parents give you "that talk" about being serious with your life? Most people can't and those that do have a bigger vision in mind other than money.