I Am Thankful For Everything

I have not posted anything in a while other than some douchy replies on certain posts;I have a huge chip on my shoulder and here it goes.

After graduating high school I started a business. At age 19, I was making high five figures and by 24 I was making $150k a year. Then the great recession hit and I was forced to sell the business while someone else could buy the assets.

I always wanted to work in Wall Street since I was a kid so I dove nose first into the deep end in the world of high finance at the late age of 25 with no degree.
For the first two years I did not make any real money maybe $40k on the second year. I worked my ass off everyday and learned as much as I could and got as much deal experience as possible. Did I mention I'm an immigrant? I got rid of my accent by reading news papers in front of a camera and having my white friends point out where my pronunciation was messed up, it worked.

I broke into the Private Equity space with an engagement from one of my best friends to sell his grandfather's $8M EBITDA company (I know how lucky I am). That caught the attention of a handful of PE funds and one poached me away from a crappy boutique firm to develop their deal flow after a four hour meeting at the Harvard Club. I worked for the fund for two years until one of the partners and I got into an argument over my bonus and I left at the end of last year.

The only reason I left was because I had a better opportunity lined up. I met a young investor whose family is collectively worth over $1 Billion. We walked around Park ave in midtown for five hours and talked about everything until 2:00 AM. He asked me to come out to California to see his offices. I went to California and built a model from scratch for an acquisition he had lined up.* (always bring your laptop every where you travel). He was extremely impressed and made me a salary offer with a discretionary bonus every time we close a deal. The salary was reasonable and we based our whole relationship on trust and a hand shake.

I started getting my bonuses and was completely blown away by the numbers.Today I got my bonus numbers for the deal we closed a week ago. This is the third one this year (I sourced two and structured three of them).

I know a lot of you probably don't believe a word I wrote but everything is true. I've been a workhorse and made myself available 24/7 even on holidays and for 3:00 am conference calls. I answer all emails within 10 minutes if we are looking for strategic acquisitions I have at least four options to choose from within a month. I guess I am extremely proficient with technology and even use the free bloomberg at the library to save the firm money and cold calling has always been something I am really good at.

Back to the money part. This year I made one and a half times what a VP makes at KKR (this was confirmed to me by a friend who is a VP at KKR). I'm only 29.

I am thankful for all of the people that helped me and didn't discriminate against me for who I am or where I came from.

*I learned how to model at the PE fund from an associate that I got along with very well.