Q&A: The Final Cut

A few thoughts here. In terms of life satisfaction, the career elements are an important part, but not thing that drove life satisfaction. The thing that always mattered the most was the people (friends / relationships), then where I lived, then the job itself. The main exception was my analyst years. Those were absolutely brutal. I gained weight, barely slept, and was generally unhappy throughout those two years. It was a means to an end though, and I’m very happy I went through it in hindsight because it really did set me up for success both personally and professionally.

Analyst years aside, I have lived in a number of different cities from large to small. While I think that every city is only as good as the friends you make in it, I do think it is incredibly important to live where you want to live. Different cities have very different vibes as well as different ‘types of people’ — and it is important to be in a city where the vibe matches what you’re looking for. My advice would be to maintain flexibility in your 20s in order to progress your career, but ultimately ensure you end up in a city you enjoy when you’re ready to settle down. More to come on this topic in another post because it is incredibly important.

In terms of what I would do again, I’d say that I’m really glad I didn’t make any major life commitments too early. I changed a LOT in my 20s and even in my 30s. How I spend my time, the people I want to spend time with, what I spend money on, where I want to live, etc. I was in a very long relationship with a wonderful girl, but ultimately we parted ways instead of getting married. In hindsight, I wasn’t the right guy for her and she wasn’t the right person for me (long term), and I’m very glad we didn’t make the decision to get married in our mid-20s. I have a lot of friends that are still happily married to their college girlfriends/boyfriends 10+ years later, but my personal recommendation is not to rush it. You will change, your partner will change, and hopefully the two of you change in the same way, but it adds an additional risk. 

I would say yes, I think IB/PE was a good career path for me. I have friends with such a diversity of jobs, from lawyers/consultants to restaurant staff. I’ve always felt IB/PE was very dynamic. I do get bored easily and while the big picture is always the same in PE, you are still encountering new situations, learning about new industries, and meeting new people 15+ years into the job. Plus, I had the opportunity to travel a lot for work, which to me adds an entirely new element to one’s job. For a period of nearly 10 years, I was on a plane about once a week on average. While for some people this is hell, it enabled me to develop a unique set of skills including working from anywhere as well as gain extreme comfort navigating the world. This has paid off personally as I’ve always spent a great deal of personal time traveling.

That said, as much as I like PE, I think trading would have been an interesting alternative for me. I have always excelled a lot in math, particularly mental math and lightning math. Additionally, my ‘gut instincts’ tend to be accurate when it comes to both people and investing. While this is very helpful in PE, I think I could have built a successful career in trading or at a hedge fund without nearly as many late nights or painful days writing memos. That said — I don’t truly know what these jobs entail, so I could be very wrong here.

I will say one thing that I have learned though: I truly despise client services. I don’t think I would have survived long term in IB. I live for efficiency and the inefficiency in IB is mind boggling (PE has its moments as well). However, if I had to take orders from a client that I felt were a complete waste of time, I think I would lose my mind. The trade offs between IB/PE have been discussed extensively on this forum already, but this one aspect of IB is pretty much a deal breaker for me. Same reason I don’t think I would have enjoyed being a lawyer. I’m happy to take the responsibility that comes with being the client in order to have full control over my day-to-day.

The answer is equally vague. I’m not 100% sure. I have a general idea, but I’m pretty certain my plans will change. If there is one thing that has been consistent for the last 15 years, it is that I’ve always planned, and life has never gone as planned.

Time wise, I’m focusing on my health and my hobbies. That means working out or playing sports every day to maintain fitness. I’m also now sleeping between 7 and 9 hours a night which is something I haven’t been able to achieve since I was a teenager. It is AMAZING how much this improves my happiness and wellbeing. Sleep is so important. I’ve known this forever but for whatever reason, I’ve always been unable to sleep. Now I’m finally rested each night because nothing is on my mind and I can wake up whenever I want. In terms of hobbies, I’m trying out new things to see what I like. I’m currently working on my 3rd language through self-study and a private tutor, learning how to cook (I was a horrible cook before, still am really), and want to pick up something more artistic as well (drawing or perhaps an instrument, although that isn’t an immediate focus).

Professionally, I really don’t feel the need to jump back into working, mostly due to how much I’m enjoying sleep. I’ve told myself that going forward I will only do work that I enjoy, but the focus is no longer on earning money. I’m actually considering becoming a professional mentor and charging $100/hr or so to help people navigate their careers. Teaching at the university level could be fun as well, but I’m not in a rush — I want to spend at least the next few years in personal pursuits first. We will see.

Geographically, travel has always been important to me. At a minimum, I plan on spending my summers in Europe or traveling elsewhere. Winters I will probably also spend in some warm climate, be it Florida or Central America. I’m planning to just pick the country based on how I feel when the time comes!

I've mentioned it a few times on these forums, but I actually live a really inexpensive lifestyle. I'm not a foodie whatsoever, i prefer not to drink alcohol (a few drinks a year), i don't care for cars/boats etc., and I like to fly under the radar when it comes to fancy clothing. The only thing I spend meaningful money on is rent, which is a function of wanting to live close to the office to minimize my commute. In retirement, this won't be a problem! So despite my annual compensation growing to 7 figures over the years, I have never really spent more than $100k/yr (if you normalize for rent). In fact, I've lived off my base salary alone since the start of my career, and I buy/spend on everything I actually want.

I think most people in this industry get absorbed by lifestyle creep. They go to very fancy restaurants, order expensive booze, buy expensive cars, fly first class, and otherwise live a life of luxury. While certain expenses are inevitable (supporting kids), there is an expensive way to do things and a cheap way to do things. I don't begrudge people who want to send their kids to private school, but it comes at a very real financial cost. I personally know with 100% certainty that I don't want kids. This lifestyle choice made it a lot easier to pull the ripcord and feel confident in my ability to retire.

I posted above about how I want to spend my time (hobbies / travel etc.). In terms of lifestyle, I don’t have anything grandiose planned. It is amazing how much cheaper life becomes when you have time (aka, we spend a lot of money trying to win back the time that we lose making the money). Cooking at home is a great example. I finally have the time to look up a recipe, buy all the ingredients, cook it, eat it, and then clean up without worrying that I just squandered my night. Transportation is another. I really enjoy walking or cycling places — and now i don’t mind walking 45 minutes to get to my soccer game whereas before I would be rushing to the game after finishing a conference call or email.

In terms of where to live — I don’t intend to live in a high COL city anymore. I don’t really see the point given my interests. I’d much rather travel around Europe and spend my summers discovering new cities and meeting people there. I have friends scattered across various cities in Europe and I plan on spending the next few summers visiting them, learning the language if i don’t already know it, and enjoying life. In fact, I’ve already mapped out the first 3-4 years and discussed with friends! I’m certainly not on a shoestring budget but in some of these areas you can rent a huge place for 1,500 /month a live like a king.

I very seriously considered starting my own business when I was in my 20s (around the time I went to business school). My main desire to do so was to have freedom over where I lived and how I spent my time. I went back and forth between that and staying in PE for easily a year+. I even registered a website and told my friends in order to make it more real. Ultimately, I decided that after putting in 6 years in IB/PE, the ‘grind’ was mostly behind me. From that point, the compensation from PE was pretty much a sure thing while I could have epically failed as an entrepreneur. I actually make the conscious decision that I would just work in PE until I had enough money to retire early and enjoy my ‘freedom’ then instead of trying to achieve it through entrepreneurship. Looking back, I think I made the right decision for me.

It is a good question and everyone’s experience is different. I have friends that still hang out with their HS/college buddies and others that never speak to them. I’ll share my experience but this is truly just a sample size of one. Also, Facebook came along when I was in college and everyone I knew joined, so we’ve had that element of social media. Most people no longer post though (myself included) and all the posts for the last 5-10 years have been of children.

Interestingly enough, many of my female high school friends went on to be quite successful while the male ones took on more blue collar jobs. For the females, we’re talking MBB consultants, lawyers, MBA at Harvard, etc. For the men, ranges from engineers to working retail at the same place he worked in high school. Most of the women are all married with children and the guys are a mix of single / married without children. Anyways, I lost touch with nearly all of the guys shortly after college graduation. We just didn’t have much in common and I wasn’t interested in going to the bar and drinking. I also did my banking years immediately after graduation in another state, so I wasn’t geographically proximate either. In terms of the girls, I still keep in touch with roughly half of them .. and by keep in touch I mean a call every 6-12 months to check in and provide life updates.

In terms of college, I wasn’t in a fraternity or anything like that. I was a part of a core group of four guys and had an assortment of male/female friends from different circles. Sadly, I immediately lost touch with 2 of my 3 good friends. I’m still close with the other one though. We stayed in touch over the years, did dinners or went to sports games when we were in the same city, and have kept up with each others’ lives. He was even going to visit me in Europe but COVID got in the way. He was never a ‘business contact’ — just a really solid friend and good guy. My parents have even gotten to know him and could spend time with him without me there. The female friends from college are a mix. I kept in touch with a few of them over the years. However, almost every single one of them stopped being social (with me and their girlfriends) the moment they got married. I am shocked at the number of people where the last time I saw them was at their wedding!! There is one friend in particular I keep in touch with who nearly has teenage children at this point (scary), but the rest have fallen away over the years. Note that none of these people is a solid business contact — while they are mostly business professionals, they work in completely separate industries.

So there are two other categories of people that you didn’t ask about that are worth mentioning. MBA friends and friends made post-graduation. These have actually been my core.

MBA friends is easy. I keep in touch with a lot of them. I’m still going to weddings and holding FaceTime calls to catch up. We text back and forth more regularly. When I moved to London, I instantly had a group of friends from my MBA that welcomed me into their world. Whenever I visit a city, I would usually meet up with former classmates who were living in that city. Part of it is no doubt due to the fact that people from the top MBAs are fantastic at networking/staying in touch, and part of it is because we are on similar paths as business professionals. These people tend to be in IB, PE, consultants, entrepreneurs, or increasingly high-level executive positions. While part of the interactions are business talk, most of it is just friends hanging out the same way we did in our 20s. We talk about life, career, sports, people — pretty much everything.

And finally there are the friends I’ve made outside of school/work. My experience here has probably been a bit unique because I have moved cities six times since graduating from undergrad. Each time I moved, I’ve made a new group of friends. I will need to edit this post at some point to expand on this category, but I have met some really amazing people along my journey. In general, I have kept in touch with 1-2 friends from each of the cities that I have lived in. These are guys and girls that I really connected with and felt were very good humans. One of them, who I was particularly close with, would chat with me for 1-2 hours every single week for years even after we lived on different continents. To me, this was proof that while your friendships developed as a kid are very unique and special, you can still form strong bonds as an adult.

Some good questions here. I’ll answer the book question in a later post as the question was asked below as well.

In terms of advice to give to my 20-year-old self, I don’t think I would do much different. To quote Boris Johnson, “we got the big decisions right.” So my advice would definitely be to “stick with it” and “grind it out” in banking despite the immense desire to quit when the hours were long and torturous. I pulled so many all-nighters, left work each day after 1:00am, and lived with a perpetual throbbing headache as an analyst. There is no two ways about it — it was awful. However, it sets you up for a lifetime of success if you are able to grit your teeth and make it through to the other side. For many careers, your first job dictates your second job, which dictates your third job, which determines where you can get an MBA, and so-on and so-forth. While there are exceptions and pivot points (such as an MBA), it is amazing how much you are defined professionally by your first job. I highly suspect that had I not landed in banking, my entire career and earnings would have been substantially less exciting. It isn’t worth sacrificing your long term health over, but if you can crush it during the first 2-5 years of your career, you will be set up for the next 30.

As for sacrificing your social life during college to get a high GPA … I think balance is important but it should skew towards academics for career-oriented people. If you think of it as a time allocation, I think 75% academics / 25% social is probably the right balance for the average person. Given the correlation between academics and your first job, I do think it is worthwhile to put in the effort to secure a strong GPA. That said, the difference between a 3.7 and a 3.9 is minimal from a recruitment standpoint but the social cost is generally quite high. So without contradicting myself too much, I’d say shoot for a GPA of 3.7+ but don’t do so if it means having no social life whatsoever. Developing social skills is an important part of college and shouldn’t be ignored.

It moved around a lot through the years. At the start of my career, I thought the number was going to be $20M+, but it adjusted down over time. I mentioned it in another post, but as long as you avoid lifestyle creep, you don’t need $20M to live an impressive lifestyle.

I started looking at some other websites/forums about early retirement. A lot of people seem to be recommending an approach where you draw 3% of your savings per year and invest the rest. Depending on sequence of return risk, this will work for 30-50+ years. Using this model, there were people in their 30s / 40s trying to retire with as little as $1M in the bank. Personally — I think this is absolutely nuts and is too risky / low.

The thing about PE is that your carry pays out many years after you stop working. So you can theoretically have already hit your number, but not know it for certain. Given this, it is risky to retire if you are reliant on future carry payments to reach your target.

So to avoid your actual question as best as possible but still give some sort of response, I’d say I wouldn’t have felt comfortable with less than $5M in the bank (realized, after tax).

I appreciate the kind words.

1. I don’t think think the traveling puts much strain on relationships, but moving cities absolutely does. Early on in my career I had a long term relationship and was moving cities. I personally didn’t think it was fair to ask her to move cities with me unless I was prepared to propose. She was a career-oriented individual and had no friends in the city I was moving to. Ultimately we decided to go our separate ways and are both probably happier as a result. To anyone in a similar spot, I strongly advise you to think carefully about whether this is the girl/guy you want to marry before asking them to move cities with you. Since then I’ve had a number of relationships but often find I enjoy the freedom of being single more than the benefits of a longtime partner.

2. I would say a combination of good decisions and a lot of good luck. I was fortunate enough to be granted very meaningful carry when I was 26 and the fund performed exceptionally well. I went on to get carry in other funds and each of those funds performed well above average. I was promoted along the way and my individual investments generated good returns. On top of all this, I have lived a relatively inexpensive lifestyle, which I outlined to a degree in an above post. Limited expenditures on food and booze, flying economy, staying in the Hampton Inn, and other similar decisions. I certainly wouldn’t call myself cheap — in fact I almost always picked up the entire tab when I went out with friends to dinner and often hosted events at my place. However, I have always lived massively below my means, enabling me to bank part of my salary, my entire bonus, and all of my carry.

Thanks rabbit. Glad you found my posts from years past helpful. Also glad you’re still here in WSO!

Ciao thebrofessor,

I had been contemplating early retirement for many years before actually pulling the trigger. I wouldn’t say there was any ‘event’ other than a substantial liquidity event. However, it was all part of a plan that had been in place for a long time.

What worries do I have? … Well, this is a tough one. I don’t live with any day-to-day concerns that keep me up at night (in fact I’m sleeping great)! However, there are a few risks that I know I will need to navigate in the future: (1) While I am confident I will not run out of money, I have chosen a very different path than had I continued to work and made probably $50M+ over the next two decades. I don’t regret my decision, but I’ll need to always live with the financial “what if.” (2) I suspect I won’t be employable in PE after a few years pass. What if I hate this life I have chosen? What if I get sick of traveling? What if I end up massively bored? What if I get injured and can no longer play sports, workout, and travel freely? (3) Technology / healthcare can change a lot in the next 50 years. I may find 20 years from now I cannot afford the life-extending synthetic heart. Or maybe they invent a really cool piece of hardware to plug me into the metaverse and I cannot afford it, having to instead settle for the 2400 BPS modem equivalent from our childhood days connecting to AOL! The future holds a lot of uncertainty and it will definitely cost money.

I answered this question above in terms of hobbies / travel / etc. But, as I’m sure you can appreciate, it will definitely involve molto Italiano :)

My asset allocation is theoretical at this point. I made a lot of cash last year that I have yet to invest. I’m concerned about putting it all into the market at once in the event of a recession. My future plan is to essentially buy a lot of dividend yielding, large-cap stocks. I should be able to live off interest/dividends of just 1-2% while preserve and growing the principal. At the moment I’m investing $5k / $10k every day with the objective of having it all invested over the next few years. That’s my equivalent of dollar cost averaging. If the market craters at any point during the window, I’ll go all-in with the uninvested balance. I may also take a portion of it and invest in some high growth stocks or throw it in an ETF, but all of that is undecided at this point. It’s still early in the journey. I also rent out a property and have unrealized carry, so I’m at least somewhat diversified in that regard.

I’m happy to take any advice on asset allocation as I’m new to the whole game.

1) That’s hard to say. I don’t think of my career in terms of days / weeks / months. I think of it in terms of key events. There are a few that stand out though:

- When I was 26, I was put on the board of a portfolio company that was underperforming (write down). Over the course of 18 months, did an acquisition that doubled the company’s earnings and put it on a growth trajectory. The partner wasn’t involved because it was a failing investment and I got to basically do an entire deal on my own. Definitely a ‘fake it til you make it’ scenario where I was negotiating a purchase agreement for the first time. Ended up selling it for a strong gain within two years. This company was definitely the one which made me feel like I was actually good at my job.

- When I sold my first portfolio company where I played a key role from the initial deal all the way to the exit. Was a really good feeling having seen it through the full cycle. It was subsequently followed by my first $1M+ carry payment, so the combination of the two had me on cloud nine for awhile.

2) Eh, there were a number of surprises, mostly negative. It was one of the reasons I decided to retire early — I didn’t enjoy working day-in, day-out with some people. On the flip side, it is amazing how fast a portfolio company can go from ‘bad’ to ‘good’ or from ‘good’ to ‘bad.’ I was always surprised when companies that started off as losers turned into great investments, and of course the reverse.

3) Hard to say. If I were being truthful with myself, it would be walking away from unvested carry at a couple different points in my career. In hindsight, I gave up an 8-figure sum. Probably shouldn’t have walked away from that. But I’ve mentally put this behind me and am very happy with where I ended up financially.

This is such an awesome question, especially as someone who has jumped around a lot early on in their career. It is always talked about as a negative on this forum but I see it as being dynamic / flexible / being able to add value quickly. +1 SB

First, this isn’t a farewell post. You should continue to see me here making contributions where I can.  Anyways, definitely a great question!

I’ve seen both paths work. I switched firms a few times, generally due to geography more than anything else. Had I skipped my MBA and just stuck it out, I would be a much, much wealthier man. I even liked the people too, but I really wanted to get my MBA and spend time abroad. So ‘digging in’ and sticking it out just wasn’t for me. Others I know worked their way up from associate to partner at just one PE firm.

I will say, looking across my peer group, one of the biggest indicators of success is overall firm performance versus individual performance. I personally think it is pretty hard to get fired in PE if you’re well liked by your colleagues and getting your work done. It is a ‘team’ sport, so very hard for people to assign blame for bad investments to a non-partner or even a partner. The more talented people do tend to get promoted faster, but not a heck of a lot faster, because promotions often occur around fund cycles anyways. So ultimately when a fund is deploying capital quickly, growing AUM, growing the team, generating carry, this creates opportunities for the non-partners to grow their own wealth and position. If I were to advise someone who was solely focused on climbing the ladder, my best advice would be to hitch your wagon to a successful, growing firm. Obviously much easier said than done and requires a lot of luck, but this seems to be the best indicator of success. (Note: it also means you should consider jumping ship if your firm is struggling to deploy capital / raise a fund etc.).

jmonkey21

Favorite books? From investing/self help/entertainment perspectives.

Great question

I don’t really read books on investing. I personally didn’t find that they were useful in my actual job — most of the lessons taught weren’t applicable to PE or I had already learned on the job.

Most of the books I read are either for pleasure or psychology / personal development (I hate the term self-help, which is often used in place of personal development!) Two that I found very memorable were (1) Moonwalking with Einstein and (2) Stumbling on Happiness.

The first is a book about memory recall. There are a whole bunch of them out there, as well as TED talks, that essentially promote the idea of a memory palace. The idea is essentially using unusual images that you associate with things you need to remember. It works shockingly well and I’ve always been a promoter of the method.

The second is a book about happiness. I’ve read a number of books on happiness but this one is the one I liked the most. I read it very early in my career. It would be impossible to even summarize it appropriately, but I do recommend that everyone takes the time to truly assess what makes them happy in life. Most people are very bad at predicting what will make them happy in the long run, so we all end up in a constant pursuit of things/experiences, only to be disappointed or dissatisfied shortly after getting them. I’ve am constantly doing a lot of introspection and adjusting my life to fit what ultimately makes me happy. In fact, this is how I’ve managed to avoid ‘lifestyle creep’ and was how I came to the conclusion that I should pursue early retirement.

Thanks for the questions itdoesntmatter. To avoid repeating answers, see my response to Symfuhny above (it was the 3rd or 4th question in the thread).

Thanks Holder. I’ve had a number of opportunities present themselves. I’ve had past executives I’ve worked with offer me a finance type role, an opportunity to build a startup with an MBA classmate, and a bunch of other opportunities that wouldn’t typically fit someone with my profile. At the moment I’m enjoying my retirement too much to even contemplate doing something professionally. There are a couple of PE-type roles that I would consider doing, but unless it is something really exciting, I don’t plan on jumping back on the corporate treadmill.

Random, but I’ve also thought about becoming a twitch streamer (for fun, any money would be upside). Ultimately I don’t think I will because I’m not really interested in signing up for days in front of my computer.

I have SO many thoughts on the comparisons between Europe and the US. Could fill an entire thread with them.

1) I don’t like to refer to it as a ‘stint’! I’m still here. Europe, or more specifically London, is absolutely amazing. The thing I appreciate the most is the international aspects of the city. As someone who loves meeting new people and learning about their backgrounds, it is almost as if every single person in the city has a story that is completely unique. This makes social interactions that much more interesting and, from my perspective, the women that much more attractive/appealing. Again, I could write a whole book on this topic, but in general I feel much more at home in London than I felt when living in the US. It is a shame it took me so long to move here and validate something I suspected to be true for more than a decade.

2) Overall, my PE experiences in the US were almost identical to the ones in Europe. The same issues come up in every single deal. You’re negotiating more or less the same things in the legal documents even though the terminology is completely different. People issues are people issues in both geographies. That said, there were a few noteworthy observations:

- It seems 50% of companies have a growth plan of ‘expanding to the USA’ given the size of the market. However, I was surprised at how little people actually know about doing business in the US. Most people didn’t appreciate how certain industries are dominant in different cities (such as Tech in San Francisco, Energy in Texas, industrials in the Midwest). They don’t know how healthcare works, don’t appreciate the differences between federal / state laws, and have no idea what a 401k is. I wouldn’t expect them to know any of this, but there is a very real gap in the market in terms of helping European businesses enter the U.S.

- The PE universe is very small in Europe, or at least in the UK. Everybody knows each other. Furthermore, information seems to flow rather freely. It takes very little effort to find out what multiple was paid for which business or even who is bidding on certain assets. I was surprised at the complete lack of confidentiality across the whole industry.

- Pay in Europe is substantially lower than the U.S. across the board. The difference is painful. But on the flip side, you get loads more holiday time and you can actually use it.

3) I am planning to split my time between the U.S. and Europe. If forced to choose between the two, I would choose Europe for sure. However, it makes sense for me to split time in order to see family, simplify my taxes, and reduce my expenses by leaving London (which is absurdly expensive).

Was expecting @Pizz to ask this.

Yes, sort of. Money obviously doesn’t buy happiness directly, unless Amazon has figured out a way to sell that now too. My viewpoint is as follows:

- There is a base level of money that is crucial to avoid unhappiness. I’m talking about money to be able to afford to live in a reasonable place, put food on the table, take a basic vacation, and generally buy the things you want. Most professionals are above this financial threshold.

- As you go beyond that, money provide incremental happiness. It isn’t life changing, but being able to afford a lot of conveniences certainly improves quality of life. I’m talking about being able to call an Uber instead of taking the bus, hiring a personal trainer, building a home gym, flying first class, eating out whenever you feel like it, and other such things. They are nice to haves and certainly make life more enjoyable, but they aren’t the difference between happiness and depression.

- Lastly there is real “wealth.” Wealth that provides you actual freedom and control over your time and schedule. No more reporting to a boss. No more bending over backwards to meet ridiculous client demands. The ability to do what you want, when you want to do it, without fear of interruption. This, to me, provides actual, real happiness. However, this sort of wealth isn’t just about having money in the bank. There are plenty of people out there that have tens or even hundreds of millions, but no control. So the combination of wealth and being able to take advantage of it to achieve freedom — this is how money buys happiness.

People might find this controversial, but that has been my experience to-date. Most young people are in category #1 striving for category #2. Ultimately they achieve #2 but don’t find themselves substantially more happy and conclude that money doesn’t buy happiness. However, if you’re able to accumulate enough money to achieve #3, then I think happiness spikes.

Note — all of these are ways in which money ‘influences’ happiness. It is not the only factor in the happiness equation. If you are in a horrible relationship, lack self-confidence, or lose a loved one — then no amount of money is going to supplant your unhappiness. But if the foundation is there, money can indeed make you happier.

Entire books have been written on this subject. You’ll need to find what works for your personality as well as the types of people you are trying to befriend. 

First, don’t worry about making friends in college. Pretty much everyone is in the same exact position you are in. They are in a new city with no friends. They don’t know what to expect and want to make friends.

Second, be yourself. Don’t try to fake things. If you start talking to someone and they rave about how much they like basketball, but you don’t like basketball, don’t fake it. If you build friendships on a foundation that is ultimately fake, you will eventually find that the friendship is not very strong or you will have less fulfilling interactions with this friend. Establish genuine friendships and you’ll find them much more sustainable.

Third, participate. You won’t make friends by staying in your dorm room. Do things. Join clubs, Play sports. Invite people over to hang out. Sit down next to people in the cafe and strike up a conversation. Not everyone will respond positively, but you don’t need 100 friends, just a few good ones. Move on if someone isn’t responding well to chatter or reciprocating the friendship.

Do these things and you’ll be fine. Heck, don’t do these things and you’ll still be fine. Either way, you shouldn’t be worried.

We didn’t have too many people go the entrepreneur path, and generally not those who did PE before their MBA. I can think of one person who ‘failed’ before graduation and ended up just fine. The others had varying amounts of success, including raising a ton of VC money and expanding their businesses nationally. One has even sold her business already. They have certainly made more money than any of the PE folks.

I shared a rough financial profile in one of the posts above, including an approximate asset allocation. Regardless, I don’t understand why people are so focused on other people’s net worth. This information really isn’t useful to anyone. Each member of this forum is going to have a unique set of objectives and corresponding expenses.   

Thank you sir!

Thanks Patrick. It was great catching up over zoom after all these years. My how old we’ve become! And I appreciate the gracious offer to suffer through an evening with three young kids — I think I’d rather take my chances on the street!