Adding Value? - Rich Handler

Read an article recently in which Jefferies CEO Rich Handler said:

"Nobody gets wealthy because their goal was to become rich. It is always a bi-product of being passionate about working with others to create something that adds value to people’s lives."

How do you find passion in finance in adding value? Is the relationships? Sense of purpose?

 

It kind of makes sense but not entirely. You cannot optimize your way towards being a multi-millionaire from the beginning. Maybe some people can but they are the outliers.

For most of us other folks, being wealthy becomes a function of how good we are at something and how demanded that thing is in the human capital market, along with our discipline (grit/consistency/dependability). Be it banking, stand up comedy, medicine, or any other industry in the world. 

The idea of collaborating with people and creating something of 'value' can seem interesting - but I am not sure it can help in doing the grunt work for years. Instead, focusing more on becoming the killer at your job will help you cope with the extra stress that comes with the work. Collaboration and creation are not fluffy as it sounds in this quote. And, not every collaborative and innovative person gets rich. But I think most people who are great at what they do and have a market that demands their skills, generally tend to make considerable money. 

And stop trying to find passion, relationships, and purpose in finance. It is a job. Not a walk down a poetic road. Focus on being great at what you do and you will get the bandwidth, resources, and confidence to pursue things that you might be truly passionate about. Also - passion is not a perpetual phenomenon; you can be passionate about something today and bored with it in a few hours, days, weeks, or years. Putting impetus on being great at that thing can still keep you going instead of some intrinsic idea of passion. That aim indeed can put you on a virtuous cycle. Besides, just collaborating and innovating cannot help you put out great work at the desk - you have to be good at what you do or else you will feel like an imposter all the time. 

Finance can help you attain some solid personal attributes - discipline, working under stress, and objectivity. Relationships and a sense of purpose - I doubt that. Again - no job is supposed to give you all of that. This is like looking for the perfect partner. It doesn't work that way most of the time. 

Richie might have wanted to say something more profound - but I will go with my Ape Analysis. 

Feel free to disagree. 

 

Christ I couldn't agree more. I cringe every time I see a comment from him on a finmeme page. And then what's worse is that all these dick riding undergrads and BO folk enable him more. Later on I made the mistake of looking at his female offspring's page and almost threw up my coffee. If Rich wants to add value, he needs to start with his daughter's face. 

 

Bezos has always been focused on the consumer and made it his only mission in life to sell a product that would satisfy their wants despite his company initially suffering losses. I find it hard to believe that he enjoyed the process of getting to know their buying habits but rather finding a model to exploit this psychological tendency, make his company a recognized name and him wealthy. 

 

The entire notion of "nobody gets wealthy because their goal was to become rich" is complete bullshit. Yes, there are plenty of people who made fortunes while doing something they are deeply passionate about, but the vast majority of self made rich people didn't stumble into their money by doing what they love. They worked their asses off and while money may not have been their only motivator, it was very important. I mean, look at investment banking MDs and tell me how many of them didn't have a goal of becoming rich.

Jordan Belfort famously said that he initially wanted to be an orthodontist and on the first day of orientation, the head of the department said "if you are here to get rich, then leave. the golden era of dentistry is over". He immediately stood up and left the school, went to wallstreet, and proceeded to make 50 million a year. Not idolizing him, but he is a walking proof that a desire for money and nothing else, can actually lead to getting rich. 

TLDR: Rich is full of shit

 

I generally agree. Money is a powerful motivator for some. Not all have access to making big money, so the ones that do may work for $$$ even if they don't particularly like every aspect of the day to day. Then, there is also a particular category of successful titans: obsessed. The best HF managers are obsessed, Warren Buffett was obsessed and so on...

There is an adage for work and life comprised by three main factors:
a) How much money you make in a position ($$$)
b) How much you love working in the position (passion)
c) How good you are at the position (skills)

Most people enter IB for instance having the skills and wanting the money, but not everyone loves the work. Usually you can hit 2 of these - finding 3 is rare. Some people just do it all for the money and hate it. Its important thinking about these factors and weighing them for each position we take on in our life. Some people could have multiple streams of income and really love some work (maybe volunteering on the side - no $$$, all passion). 

Also, just thinking of people that were obsessed - I'd say Mike Milken was very obsessed in the 80s when he used to be in finance. He definitely had a), b), and c) going for him before he went to prison. Its too bad he skirted the law - I would have loved to seen him rise up and conquer in finance.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

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