I just finished my SA stint and one quote's really been stuck in my mind 

“But he did not understand the price. Mortals never do. They only see the prize, their heart's desire, their dream... But the price of getting what you want, is getting what you once wanted.”
― Neil Gaiman

Assuming you're someone aiming for the top, the grind never stops so you might as well stop to smell the roses along the way :)

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.
 

to the 18-19 year olds - I'm not venmoing you shit - stop asking for handouts

"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
 

Also, the goal in college from semester 1 is perfect 4.0. This will get you places.

"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
 

I went the other way and turned out better than anyone with a higher GPA. Join Student Government, get on committees with faculty, hold leadership positions in professional and social fraternities, take classes that have outreach with companies in the industry you want to be in, work an on-campus job with high visibility (and preferably autonomy). Attend every travel conference you can and whatever time you have left you can spend on homework/studying. All you need is like a 3.2 or 3.5 to keep most scholarships. 

On scholarships, become friends with the scholarship person, it's amazing how many scholarships get less than ten applicants. Apply for the ones that don't require too much effort even if you don't qualify, most time the people just want to give kids help

 

To say 'all you need is 3.2 or 3.5' is absolutely the worst advice you can give - just be mediocre? No one wants mediocre. Even T.I. made a song called "No Mediocre." No one wants it. 

"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
 
Most Helpful

Enjoy life along the way. If you listen to this forum from high school you will take 7 AP classes a year on top of varsity sports and 4 other clubs in High School to become valedictorian in order to try to get into HYPSM. You'll get 4 hours of sleep for 3 years straight. 95% of you won't get into HYPSM anyways. If you do get in, you'll realize that everyone is a rich, privileged, prep-schooler. But there are some smart people too. Now you get to grind another 4 years to try to keep a 4.0 in that CS+Econ double major you're doing at Harvard. If you're at Princeton your GPA is fucked. Otherwise, you're fine. Along the way in college, you're going to have to network (suck up) to alums at your school and try to get PE/IB internships 3 years in a row. Prep for interviews, buy nice suits, make sure you look good. On top of this student business clubs are a must. Keep that 4.0 up as well. Standard internship procedure is Boutique PE - BB IB or MM PE - MF PE or EB/BB IB. Now 80% of you HYPSM students won't even make it this far. You'll probably switch to a history major and go into academia anyways. But if you succeed, and you're among the 90% of analysts to get a summer offer, you'll become an IB analyst. On your first day on the job, a PE recruiter will contact you for a job you'll pursue in 2 years. But wait! Don't get distracted. Remember that now you have to work 100-120 hours a week for that dickhead MD because you chose Lazard. Somehow, on top of this, you have to recruit for PE. If you are one of the rockstar analysts and your recruiter likes you (don't sleep with them) you'll get to a megafund PE. KKR or Blackstone. You think you analyst days of misery are over. lolno. Get ready for more 80-100 weeks! After 2 years, get kicked out and told to go to B-School. If you're black or latino get into H or S. If you're white or asian get into Wharton. Now, try to re-recruit for PE post-MBA. Maybe 20% of people will get back into MF. Another 20 in MM PE. Rest of you boys can have a good time in your corp dev. Maybe if you're smart you get into MBB. Oh wait, not smart enough. Transitioned out after 2 years. So there you are, at 30 years old, making 130k a year living in some shithole town in the midwest wondering what happened to your life. You were gonna do great things. You were high school valedictorian... Shoulda joined Centerview and become a career banker.

 

And that's why you didn't get into HYPSM. Most of the unhooked people who get in actually enjoy learning and majoring in stuff they're interested in. They only decide to sell out their souls to IB junior/senior year when they realize there isn't much else that makes more. Or they double with CS to satisfy their Asian parents. I know this forum is focused on money and girls but some people like to learn too.

Mr. Rx prospect...

 

I'll give you some meta-advice, i.e. advice about advice.

People who know nothing about you aren't your best resource, because what they tell you might be good advice for them but terrible for you. Think of all of the kids in your extended circle of acquaintances, and of how different they are. One is a stoner who slacks off and smokes a lot of weed, getting terrible grades and doing nothing to advance their life. Another's a neurotic grind who obsessively focuses on straight As but never relaxes, socializes, and develops people skills. Would you give them both the same advice? Obviously not. "Chill out and enjoy life" is not going to work out too well for the first, but probably would help the second.

My personal tendency is to be confident about things I know a lot about, and less so about things I know less about. When I was younger I used to subconsciously map that mindset onto other people. So when someone told me something in a really confident way, and I didn't know much about that thing, I would assume the person knew what they were talking about and put a lot of stock in what they said. Later I learned that some people just talk that way about everything, and make very confident statements even when they're completely full of shit. So I've learned to discount that.

Another thing is that your preferences and life goals change over time. So you can't just plan for the future via introspection and talking with your peers; you also need to look at older people whom you respect and whom you think are similar to you. (And I hate to break it to you, but here's a hint: your parents are probably the closest approximation of the older version of you.) See what these people focus on and care about, and realize that when you're their age you may look at the world the same way. And that plays into the decisions you make now. To make the point another way: what's true in finance is also true in life- maintaining optionality limits downside risk. 

 

You know, many moons ago I was in a meeting with my then boss and a potential client.  My boss sealed the allocation by confidently saying "You know, one of the biggest benefits of this fund is it's stable allocations." I'd just finished writing a whitepaper studying how the extreme dynamism of that fund was one of it's highlights, but he was my supervisor, so I had to bite my tongue.

That experience taught me that there are people who can confidently sell things even if they have no clue what they were talking about.  I don't think he was intentionally lying, I just think that he needed to kill time to finish the deal.

The only difference between Asset Management and Investment Research is assets. I generally see somebody I know on TV on Bloomberg/CNBC etc. once or twice a week. This sounds cool, until I remind myself that I see somebody I know on ESPN five days a week.
 

if you have any medical issues, sort them out. Things that may take 5-6 months are nothing in hindsight.

make time to date girls even if you are one of these guys that doesn't care about girls

get top grades so u can go to a top university

 

Could you elaborate on the second point? I’m 18 and am just curious about your reasoning

 

dating girls will give you confidence and makes you more well-rounded. you'll behave better and you'll be normal. 

i cant put it into words but I just regret not dating. Missed out chances with some hot, smart babes because I always looked forward to the next thing in life. "When I get X, I'll start dating. When I do Y, I'll start dating". Now Im 22 and I've never had a long term relationship (by choice). Not cool bruh. Not that I'm worried but I just look back and think "I could have done better".

For some of my friends its even worse. They've only been with a few girls and now when they date they feel terrible if the girl has slept with 10-15 guys, which is normal. Its all weird. So just go out and try dating. No one knows what they're doing so you can't embarrass yourself. And even if you do, everyone forgets in a few months. Odds are, you may not see these people ever again.

Life hits you when you get into college/university and if you have to focus on your career for the next 3-4 years you don't have much time for it. its better to enjoy it now.
 

 

Not true. If you become a socialist politician who writes books, a person who pushes socialist campaigns on Twitter, or some left-wing edgelord on Patreon, you can make some decent money. If you're the kind who donates to socialist campaigns or listens to leftist podcasts for hours on end, then you'll be poor. It's ironic because making money as a socialist grifter is more predatory than the way normal people make money in a capitalistic society

I’m a fun guy. Obviously I love the game of basketball. I mean there’s more questions you have to ask me in order for me to tell you about myself. I'm not just gonna give you a whole spill... I mean, I don't even know where you're sitting at
 

1. enjoy high school: I didn't know what I wanted to do or even what IB was at that point in time. 

(FYI - I'm still in college right now and have signed an SA at a reputable MM, so this isn't outdated info)

 

I am a working professional and I usually teach my younger brother who is a teenager in high school the following:

Life Skills: Become self-sustaining, Importance of managing expectations to be content with yourself and Finding out what you want to do early

Soft Skills: Being both personable and professional, Presentation and Negotiating

Technical Skills: Programming(VBA, Python, SQL) because he likes tech and teaching him how to invest

The majority of which I wish I learned as a teenager to give myself better footing when becoming an adult was around the corner

 

Try to get laid as much as possible while also getting good grades & staying on top of your extra-curriculars.

Unfortunately, I spent too much time focusing on school and sports during college. Didn't get laid as much as my friends did, but we all pretty much ended up more or less in the same spot career wise. To this date not pursuing more women is a huge regret of mine. With that being said I am not downplaying the importance of school. Give it your all and make those 4 years count dude because those will be the 4 most formative years of your life. 

 

Enjoy your life and study, grad out of Harvard and marry a rich girl. Done keep enjoying life.

„We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” „Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” „Happiness depends upon ourselves.” - Aristotle
 

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I'm here.
 

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