During a recent career information session, I had the opportunity to chat with some high-level directors and vice presidents of major financial institutions. Two of these conversations – one with a Vice President at Goldman Sachs and the other with a Managing Director at UBS – have provided the inspiration for this post and a previous post.
I’ve always been a fan of non-fiction. I’m constantly reading a book outside of my required reading for class. I can safely say that at least 90% of the books that I have read in my life have been non-fiction. As soon as I could start checking out books, I set out to devour every biography, autobiography, how-to book, and historical narrative I could get my hands on. While I’ve recently added personal development books, personal finance books, and a slew of blogs to my reading queue, the focus has remained on non-fiction. I have nothing against fiction and have enjoyed several of the fiction books I’ve read; I just am naturally drawn to learning about historical events.
It goes without saying, then, that when a Managing Director from UBS stressed the importance of learning about the people you seek to emulate, I felt a tinge of satisfaction about all the year I’ve already spent doing just that. As the topic of the information session was careers in capital markets, the names Warren Buffet and George Soros immediately came up.
- The Oracle of Omaha
The point that the UBS Managing Director isn’t confined to just investing mavens. The idea is simple and can be applied to any area in which you seek to excel:
1) Discover what traits you wish to develop in yourself
2) Find a person who has excelled at developing these very traits
3) Learn all you can about this person to see how they came to possess these traits
I’ve always had a curiosity about US Presidents, specifically Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt. Both of these men embodied traits that I find appealing. With Jefferson, I found his unquenchable thirst for knowledge and learning for the sake of learning and the many experiments he undertook at Monticello inspiring. With Roosevelt, his craving for adventure and his willingness to fight for what he believed in impress the heck outta me. As such, I’ve set out learn all I can about these two men in the hopes of uncovering what motivated them to seek out their challenges and what gave them the strength to persevere until they met their goals.
- Bully!
What about you guys? What kind of traits are you looking to develop? What kind of people are you studying to learn about how they accomplished their goals?
