Thought provoking quotes

I am fascinated by successful people. I can’t really define success other than I think I know it when I see it. A few seemingly unrelated articles/quotes this week have really gotten me thinking:

1) In this week’s Economist is a terrific special report on talent “one of those irritating words that has been hijacked by management gurus. It used to mean innate ability, but in modern business it has become a synonym for brainpower (both natural and trained) and especially the ability to think creatively. That may sound waffly; but look around the business world and two things stand out: the modern economy places an enormous premium on brainpower; and there is not enough to go round.”

2. In a recent post entitled “Hit Em Where They Aint”, Uncle Bill talks about a “young, bright, pretty, perky” girl he met who was successful because she was competing against people who “were fat, balding and boring. Her career and her salary took off.”

3. Finally, also pointed out to me by Uncle Bill was advice I had read in a Ben Stein column about how to “Succeed in Hollywood – or anyplace else”:

There's No Such Thing as Being Too Likeable

Remember how it was in high school? The friendliest, most self-confident kids got to be chairman of the student council and had a crowd hanging on them. Well, it's exactly like that in real life in Hollywood (or anywhere else). Men and women gravitate to those who are likeable and easy to be around.

Think of your own bad self. Who do you like to be around? Sourpusses or friendly, encouraging, smiling people? That's how it is in the workplace, too.

Your likeable self is the self who gets ahead. Remember it, and win in Burbank, Beverly Hills, or Bergen County.

Year in Review and Plan for Next Year

It’s been two years since I graduated college (I still think in terms of academic years). The first year was extremely tough: I hated my job, hated where I was living, didn’t have a lot of friends, and I was wracked by anxiety because of all this. Year number two could not have been more different.

This past year has been, without a doubt, the best year of my life. In 2005/2006, I moved into a great apartment in New York City and fell in with an amazing group of friends. These are people that know how to have a great time – and we certainly did lots of that this year! Equally important though, nearly all of them are very successful in their academic and professional careers. They are also a bit older than I am (mostly early 30’s) which is good, I think, because I’ve always tended to get along best with people who were a few years older. For the first time in my life, I feel a real connection with my friends – I feel closer to them than I do my family (something I plan to address this year, actually).

Where this year fell short was in the professional sense. Instead of getting all worked up about how much I hated my job, I kind of fell into a brain dead complacency. I got my work done but I had very little focus. I still read the WSJ and the Economist but I never focused on it – I was just going through the motions all year. It really hit me when I was interviewing for an assistant controller job at a hedge fund recently. The Controller asked me what I knew about CDS. As someone who claims to read the Wall Street Journal every day, how could I not explain what Credit Default Swaps are? I have read numerous articles about it but yet I couldn’t tell him what they were! I was reading the paper but not actually retaining anything – this is a huge contrast to the way I was in senior year of college. I would spend countless hours at the library just reading… and I had such focus! I remember one day that I became interested in offshore trusts (weird, I know) and spent all afternoon reading in the law library about the subject. Time just flew by when I would read about this stuff. I can hardly think of a single moment in the past two years where I have found that kind of focus or had that kind of curiosity.

Some general goals I have for myself for this year:

1. Regain that old focus and intensity I used to have. I want that to manifest itself in three primary areas:
1. Work: I want to do a great job at work
2. Workouts: I want to have great, intense workouts and I want to gain at least 5 pounds of muscle, but preferably 10. (Right now I am approximately 156 lbs)
3. Education: I need to finish the CPA, begin studying for GMATs, and focus on really reading the WSJ and Economist

2. I need to maintain the great friendships I have formed over the past year and I hope to cultivate new ones.

3. I want to come out to my family

4. I want to try having a “serious” relationship – something I have yet to do

5. I want to avoid “lifestyle creep” this year. I will be making considerably more money but the majority of it should go to savings because I am doing just fine on what I make now