Older but none the wiser...
Another year passes me by!
Let’s start out with the happy parts of the post first - a very happy new year to everyone!
I’ve turned 27 (oh no.)
I’ve come to that age in my life where I’m not exactly very old but I can’t call myself young anymore (27 is really weird!) - I don’t get the TikTok / Reels generation, but I enjoy doomscrolling on Twitter as much as I did in undergrad. I hate clubbing but will occasionally enjoy the nightout with the right friends partying. Paradoxical in every sense of the word.
Everyone from BSchool and Undergrad are getting married and having kids, while I’m the kid in my life. The irony is not wasted on me!
I’ve called it quits on Investment Banking
On a personal news front, the biggest development this year has been to get out of Investment Banking and into Private Equity. While everyone was cribbing about 70 hr weeks on Twitter, I was smirking at the normies who haven’t ever done multiple weeks of 18 hr days, 7 days a week (~100-120 hr weeks).
While I have no problems with 70 hr weeks, 100+ hrs has an impact on life that is only visible on the weighing scale (I put on 15kgs in my time at IB :) )
On the terms of blame, I blame the industry altogether and no particular bank. It is very clearly a commoditized industry atleast at a junior level (commodity being analyst labour), differentiation as a result is much hard and folks try all sorts of bending backwards with “visibility” and “optics” at work (god only knows what that means!)
Investing is hard
I had to make the hard choice of actually going for a PhD or staying back in India for the long term. Continuing in IB was a clear no go because of the work-life imbalance implications on my health. The choice was made for me due to a personal need of being close to my parents, and I thus ended up in Private Equity. It’s been only a couple of months but what’s very obvious is that this is hard.
Not hard in terms of hours put in, but intellectually hard. Constantly being aware of my biases and having them pointed out in investment committee presentations is not as fun as people make it out to be.
The fun part of the job is however in the reading and learning bit. I get to sit and read for a living, do armchair thinking, work with incredible promoters, and get paid for doing what I love.
The people are crazy smart - Kunal and Sanjay particularly - are amongst the smartest people I’ve had a chance to learn from. More importantly, they are really nice people to work with and have wholesome lives outside work and no air of arrogance. All I can say is that I’ve been really lucky to have a chance to work with such people.
What I plan to do better in 2024
A new year by its very social construct nature, gives us a chance for a clean slate, a fresh start. I hope I’m able to make the best of it in some of these areas in this order:
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Health - I’ve thankfully already started the reversal in the damage that my messed up work hours brought about; Goal is to make progress towards getting off my arse and move around more in some form. Hopefully I enter 2025 in better shape.
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Investing - I’m a dumb dumb as far as investing is concerned. I want to expand my circle of competence to Healthcare and Financial Institutions over this year. Best way to do this would be to be an apprentice to the people who know how to do it at my workplace
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Social - Get back in touch with my friends again now that there is some semblence of boundaries with work. I want to spend more time listening to the boys (particularly Rava) drop politically incorrect statements, go on atleast one vacation trip with the boys, and spend more time with my loved ones.
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Learn how to drive - As insignificant as this sounds, I want my driver’s license for 4 wheelers. I’ve relied on Ubers long enough but now I’d really like to try driving myself for a bit.
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Blog regularly - This post comes after an 8 month break on this substack. I’ll try to do a post a month (at most 2 months for margin of safety!) and keep
Hopefully I’ll do atleast some of these going ahead. Chances are I’ll do none. But, the goal is to build in the bull case systems where I do all of it. God only knows what will happen, I’ve always been bad at predictions!
Till next time!