I fell in love with investing the way many people probably do… in a raging bull market! I was in high school during the froth of the dot com bubble. I had a job working evenings and weekends as a dishwasher at a restaurant where some of the waiters were talking about stocks, and like the proverbial shoeshine boy I decided to put my paychecks into the market. Everything kept going up so it was really fun and I thought I was smart. I ended up timing the market perfectly – by accident – because I sold everything when I had enough to buy a used car. Not long after, the bubble popped. When the stock market crashed I was left with a perfectly good car and a passion for investing that has since turned into a career.
Studying at McGill gave me strong intellectual and analytical foundations in finance and economics. I had the privilege of being a teaching assistant for Dr. Reuven Brenner and a research assistant for Dr. Gregory Vit – two outstanding and generous professors. More than anything what they really taught me was to be curious, insatiably curious, and how rewarding it can be do to work that you’re passionate about.
Two important lessons I learned at McGill that I’d love to pass on:
- Don’t ever give up. I was failing a calculus class that I needed to pass to get into the finance program. I went to see the professor about a practice question a few days before a final exam that would make or break my whole grade. He said to me “you don’t know how to do this yet? You’ll never pass my exam”. That got me fired up so I slept in the library for the next few days and ended up passing. When I was looking for a job I was told “no” by every single bank and consulting firm in Toronto and Montreal. But you know what, it doesn’t matter how many “no’s” you get, you only need one “yes”, and in the end I found one. After graduating my first day at work was at Rockefeller Center in the beating heart of Manhattan and I just couldn’t believe how lucky I was.
- What makes McGill great isn’t just the best professors, it’s the best students. It’s not just the quality of the person up at the blackboard that can make you better at a place like McGill, it’s the smart, motivated, curious classmates to your left and right that will lift you up and push you forward. They are also the ones who will help you get your first, second, and maybe third job after graduation, so stay in touch, and most of all don’t forget to pay it forward.
Bottom-line: Persistence makes you lucky, and nurture your network.