For the umpteenth time, I’m not saying “If you fail twice you should kill yourself”. I’m just saying that maybe you should take some time for reflection before you mindlessly sign up for the test again.
If you failed because you didn’t study enough, will you study more this time? Did your job get easier or less time consuming? (Probably not.) Did your kid leave the house? (Probably not.) Did you quit doing that extra-curricular thing that’s sucking all your time? (Probably not.) Do you think that next year, your wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend will suddenly get less needy and annoyed that you’re studying instead of spending time with them? (I can almost 100% assure you that this will NOT be the case.) Or were you just lazy? (Let’s be honest–this is the truth.) If so, will you still be lazy next year? (Probably not.)
Maybe you put in 500 hours and still failed. Was it because you’re just not smart enough? (It happens–some people just don’t have the brainpower.) Did you not do enough practice questions? (If this is the case, surely you should have figured it out after the first failure.)
You should certainly ask yourself these questions if you’re in your 20’s–the prime of your life. Do you really want to spend hours and hours with your nose in some books instead of having fun? Do you really want all this added stress? Do you really think this will open doors for you? (because in my experience, it won’t)
Whatever. I’m done beating this dead horse. If you want to sign up and spend $650 of your money for the seventh time on the Level 2 exam, go right ahead. Doesn’t affect me one bit. Just remember, “Winners never quit, and quitters never win. But those who never win AND never quit are idiots.”
IMHO - better to be a quitter than an idiot. Especially if that thing you’re quitting will get you nowhere in a hurry–even if you succeed.
Greenman - your posts have always been helpful and even motivational. I have always picked up life truths in your posts that I think the younger crowd here dosen’t appreciate this as much as I do (at least my perceptin -I’m early thirities too and am pushing through all this with a family as well). If you have to throw in the towel then thats what you have to do, but honestly IF you do fail it would be an honor to go through at least one cut at L3 with you.
If lived in NYC and worked as an investment manager and my job (or at least my upward mobility) depended on getting the CFA Charter, I would undoubtedly take it again. But that’s not the case.
And to those who say, “Well, something in your life could change and you’ll wish you had done it.” That’s true, but if something changes, then something changes. And I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.
Let me say this, life is tough…Everybody finds themselves in various bottle neck when they want to acheive something may it be CFA or something else. Having said that, key is to retrospect what went wrong when one take a journey towards CFA. Apply them consicously and not to mention with right plan and determination one can definetly attain the suite.
I also personally feel without these issues may it be personal or anything else it doesnt seems to be challenging (Feels Mundane :() to take up any path, thats me. So my 2 cent would be, if you have a faith that you can make it…may it be 10 times…try it…History tells there are kings who went to war against a country even after failing for 16 times…
In the end of the day, it all comes to individual perception on to how to take up thing when pursuing any situation…However, Never Say Die
There’s truth to this. I had one class in undergrad: Organic Chemistry 2.
I took it once and dropped it half way through because it made no sense at all. For me, it was impossible. So what did I do? I signed up again and said no matter wha happened, I will stick with it.
I went to every single class, did every assignment, went to every TA session, read and reviewed all chapters.
F
Sometimes, some things are not meant to be, in life, relationships, everything. Here’s some good career advice:
i think so too, there are always certain things out of reach, which makes life interesting. if we can do everything we want, there will not be struggles and appreciation of what we have.
sometimes we have to accept defeat, other times we have to pick ourselves up and move on.
it’s hard to say if you have quit your dreams when you quit the CFA program, because there are more than one way to get into the industry and there are mroe than one career prospect in life.
I am 33. I am fat and out of shape. I have zero hand-eye coordination and terrible footwork.
If I practice 15 hours a day for the rest of my life, I will never play in the NBA, nor will I ever compete in a Grand Slam.
And if I spent 15 hours a day for the rest of my life attempting do either of them, then I am one of the stupidest people on the face of the earth, and you can (and should) laugh at me.
