I’m a pre-mba consultant at a brand-name global firm and I’m looking to transition to finance. I graduated from a top-25 university, and I’m also studying for my CFA (L1). Where would you go from here if you wanted to make lots of money in 10 years? I’m all ears to your advice! What path would you take if you had an opportunity to start of on the right path? Sky’s the limit, so if hedge funds are on the table for me, then give me a plan!! I want a plan that I can stick to, and I also want to make sure its realistic.
And just to clarity, I’m interested in hedge funds, buying and selling businesses in a MM PE or VC context, and other related paths.
If you want to make money, “real” money, become a successful entreprenuer. Whose money do you think you’d be managing at your hedge fund? Personally, I’m starting to think I want to be the hedge fund managers client in 10 years, not their whipping boy analyst…
I just don’t think entrepreneurs make that much money. They need to give up big chunks of equity to investors and VC/PE firms in order to bring in the management talent and build infrastructure. Look at the CEO of friendster, for example. When that website was all the rave, the founder/CEO only had a 5% stake. Sure, there are exceptions (Bill Gates, Google guys), but these were highly disruptive companies that VC firms were competing for (thus the entrepreneurs had more negotiating power). In most cases, it just doesn’t seem to pay, and the risks of going broke are so high. Are you guys in agreement, or do you see building your own businesses as something appealing instead of finance?
Dude, no offense, but you seem very naieve about not only entreprenuership, but finance in general. First, most entreprenuers who are successful by any standard have never met let alone received a round of venture capital. Second, success is relative to your goal. Lots of entreprenuers run ultra small businesses with revenues between 1m-5m and make way more than the average analyst in financial services plus they have rights to any profits. Third, a very very small fraction of people in financial services are making anything remotely close to millions of dollar let alone a million dollars. So if you think your going to just waltz into a multi million dollar PM job two years post MBA, well, good luck. Bottom line one may on average make slightly more than somebody in Operations Marketing or some other business function working in finance, but finance jobs with catchy acronyms for names is no panacea for making a killing.
So are you guys saying that entrepreneurship is the way to go? Funny, because on my side of the fence (consulting, operations, start ups) it is said that finance people make all the cash. Take a step back then… What would I need to do now if I wanted to open up my own mid-market PE shop or Hedge Fund in 10-15 years?
finance ppl who are entrepenours make the money. I agree with Gouman, u seem pretty naive about the world. In finance, u can make lots of money. But on the same side, u can lose it all in a matter of seconds. But my advice is, dope is worth more than gold.
What do you mean is entrepreneurship the way to go? Do you have a legitimate and innovative business idea? If you do, then please pursue it. If not, then get a regular job like the rest of us and save. Starting a hedge fund in 10 years? Umm yeah, first of all, get a job at a hedge fund so you can see how they operate. Work your way up a trading desk to PM. Earn 20%+ return for 3+ years as PM. Then resign, and ask your team to resign, and then wait 6 months for your non-compete to expire. During this time, you should be busy calling all your contacts that you made during your rise to power, asking for potential investors and/or people to join your new fund. Then you have a hedge fund, congrats!
I have to agree with Gouman. Heck, if I had a good business model to pitch and a pinch of seed capital, I sure as shit wouldn’t be looking at the CFA to boost my income. Any business model with the potential for sales in the 1-5mio category would have a much bigger personal NPV than almost any finance job. The fundamental nature of business is… to do business. Entrepreneurship is the root of all wealth and all the fancy financial tricks I-Banks perform are means to transform that wealth from one form to another or from one owner to another (and to make fees in the process).
Why does everyone want to be in hedge funds? Most hedge funds are understaffed places where people have to work too hard and take on excessive life risk. Since they are understaffed "I’m a pre-mba consultant at a brand-name global firm and I’m looking to transition to finance. I graduated from a top-25 university, and I’m also studying for my CFA (L1). " does not qualify you for anything at any hedge funds I know. If you want to make money, you need to be entrepeneurial as pointed out above. That applies equally well to how you conduct your self in your job. Anyway, making lots of money also means making a plan to protect it and a plan to live with it. Both of these are more difficult than actually making lots of money if you have talent.
Successful entrepreneurs may make a lot of money, but on a risk-adjusted basis it might not be so great. Very hit and miss. For every success, you may have 100 failures in starting a business, maybe more. Successful entrepreneurs often have a few failed attempts before succeeding, so a single failure isn’t necessarily the kiss of death. However “being entrepreneurial” isn’t a bad thing. That has more to do with having an attitude of putting things together to achieve a goal, whether that goal is launching a new business, or just a good product within an existing business, or even just starting a new process to get something done in an existing structure. Also, someone once asked John D. Rockefeller Jr. how much money “would be enough.” His reply: “Just a little bit more.” So learning what makes you happy is actually more important to figure out first, because then you can start to figure out how much money you need to achieve it. Otherwise, you’re chasing rainbows until you’re old, tired, and exhausted. My great-grandfather was substantially wealthy, and was once asked how much money he would leave to his son if he died early (which he did). His reply: “I will leave him enough so that he is free to do anything, but not so much that he is free to do nothing.” I liked that. Unfortunately, the maxim that it takes three generations to go from rags to riches, back to rags, holds in my case (well, not rags, I grew up reasonably well-off, but definitely not rich, and I am happy for it)
How to make lots of money? Love what you do and be damn good at it
“How to make lots of money? Love what you do and be damn good at it” Then open a ballet…those things are cash cows.
BosyBillups Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > How to make lots of money? Love what you do and > be damn good at it Step 1: Do what you love. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit.
Start your own business or buy a business. I think it’s the only way to truly create great wealth. Most of my firm’s top clients built their wealth through a business and the richest people I know are all entrepreneurs.
Get into genomics. Screw finance. Get an advanced degree in molecular biology.
FIAnalyst Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > BosyBillups Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > How to make lots of money? Love what you do > and > > be damn good at it > > > Step 1: Do what you love. > Step 2: ??? > Step 3: Profit. Step 2: Do it better then everyone else in the market
You can buy a kilo of pure opium in Afghanistan for $90 and sell it in the US for $240,000. Get started on that.
XSellSide Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Start your own business or buy a business. I think > it’s the only way to truly create great wealth. > Most of my firm’s top clients built their wealth > through a business and the richest people I know > are all entrepreneurs. Agreed. If you’re not creative enough to build a business, buy one where you can see yourself enjoying the work. Otherwise, get a job and move up by working harder than the next guy. Open your hedge fund…like another person said - Why don’t you work at a HF and see how it operates etc prior to opening a hedge fund.
Go to JHU or Harvard Med School and you’re set.