I try keep my hours to 40 per week, unless some kind of mad pinch. As I was leaving my past job, I spent much of my time on AF and reading news in the last few weeks as the chiefs completely cut me out of anything on the go. Which is fine. But will be back to working my full 40 soon.
Seeing all the guys that put in 12 hours a day, 70 hours+ a week makes me thankful I never went down that path. When talking to friends in that side of the biz, they generally don’t make much more money, but on an hourly basis make signficantly less than I do. I’ll take a slight reduction in pay to have time with my family and a life.
Not that I have any issue with those that plow through the long hours. To each their own. To many work is their life, and that’s their right. Nothing wrong with that.
I think there is a line in office space that sums up the average employee’s actual work.
I focus far to much energy improving myself to be able to make the sacrifices that many do to their employers. If you are self employed, i can see the appeal of giving it your all but giving a 110% day in and day out for the sake of another doesnt fit with me. As i write this, i realize this contradicts my work ethic to everything but work. I must admit, intrigue myself.
^I’m not technically self-employed, but being in such a small practice, and hoping to be the owner of the practice someday, there’s definitely a “self-employed feeling” to it.
Am I the only one here who has the desire to be self-employed?
Depends. If I can get to the point where I’m making mid 6 figures working for the man and not having to worry too much about anything, then no, not really.
Though if I ever find something that I both want to do and have a comparitive advantage at (or can farm out labor and keep the profits), sure I’d like to work for myself. Both of my parents and grandfather owned their own businesses, so working for a big company like I do is something they have no relation to.
I think this really depends not only on how much they are making, but how much they enjoy their work. In my case, putting in 60 hours a week is nothing – I really enjoy the intellectual stimulus and challenge of trying to find undervalued stocks. It’s like going on a grown-up treasure hunt. I work on stuff sometimes 10pm or 11pm at night not because anyone’s holding a gun to my head or I’m worried about performance, but frankly because I just find researching stocks to be that interesting.
The compensation is a nice kicker too and what I like about being at a hedge fund is that your performance is very clear – if you can help make $XX million for your hedge fund, you get to take home some percentage of that. If you make zero, you get zero, and if you suck you get fired. So those situations do make me excited/despondent occasionally but for the most part, the highs aren’t that high and the lows aren’t that low. I overall like what I’m doing, think I get paid to do what I like, so all the other monetary stuff is just gravy. But fact of the matter is that I find that people who are truly passionate AND good at what they do – anywhere in life – tend to see work as more of a lifestyle rather than as a chore, and they very often get paid for their efforts.
I read an article recently in the FT that said workers only ‘work’ for about 1/3rd the time they are in the office on average. It’s not that people are slackers, it’s just the way the brain works. If you spent 8 hours solidly writing reports or working on a spreadsheet without ever taking a break, you would burn out really quickly.
Also there is something to be said for reading random stuff like you find on AF or public news sites or blogs etc. It can lead you to interesting new information and perspectives that can in the long term make you a better employee. Or at least, that’s what I tell myself to justify time spent on here
During the last few weeks before an exam (say CFAL1/2/3…etc)a student always dreams about the concepts that he has learned recently or concepts that he will learn in coming days.
For an entrepreneur every day is like an exam.So it is quite natural that even in his dreams the entrepreneurs are formulating strategies.
I am just a CFA L2 candidate so i have little idea about dreams that a CFA finalist may encounter in their sleep.However i have had strange dreams during my preparations for CFAL1 and FRM (L1/L2 ).
Personally i have a strong desire to be an entrepreneur(this is one of the main reason i am doing my MBA).Almost every single night i dream about some new business idea.
I am in India where a secured job is given more importance than risky entrepreneurship.Thus i cannot start any ventures now.
