Winning with Friends is better than Winning Alone
Micro-dose of life & career advice to start your week
Hey friends,
Since we were kids, we’ve been designed to compete and win it all. Competing with fellow classmates in elementary school, competing to win a gold medal in high-school, competing to get the highest GPA and that Goldman Sachs offer in undergrad, and so on and so forth. The issue with this mentality is that sometimes you lose track of the true definition of happiness. In most cases, winning everything for yourself feels great, but I would argue that sometimes, winning silver medal or 2nd place with your friends will give you more happiness than winning gold alone.
Winning with friends is better than winning alone.
Recently, I had an opportunity to participate in a new project where the outcome was pretty much guaranteed to be a success. It required an upfront investment on my part and I had a fixed allocation allotted to me that I couldn’t exceed. Initially, I decided to invest alone and reap the benefits for myself, but for some reason, I changed my mind in the last minute. Instead of going at it alone and “winning gold”, I invited a few of my closest friends to join me on the venture. This meant that my total return on the investment would be cut by over 50%, but, we would all win something, and winning something together is worth a lot more than winning it all alone.
As you see opportunities in your life, from investments to trips to enjoying the simple pleasures in life, share those winning opportunities with your friends. I guarantee you that not only will you be happy in the short run, but you will ultimately win big, together, in the long run.
All the best.
Sherjan
Videos this Week 🎬
Who's Hiring: Stedi, Canva, Charles River Ventures: Who's Hiring?! This week I cover three awesome roles at Stedi, Canva, and Charles River Ventures
How to Win Your Manager's Trust: Winning your manager's trust early in your career is one of the best things one can do. Managers have multiple people reporting to them and a lot of the times they are flying blind and don't have much visibility into what's happening in the streams below them. Keeping your boss updated and on top of things will make their life easy and make you look like a true team player. Whenever you make your boss's life easier, you'll be making your own life even better.
Sleeping at Career Center for Goldman Sachs: One of you asked me for a fun story from my recruiting days. So here's one where I had to sleep at the career center to make sure I had a proper phone line for my Goldman Sachs phone interview. Doing this most!
Mentor Hour: Canadians Breaking the Barrier - University of Toronto DECA: Hosted a Mentor Hour with my most awesome friends at DECA at the University of Toronto. Love motivating my people from Toronto, my favorite group to speak with. We talked about breaking into super competitive careers, starting businesses, pushing the frontier, breaking barriers, and just being good humans. Loved every minute of this chat.
Mentor Hour: Private Equity & Venture Capital - McMaster University: Hosted a Mentor Hour with my good friends at McMaster University's DeGroote Private Equity and Venture Capital club. We chatted about day in the life of Private Equity and Venture Capital Associates, pros and cons of pursuing a career in each, and best paths to breaking into these extremely competitive industries.
My Personal Mentor 🎙
Christina Nguyen - Rising at LEK and PwC and Transitioning to Strategy & Operations (listen here)
In today's episode I have my good friend Christina Nguyen. Christina studied at USC (some say the 2nd best school in LA) and always had the love and passion for pursuing a career in consulting. She joined PwC as an intern but found LEK to be a better fit for herself and what she wanted to do long-term. After a few years at LEK, Christina left to join industry and help companies with their overall strategy and operations. Tune in and listen to Christina's story.
Quote of the Week
Meet one new person every day.
Resources 📚
🚀Breaking into Investment Banking, Consulting, Accounting - Enroll Here
📄Build the Perfect Resume - Free Course - Enroll Here
🙋🏽♂️1-on-1 Coaching with me - Enroll Here