Some people complain about being in the office all the time as a way to boast how much they work. You see bankers doing this all the time "I worked 100 hours last week!" You see new traders doing this "my boss goes home at 5pm, but I stay till 8pm clearing the books." Middle office "I was in till midnight cleaning up the trades for that idiot trader." And Tech "I had to pull an all-nighter to get that new build in for the desk." Some of the idiots will think you're a hard worker and will reward you for the hours, but I assure you this is not the best path. Plus only an idiot brags about all the free labor he's giving away.
People often call me lucky (or a genius, depending on who you ask) because they perceive me as not working all that much but reaping the benefits of "lucky moves," connections, etc. I assure you I probably work as hard as anyone I know. I just don't let anyone know. When people say "you make everything look easy" the key is making it "look" easy. There's hours of research, reading and work that go into every "lucky" thing that happens. Things don't just line up for those who look lucky, chances are they've set themselves up for it when you weren't looking.
Go and count the number of people you know who get up at 4:30am every morning. Now go count the number of people you know who got up at 6am every day in college. How many do you know? I bet I could bet zero for most of you. I go home at night at the same time or before everyone I know. I get in at the same time. People perceive me as knowing more and getting more done than can be imaginable. Now you know why. Guess what, they don't.
Clearly I'm biased, but I think this is really the way to go for a shot at the top. Perception is everything, and the guy who makes his job look easy trounces the guy who seems overburdened by the job he already has.
Now the bankers are going to be whining at me about the requisite "face time." By now you probably know my opinion on the "old boy's club" of banking where you need to put in face time. Well, the industry's starting to wake up. It's the rainmakers who get their comp. You can put in face time, but it will only get you so far. If you're content with being the mediocre but well comped guy, then that's fine. If you want to be the next rock-star private equity guru, well, you can't just do what everyone else is doing. Do the Blackstone guys and KKR's Kravis make it look easy? You bet they do.
Success comes in many forms, but in the end you have to get things right more often than your competition or be perceived to get more things right than your competition. You can't do it forever on luck alone. Maybe you've been blessed with true genius, but then you wouldn't need my blog. Most people have to work for it. As long as you have to work for it though, you might as well make it look easy.
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2 comments:
I agree. Do your job and do it good but sometimes u need to just make it a bit noticeable.
By no means would I suggest not to make it noticeable. It hardly pays to be modest or to give credit to others. Especially never attribute anything to luck. People might actually believe you if you act modest (yea, people are stupid like that sometimes). I would suggest one be almost boastful about the quality and the expediency of one's work, just not about how hard one works.
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