[rock1]

there have been some great stories in this thread...i really admire those that have had to take big risks to get to where they are...i feel like my career progression and financial success have been more "safe"...

Electrical Engineering and Finance majors from Ivy League School-> trading derivatives on sell-side->running a desk at a big hedge fund start up...

My path is not worthy of a long email, but some of the takeaways seem to be...

1. Hard work is imperative in success, but I really believe luck plays a big role...i ended up with a trading internship my junior year in college...i heard one of the guys at tennis practice say that Salomon Brothers Sales + Trading was on campus interviewing today...ran over after practice sweaty/unshaven/in practice garb and caught the interviewer as she was walking out the door...quickly told her about my background and asked if she would interview me...she said she would give me 15 min and take the next train...we talked about college basketball for 15 min, and she gave me the callback which lead to my internship...lots of blind luck here that led me to a career path that probably would not have taken place otherwise...

2. Happiness in personal life always makes it easier to be successful in career...i've felt very good about friendships/relationships/wife/kids during my working career and really feel like it greatly increased my opportunity set of success at work...

3. If you do things just for the money, you aren't going to last...you always hear people say that they would put up with XXX if that meant they could make YYY a year...that sentiment rarely lasts, and it becomes very difficult to "grind out" that paycheck...i understand that many americans feel like they are grinding out their careers...but i am talking about people that have had some financial success...if they have some financial freedom, they are probably not going to last grinding it out...find a career that really does interest you as that will eventually be what drives your success

4.Don't burn bridges because you never know when those people will come back to affect you...i'll be the first to say that it feels good to give someone an F U after they have treated you poorly...but in a lot of lines of work, the upper echelon is a tight-nit group and someone always knows someone else...bite your tongue and leave bridges in tact as they will help you down the road...

5. Make sure morals/ethics are high on your priority list...there are plenty of people who are talented enough to make a good living and retire early if they just keep their head down...but one little mistake blows them up...i am not talking about major ethical breaches, but more those things that everyone recognizes as gray, and justifies with "everyone else is doing it so it must be ok"...those gray lines can be career busters, and even if they arent, they still give a glimpse of character...

6. While it may play a big role, don't let your financial success be your defining personality characteristic...those that let their financial success define them never seem truly happy...

Keep the stories coming.