To have a spine

Readers,

Hope all is well with you. It is March, and it is snowing here in New York (aand.. I think the office is closed tomorrow. Will probably still come in normally, but it might mean a quieter Monday.)

I am taking a Mindvalley class called the Journey to Personal Mastery by Srikumar Rao, and it has been very interesting and relevant to my life right now. A case that has recently filed, that brought together a lot of effort from everyone, had its deadline pushed back by a week a few days before the previous deadline. And in keeping with the "good, bad, who knows?" lesson, that night I actually got to chat a bit with Lori thanks to the deadline getting pushed back. I was able to give her a dark chocolate kit-kat, (yes, I'm Japanese (jk), so I give out chocolates during Valentine's), and listened to her stories on how she not only once, twice, but three times selflessly put her needs aside to help random strangers in New York, giving out food and calling the ambulance/911 for emergencies. I told her that I was really touched because she truly exemplified someone who was not living in a "me-centered universe", and I told her that it was rare. I was very happy to hear about these acts of love during the Valentine's, and truly it was a good thing that the case filing deadline got pushed back!

Anyways, Srikumar hit me again with his spot-on anecdote today. He asked me to imagine if my firm was laying off people, and I was able to stay employed but needed to have my salary cut in half, what my response would be. Would it be: "Well, screw this, I will start looking and will dip the very moment I find a suitable job" or would it be: "Thank goodness I'm still employed - I'll figure out a way to reduce my expenses, while thriving and doing my job so well that the firm can be where it was before, or even better!"

He made me realize that I might have adopted an improper mindset all along. Why can't I be curious, enthusiastic, and commit only to giving myself and the firm the best quality work, and then some? And why can't I also be looking into other opportunities at the same time? When I eventually part with the firm, I want to be able to look at myself and look at the work I have done, and I can honestly tell myself that I have given my best and I have made a difference to the firm and to the people I work with. And might as well be a killer analyst while I'm trying to make a difference. So my mission statement, my mandate, is as follows: To enthusiastically maintain my well-being and focus on my happiness, leading to my productivity and ever-improvement as an analyst. I affirm to be curious and creative, and to happily and straightforwardly tackle tasks and plan work strategies so our work can be done in a highly effective manner! And to keep the conversation going, to keep reaching out to people, and pave my way toward my next career, having contributed significantly to my firm!

Lastly - an ideal boss. I'm tired of thinking and focusing attention on the things that are not working well, and therefore, I shall write about the boss and the mentor I truly looked up to, Alex Wang. Alex was my second round interviewer at Atalaya, and essentially became my mentor, advisor, and sponsor throughout my summer internship there. Even though I don't miss the hours, I did miss my interactions and learning with him. For one, it helps that he is someone I really look up to: He thinks very fast, is very confident, is very sociable, is very smart and persuasive generally (can probably sell me a broken down vacuum cleaner for five hundred bucks), and he genuinely cared for me. He taught me what it means to have a backbone, but also when to be confident in oneself and easily admit one's mistake. I truly learned from him that a sign of confidence is to be relaxed and easygoing about your possibility of making a mistake - you won't get fired! Just double-check it and apologize if it's really your mistake. Not the end of the world. He is truly a man of the people too - when he saw Dom in Treehaus he immediately recognized that she was in duress, and immediately checked in with her to offer her help. Finally, I will never forget when he gave me the "spiel" about Atalaya the very last day. He stood up for me and told me to stand up for myself, where Drew was imposing conditions and just very transparently pointed out my "flaws" and "defects" and "unpromotability to a principal". He told me to not buy into the bulls**t, have a spine, and go elsewhere instead of mindlessly being bent and shaped about by a firm.

So thank you, Alex. Unfortunately I do not have a boss/sponsor/mentor/advisor like yourself right now, no one as close as being as cool as you are. Therefore I shall be my own boss, I take what you've taught me so that I stay sociable, stand up for myself, being thoughtful and caring of others and especially for people "under" me, to be confident, charming, and to have a backbone. I am so glad that you took me under your wing, and I can't wait to grab dinner with you at the end of this month!