Life After a 5-year Career
The hope is that the best and brightest now will see another era as we saw in the 30’s, as we saw in the progressive era at the turn of the 20th century, where people go into public life. Where they really want to go into government and make this government work, where they want to become teachers.
Eating my dinner of mac & cheese and watching Doris Kearns Goodwin on Charlie Rose from last night, I stopped and replayed this section a couple times. I’m a hedge fund alum, educated all over the place with my parents’ money. I’m 27, and have the rare opportunity to discover a life after Wall Street.
In response to DKG, I don’t believe there will be a reformatting of my peers’ aspirations. We still expect to get what we want when we want it, kinda without even really trying. And we all think we’re the best and the brighest, obviously.
What will come about, I think, is a type of patience. A realization expressed by a friend who thought his 5-year career at a hedge fund would end in retirement, but instead will lead to more work. We will follow up our time on Wall Street with whatever we want, perhaps a bit humbled, no less hungry for whatever motivated us in the first place: some pre-existing combination of greater good, achievement, recognition, and money.
