Tribute to Team A8

I love my team at IESE!! Below, a tribute:

Team Secret Santa:


Some of us at the Christmas Ball:


Our awesome MPO video:


Oh so arresting at the Bar Crawl:


With many more adventures to come!!

My Airport Adventures

I have literally been in the airport the past 2 days. Wednesday night was the IESE Christmas party. Italian Marco brought his Colombian hats, which I pounced on anyone wearing one. Certainly brought back memories of partying in Bogota, and that made me really happy. All that was missing was the salsa. I left for the airport at 6:00h, without having slept a wink, my head still spinning with a very pleasurable feeling.

I checked in and waited for my connecting flight to Paris, fell asleep a few times on the chairs waiting… but one time, I woke up and the flight was “retrasado” (delayed), and I blinked, and the flight disappeared and reappeared in the next gate. Todavia retrasado. So I went there. But when my turn came up, the flight attendant said that my flight had left at 9:30h, and it was 11:00h. So I argued a bit with Air France, then Continental, then American Express travel to book me another flight, and I went back home to the flat, fell asleep in the cab, in the middle of telling something to the driver in Spanish… When I got home, Felix was knocked out! Turns out he had a fun night too.

The next day, I woke up early to catch a cab, but ended up waiting unsuccessfully for available cabs, which there were none. Guillermo ended up taking me to the airport, but by then I was over 30 mins late to check-in, and was worried about missing another flight.

On the flight, I had to sit next to this obnoxious American guy. He kept rudely demanding beers from the flight attendant, then complaining that 4 EUR = 5 USD was a horrible exchange rate, when in fact it was about a 20% discount. I was so embarrassed to be American. Is this what I was coming home to? Then all of his friends started saying these horrible jokes like “How many Spaniards does it take to screw in a light bulb? JUAN!!!” Oh God. Please. I asked the kid’s friend to switch seats with me so that I could get the heck out of the inanity.

Our flight was delayed from Barcelona to Newark. When I got to the States, I tried to call American Marco on my cell to tell him I was here, but realized my Spanish cell phone only allowed emergency calls. So I snuck into a “Meditation Room” thinking they had internet access there & I could IM him at work… I don’t know what I was thinking, but there was no internet access in the Meditation Room…

My first impression being back in the US is that I felt relatively unsafe. Usually I don’t have any fear walking alone in Barcelona, at any hour of the day or night, but immediately upon entering the US, those old fears came back. (Must be all those stories of kidnapping and murder on CNN.) Plus, there are guns here. I don’t know how I feel about that. I don’t want to live in a place where handguns are legal. I miss Europe. On the bright side, I didn’t have to worry about speaking Spanish to everyone… but I was also sad that I didn’t have to speak Spanish to everyone.

So my flight from Newark to Austin was delayed another 3 hours, which made the connecting time a whopping 8 hours. It is currently 23:15h in New Jersey, and 5:15h in Barcelona, and I have been at airports and in the air since 9:00h this morning Barcelona time… I expect to be landing into Austin at 3:30h, day 3.

MBA 2H07 Progress Report & Year End Guidance

You all hold stock in my future. Because I believe we all are connected in the world by some higher force, and whatever I do has a ripple effect that influences so many peoples' lives. And whatever you do has an indirect effect on me. Therefore we all hold stock in one another. And as companies issue guidance and earnings reports, this is summary of the first half of Year 1 MBA programme at IESE.

Past:
The first few months were extremely hard for me. I struggled not only with the change of living in a very different country, but exactly where I was going in life. Uncertainty abound.
-I couldn't speak Spanish well
-I felt like I could never measure up in class
-The workload was horrible & I couldn't understand a thing
-My personal life was a mess
-I missed home & salsa
-I didn't know if I wanted to stay in Spain or go back to the US, and I came here to settle down in Spain
-I was trying to run away from Banking
-I had no purpose in life; I was not transcendentally motivated

Present:
I guess the turning point was Jan Simon's Capital Market class, which was run like a boot camp. It snapped me into shape. To him I will always be thankful.
-I decided to go back into Banking, from Corporate Finance to Sales & Trading
-The expertise I had in that Capital Markets & Managing People actually made me feel I was contributing something substantial
-The same people I always thought I could never measure up to were telling me that I am smart
-Mi ex novio de Colombia me dijo que "te felicito porq q tu espanol va super super bien!"
-I decided to abandon ship on my personal life (no need to be unhappy all the time!)
-I decided to concentrate on my career in Banking... I am very excited about the possibility of working in London! And for a great bank with integrity, client-focus, professionalism and a great work environment... I have a few in mind!

1Q08 Guidance
So what are my goals for next quarter?
-Solidify intermediate term career path (meaning next summer) with an internship in Sales & Trading. (I hope to be a Managing Director & Head of a Sales desk someday...)
-Increase confidence by speaking up more in class. I must let go of this fear that what I say is insignificant.
-To not be afraid to submerge myself into Spanish. This may be my last chance to live in Spain.
-To not be afraid to let go and let the "career river" take me along for a ride. Not everything has to be planned.

By the way, don't read the text in italics if Finance bores you...

Proposed Investment Strategy for next term:
If you had to invest in my life, this is what I would suggest, from an insiders' perspective ;-)
1) Go long the underlying on my professional life. It's a great investment, stable cashflows, and bound to be very bright.
2) Write a naked call on my personal life. I don't expect this to go anywhere, with next semester expected to be harder than the first, and I don't want to deal with all the drama. If anything DOES happen in my personal life, it will most likely not be good, and the underlying will shoot down, rapidly increasing your profit. If nothing happens, you make the premium.
3) Take a bottom straddle option position on my performance in school. Basically, this is betting my performance will stay constant throughout the term. I can already see classes I can excel in, and classes that will be like DA to me... althrough there will be advances in the learning curve, all gains there will be taken by the fact that next semester will be more quantitative than the last...

There you go... the guidance report.
The last day of finals was today. IESE has a tradition to clean out the bar of their entire stock of cervesas after the last final. It was nice to see my friends from Section C and B all together. I stayed at IESE writing my MPO paper with Gonzalo after a few beers. The annual Christmas Party is tonight. And tomorrow, I hop on a plane back to the States. I am excited to be back home, but a part of me is missing Spain already.

My Philosophy

A few days ago, I was sending out the daily Capital Markets update to my team when my email crashed. When I reopenned the mail, I received the latest Career Services interview update... turned down for another Private Wealth Management internship.

I like my signs loud and clear. I, like the markets, do not like uncertainty. And it seems like something is telling me that I am meant to be in Sales & Trading. So far I've got 100% return on interviews in Sales & Trading (even from ones with glaring errors in the cover letters) and 0% return on Private Wealth. Okay, I get it.

And then I took the StrengthFinder 2.0 (cue dramatic music) and the results confirmed my suspicions.

My main 5 strengths were:
Woo: Ability to win people over. Woo sounds like this: "I have made best friends out of people that I have met passing in the doorway. I mean, it's awful, but wooing is part of who I am. I call people and say, 'I love you' and I mean it because I love people easily. All my taxi drivers propose to me." Oh yes....
Communication: Ability to influence & persuade
Positivity: Always looking on the bright side
Empathy: Putting yourself in another's shoes
Includer: An instinctly accepting person. Regardless of race, sex or nationality you cast few judgements.

And then I saw that this was basically the characteristics of a very good Salesperson. Just another sign that I was on the right track. Things were beginning to fall in place.

I think that most people concentrate on 'fixing' their weaknesses, instead of developing their strengths. My philosophy is that I'd go a lot farther in life by simply investing in my strengths.

Mark Twain once described a man who died and met St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. Knowing that St. Peter was very wise, the man asked a question that he had wondered about throughout his life.

"St. Peter, I have been interested in military history for many years. Who was the greatest general of all time?"

St. Peter responded, "Oh, that's simple. It's that man over there."

"You must be mistaken," responded the man. "I knew that man on earth, and he was just a common laborer."

"That's right my friend," assured St. Peter. "He would have been the greatest general of all time, if he had been a general."

So I've decided that I'm not going to rip my head off trying to understand Decision Analysis. I've studied with many engineers, consultants, and even the professor. But I will never be able to compete with all the smart people in my class for a top grade in DA, or ABP. So I am going to spend my weekend focusing on my strengths, ie studying Accounting, Managing People & Capital Markets, because these are the things that will be more useful in my career... where I'm meant to be.

Fishy Spanish Business Deals

So I was writing my paper for MPO when I am suddenly entered into a Skype chat by this Spanish currency trader who had added me to his Skype list a while back. I accepted him into my contact list because he was wearing a suit... and was Spanish... ;-)

Well the conversation went something like this:

[10:10:49 PM] Fernando Cordoba Kruger says: hola quien eres
[10:11:07 PM] Francisco Xabier Garro says: pues yo soy yo. Xabier
[10:11:26 PM] Fernando Cordoba Kruger says: d donde??
[10:11:34 PM] Francisco Xabier Garro says: de españa, navarra
[10:11:40 PM] Ivo says: soy de ecuador
[10:11:49 PM] Ivo says: tu me dijiste para entrar en un negocio...
[10:12:29 PM] Francisco Xabier Garro says: Ingreso a la sala: http://www.hotconference.com/software/conference.php?id=89905729

Hotconference.com??? WTF, mate!

Occam's Razor

There is an age old principle you hear a lot about in Medicine, Occam's Razor, which is paraphrased to say "All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best." We all search for that moment in life where the answer chrystalizes in front of you... when you know, without a doubt, that this is what you are supposed to do with the problem. And it is most often the simpliest solution.

For me, the answer chrystalized when I was writing the second ABP paper. Suddenly I felt the urge to announce that I've finally found my purpose in life. I've rediscovered my love for Banking! I simply love the markets. And I could finally say, with enthusiasm, that "I want to be in Sales & Trading!!!" And this MBA made me rediscover that, with a swift kick in the pants.

At first, I had my doubts about London, and now I am excited of the possibility of moving there and spending the next few years of my life in the United Kingdom. At least I won't be earning in dollars....

And the holiday season is here. What a lovely time of year to be in!

Make that a Great Day for Bankers

I just keep on looking in my inbox and getting interviews! So far I'm 3/3. Only 4 more English banks to go, and the rest are Spanish, which go on a different time schedule. I'm going to be busy in January.... with more dinners, more technical interviews, more trading business cards, more of everything I like as a Banker.