10/30/2017 0 Comments Reflection and ReconnectionCollege applications are a very special beast, forcing you to reflect on the past five years of your life. The task of trying to make your life seem purposeful and deliberate is intimidating to many, including myself, but as I continue my way through the application cycle, I know that the work that I have done throughout the past four years will set the foundation for the rest of my life.
I got to where I am today purely through hard work, starting with five hours a week and gradually working up to the twenty five or more hours a week I do now. Although it has never been easy to be essentially working a part time job outside of piles of schoolwork, it has been incredibly rewarding and enjoyable, and I’m lucky to have found my passion early. This work has also allowed me to maintain a high level of self confidence throughout this process, because no matter what college accepts me (and even if none accept me), I will continue to do the same work that I am doing and do it with the same level of dedication and passion. This promise to myself was something I repeated often in times of self-doubt, especially when comparing myself to the competition that I will be facing. In addition, I also reconnected with Mrs. Carol Loomis, the senior editor-at-large for Fortune Magazine, this weekend. I explained the ISM program, told her about the troubles I was having finding a true long term value investor in Dallas, and updated her on the status of my college applications. Along with some kind words about my Common Application essay, she recommended that I connect to Mr. Wallace Weitz, a value investor located in Omaha, Nebraska. As I read more about Mr. Weitz, I found all the commonalities that we share. To begin, Mr. Weitz and I both started investing at a very young age, with him buying his first stock at age 12 and me buying mine at 13. We also learned in nearly the exact same way: by reading our hearts out and paying close attention to luminaries like Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffet. It will be an incredible opportunity if I am allowed to meet with him, and I am already preparing for the (at least) six hours of preparation that I will need to conduct a successful interview. As I finished up my application for the University of Pennsylvania this weekend, I took a moment to reflect on the events that brought me here as well as where my future lies. I’ve gone from calculating risk in gummy bear games to calling up professionals that manage 1.4 million times more money than I do, and I know that no matter what college I go to or what people I meet, I will always be doing what I love: investing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |