Life is a Tragedy – ‘Fooled by Randomness’

So another semester is almost over and I think I bit off more than I can chew. Thirsting for a career change, I found myself overwhelmed by various competitions, the innovation challenge and asset management competition (I opted out for the security analysis due to lack of time), finance information sessions, course work , I-banking seminars, a full time job and throw in CFA level 1 in the mix. No wonder I have no life.

My mediocre performance this semester was not due to the amount of activities but by being fooled by random fluctuations of my egotistical being. My over confidence in the statistics exam (due to my quantitative background) led to my poor performance in statistics, heck I never had to calculate any probabilities in the exam but identify techniques, gees how lame and it cost me dearly. Knowledge of stochastic calculus could not have saved me in the final exam. I don’t know what is more depressing, an average GPA or knowing the fact that breaking into the finance industry in Toronto is extremely difficult given my current predicament. I now have to rely on my ‘superb’ networking skills (note the sarcasm) in order to land an internship at an investment bank. My new strategy cast my net far and wide - look beyond Toronto’s job market and let the chips fall wherever.

On a happier note, I am actually enjoying macro economics lectures. The professor is very inspiring, funny, and intelligent. This is what MBA school is all about. For the first time I never fell asleep in class. I think I’m actually gonna learn something in this particular course, perhaps a lifelong lesson, I can feel it. Basically for me, life is a tragedy, the stock market is down, I’m down, CFA is next week and my first economics assignment is due next week. But as Benjamin Elijah Mays once said – "The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach." It’s comforting to know at least I have goals whether I attain all of them in this lifetime is yet to be seen.