by Brian DeChesare Comments (85)

My Life Story, Part 5: What Do You Do When You Start to Hate Your Business? (2013 – 2016)

My Life Story, Part 5

Have you ever read an amazing autobiography?

They’re rare.

Most famous people aren’t great writers.

But when a stunner comes along, it can electrify you.

My favorite is Andre Agassi’s Open, where he recounts his journey to become one of the best male tennis players of all time – and how it made him hate the game.

When I was younger, that sounded ridiculous: How could you spend your entire life on something but also hate it at the same time?

But then it happened to me.

Not so ridiculous anymore.

Part 5 of my life story explains how your passion could turn into your prison.

And how you might escape, even when the only “exit opportunity” looks like a leap off a cliff.

Plus:

  • Why you should be very careful of hiring “outside consultants.”
  • Why listening to your customers can be a HUGE mistake.
  • The #1 reason why you should not start a business, and why no one ever tells you this dirty little secret.
  • The most powerful strategy for success in sales, marketing, and dating, and why it’s the opposite of what you might expect.
  • And yes: Korean girls. A lot of Korean girls. OK, at least one Korean girl.

Recap – Previously in Brian’s Life Story

In Part 4 of my story, which covered 2011 through 2012, I had conducted a series of experiments in the Laboratory of the Absurd:

  • I released a web series that had great production values but which failed to reach beyond the M&I audience or get us a deal with HBO.
  • I hired ~10 guest writers that, despite making some great contributions, ended up making my job more time-consuming and stressful.
  • And I started dating the craziest girl I’ve ever met, who asked for a $6,000 gold bracelet within three months of meeting her.

By the end of 2012, I had come to my senses.

I didn’t continue with the web series, I scaled back the guest articles, and I defeated Crazy Girl and her boss, Sauron, by tossing the bracelet into Mt. Doom:

nice-try-sauron

I planned to refocus 100% on business, partially by working with “Yoda,” the founder of a marketing agency I had hired (They’ll be known as “The Marketers” in this story).

He recommended increasing my prices, encouraging more up-sells and cross-sells, and dropping all my side projects.

My goal was to grow sales by 10x within 2 years.

Revenue in 2012 was up only ~35% over 2011, so I had a lot of work to do – quickly!

Sleepless in Seattle

I started 2013 by leaving New York and moving to Seattle.

I needed a change of pace, and Seattle is nearly the opposite of NY.

Also, several friends had moved there to launch eGraphs, a startup that let fans get autographs and personalized messages from athletes and celebrities.

I put my plan into action as well: I would raise the prices of our main modeling courses in April, and before that I would revamp the Excel course, which badly needed a facelift.

And then I would revamp all the other courses, re-launch them, and raise their prices as well.

Meanwhile, The Marketers were helping me with new sales and marketing strategies, email campaigns, and paid advertising on Google and Facebook.

This first launch in April 2013 went very well, but then I got blindsided by fate.

Startups: Survivorship Bias

Within weeks of my launch, eGraphs ran out of money and shut down, and most of my friends returned to NYC or California.

I stayed in Seattle because I didn’t want to move yet again.

So I tried to enjoy my free time there, but I found myself increasingly bored.

You can easily meet new people and mingle with random groups in cities like London and NYC, but Seattle requires a lot more time and effort.

So I decided to go away for the summer and spend a month visiting friends in Asia.

Back to Drug Dealing in Korea

On a whim, I contacted the original Korean girl who drew me to Korea (“The Drug Dealer”).

In Part 2 of my story, we met at a speed dating event in Beijing, and then I followed her to Seoul… where she ditched me upon arrival.

But I figured things might have changed in the past few years, and you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

Within a day of meeting, we started dating again.

For the rest of 2013, I alternated between the U.S. and Korea before finally moving back to Seoul in 2014.

From the start, this relationship was like a Korean drama: constant ups and downs, lots of melodrama, and full of illogical plot twists.

Not only did the long distance make it awkward, but she changed her mind on major issues approximately 10-20x per day.

One day, she would propose marriage; the next day, she would try to jump off a balcony because of “depression.”

There were no gold bracelets, but her constant mood swings consumed a lot of energy.

Match of the Century: Product vs. Marketing

Meanwhile, a conflict started brewing between myself and The Marketers.

They were happy that I raised prices and re-launched the products in April 2013, but they wanted me to keep doing that and spend 100% of my time on marketing.

From their perspective, the BIWS courses were “good enough,” and it was silly to improve them when no one had explicitly asked for it.

They wanted me to write elaborate email sequences, create new package deals, spend more money on Google and Facebook, and even use postal mail to advertise.

Some of their suggestions were reasonable, but it seemed short-sighted to focus 100% on marketing.

For one thing, the hiring market was changing, and case studies and modeling tests were becoming more important.

And while our courses were “OK” for case studies, they also had some shortcomings:

  1. They didn’t explain how to use financial modeling to make investment decisions and advise clients.
  2. They were too focused on investment banking and didn’t have enough coverage of private equity, equity research, hedge funds, etc.
  3. They were too S.-centric and too focused on technology companies.

But I didn’t want to jump into a multi-year project without testing my ideas first.

So I experimented with the Dell case study and the NAV model case study for Ultra Petroleum.

I felt they were far better than the older material, but they also took ~5x more time to create.

That meant that I would have minimal time for marketing if I wanted to go all-out with this effort.

So I had to make a decision going into 2014: Should I listen to The Marketers or my instincts?

Never, Ever, Ever Getting Back Together

After I moved back to Seoul in early 2014, The Drug Dealer “lost interest” in me within a few months.

It felt a bit like déjà vu.

I could have left the country, but I wanted to stay for at least a year and make the most of it.

Plus, without the relationship drama, I’d have more time for work.

I might even be able to spend a good chunk of time on marketing and new courses!

2014 Begins: To Infinity and Beyond

But as 2014 began, I decided to spend the bulk of my time on product development, with maybe 15-20% devoted to marketing.

The Financial Modeling Fundamentals course was our most important product, so I started there.

The new version would include 10 case studies, each based on a different company in a different industry and region.

Even with 2-3 team members helping me with the Excel and research, it would be a stretch to finish by the end of the year.

The Marketers weren’t exactly happy, but I own 100% of the business, so “activist revolts” aren’t possible.

A flurry of work followed.

Throughout most of 2014, I worked 14-hour days to finish the course.

I dated a few new girls on my occasional off days, but I was so busy that nothing went anywhere.

A Tempting Proposal Arrives

That summer, The Drug Dealer returned and asked me how to buy and use a round-the-world plane ticket (it’s quite tricky).

She wanted to quit her job and travel through English-speaking countries while working on a Master’s Thesis on second-language acquisition.

I told her to quit and do it, and then… she quit and did it.

We met up a few times before she left Korea, and then toward the end of the year she asked me to travel with her through Southeast Asia and Australia.

But I was so busy that it was out of the question.

“Sorry, have to work. Have fun!”

Launching the Fundamentals 3.0 Course

December was approaching, and so was my deadline.

The Marketers were finally happy because I was getting back to marketing: a big product launch.

And I was happy because I was almost done with the new course, though I had to postpone 2 case studies due to lack of time.

The launch went remarkably well, and sales for the year increased substantially.

We had grown about 3x in 3 years vs. the original goal of 10x in 2 years.

While that was far short of the goal, it was an insane goal to begin with: 10x growth in 2 years is impossible for almost any company.

Getting there still seemed plausible; it would just take more time.

Meanwhile, things with The Drug Dealer were as stable as the average relationship in a Korean drama: She had arrived in Australia and seemed to be making friends there.

She was going on a lot of yoga/meditation retreats, which I brushed off as a symptom of boredom and funemployment.

I planned to visit her in the next year.

Leaving Korea… for Good

As 2015 began, I decided to leave Korea.

I had a better time there in 2014 than in 2009-2010, but I also had no reason to stay.

So I headed back to the U.S. and planned my next trip: Australia.

My work plan was to continue revamping and expanding the courses, including a private company and IPO case study, three real estate private equity case studies, and a new PowerPoint course.

Nothing was as major as the new Fundamentals course, but I was too tired to work crazy hours for another year.

Another issue was that many of the changes I had implemented with The Marketers required significant maintenance time.

For example, I spent months writing extended email sequences that would encourage customers to use the courses and sign up for more in the future.

If you’re selling diet or exercise guides, and the information never changes, this is a reasonable strategy.

But it created a lot of maintenance work here: I once spent an entire month rewriting emails, updating PDFs, and changing links because the case studies had changed.

These strategies might have boosted sales, but were they worth the time and effort?

Lost in Australia: The Smoke Monster Attacks

In April 2015, I finally went to Melbourne to visit The Drug Dealer.

Within 5 minutes of meeting her, I could tell something was wrong.

Within an hour, I could tell that many things were wrong:

  • She was now a hardcore vegetarian.
  • She wanted to meditate all day and convert to Buddhism.
  • She looked down on the concept of “money,” and didn’t seem to think it was necessary.

In short, she had become a hippie.

And then she uttered the worst phrase that any significant other could utter: “I’ve changed so much.”

That could mean only one thing: she’s found another guy.

My friends encouraged me to leave immediately and cancel everything.

But I didn’t see the point – I would only be in Melbourne for a few weeks, and I would be working most of the time anyway.

Korean Drama, Episode 20

Since everything up to this point had resembled a Korean drama, I decided that it had to end that way as well.

And there was only one proper conclusion: a dramatic confrontation when you wait until the last possible moment to say something important.

It was the middle of May, and we were both headed to the airport to part ways.

Right before she left, I told her I knew everything, and that I knew it early on. We had both changed so much that there was no point in continuing things.

She didn’t deny anything, but she was surprised that I waited so long to say anything.

And then she made one last comment before leaving:

“I am different. But you’ve changed more than me. You no longer smile, laugh, or do anything fun; it’s like you’re not a real person anymore.”

She stepped through the gate, and I never saw her again.

This relationship had lasted almost 7 years, off and on, across multiple countries.

And now it was over.

About Those TPS Reports… Growth Numbers

My favorite methods for getting over personal trauma include burying myself in work and drinking excessively, and I intended to use both here.

I decided to start with burying myself in work, but the news went from bad to worse when I reviewed business results from the first half of 2015.

For the first time, annual growth for the year would be close to 0%.

Growth had varied in past years, but it had never dropped below 30-40%.

Just like a company reporting “non-GAAP financials,” I could come up with excuses for the lack of growth:

  • In past years, I had always done 1-2 product launches, but I wasn’t doing one in 2015.
  • The pricing changes made it hard to make an apples-to-apples comparison.
  • Deal activity was slowing down, and banks were reducing their hiring.
  • The market was saturated; everyone who wanted to work in finance knew the sites and had my guides and courses.

You can create all the “pro-forma” trickery you want, but the GAAP numbers don’t lie.

So what explained the poor results?

Was it related to the market or deal activity?

Had The Marketers and their suggestions backfired?

Was it a waste of time for me to revamp our main modeling course?

D. All of the Above

The truth is, it was a bit of everything.

I had made a critical mistake because I listened too closely to customer feedback.

For years, a vocal minority consisting of 2 people wearing pajamas in their basement complained that our courses were “too short” or “too simple.”

And now, after I had spent thousands of hours revamping them, people said they were too long and complicated.

These weren’t just “idle complaints”; people were violently angry over free updates.

Here are a few representative comments and emails that illustrate the absurdity:

refund-01

refund-02

It was like my dating history and customer history were the same: the other party kept changing its mind and complaining about one thing, but wanted something else the whole time.

Revamping the courses was fine, but I should have made the new case studies shorter and simpler.

And then The Marketers, after proving useful as a voice of reason in the early years, were adding less value over time.

Say What?

You might be wondering what “marketing consultants” do.

Here are a few examples:

  1. They might improve your branding and USP (unique selling proposition); if you don’t have one, they’ll come up with one.
  2. They might look at a page where 2% of visitors buy something and test variations of the page that boost the purchase rate to 4% or 5%.
  3. If the average customer is spending $100, they might find ways to boost the average order size to $150 or $200.
  4. If you’re not using certain advertising methods, such as Google AdWords or Facebook, they might start campaigns there.

These changes sound small, but when taken together over a long period, they can make a big difference.

And in the early days, they did.

Optimizing your sales prices or pricing can make a massive difference with very little work.

But the 80/20 rule very much applies to marketing.

If you’ve already tried 10 versions of a sales page and spent 4 years optimizing it, outside consultants can’t do much more.

But few people like to admit this fact, so consultants start suggesting more complex strategies after a point.

These strategies may seem reasonable on paper, but they may not always work in real life.

For example, we implemented a complex sequence where readers would receive a free report, then get an offer for a $7 guide, then an offer for a $97 guide, and then an offer for a $347 or $497 course.

This strategy might work in some markets, but there were a few problems here:

  1. If someone is going to spend $347 or $497, why bother selling them a $7 guide first?
  2. Are there people who want to win $150K-$200K jobs in IB/PE and who are willing to spend only $7 on their initial recruiting efforts? If so, they should give up right now.
  3. For someone to jump from a $7 guide to a $347 or $497 one, that $7 guide better be amazing. Most $7 guides are not amazing.
  4. Our systems aren’t set up for a high volume of purchases at low prices, so this campaign caused a lot of technical glitches. Read that as: “I had to stay up until 3 AM putting out fires more than once.”

So outside consultants can be helpful, but they also yield diminishing returns over time.

And they will never know your market and customers as well as you do.

How to Drown Your Sorrows with the Hobbits

A business is supposed to get easier over time as you hire more people.

But mine was getting harder as I hired more people.

Ironically, I had quit investment banking to give up money for more free time, but the exact opposite had happened. Maybe I should have just continued!

I felt like Andre Agassi in Open: I hated the business that I had spent much of my life on.

I had already tried burying myself in work, but that backfired, so now it was time for my other “personal trauma coping method”: excessive drinking.

So I went to New Zealand and spent the week in a drunken stupor, hoping to find a few hobbits to share whiskey with me.

No one stepped up, but I did find some good whiskey in Auckland.

What Are You Doing with Your Life?

After my trip, I came back to the U.S. and faced some harsh realities:

  • I had created a business that was impossible to sell or hand off to a partner, and which also required a massive amount of work.
  • I was behind all my friends in non-work areas – most of them were already married, and some already had kids. I had a string of failed relationships and no hobbies/interests.
  • And while growth had been a solid motivator in early years, we weren’t growing anymore.

So all I had going for me was money.

But did that matter?

Just like marketing consultants and Korean girls, money yields diminishing returns after a point.

You start to value free time and options more than another 10% increase in income.

And that’s the biggest problem with starting your own business: you end up trapped.

If you run it for only a year or two, sure, you could downplay the experience and get a normal job once again.

But if you’ve been running it for 10 years, it’s exceptionally difficult to go back to the corporate world.

So you pretty much have to keep running it, or, if you want to quit, start something else.

Yes, potentially you could sell the business, but 99% of businesses sell for very low multiples: think 1x – 3x annual profits or cash flows.

So unless you’ve built a massive company, this option just takes you back to the “start something else” alternative.

There was no easy way out, but I decided to start with something I’ve recommended before: changing my environment.

To Faraway Lands

Back when I lived in Korea, one incredibly cynical acquaintance who hated the country always asked me the same question:

“You could live anywhere in the world. WHY have you spent so many years here? WHY?!!!!!

He was right.

Sure, I had reasons, but mostly it was a self-limiting belief.

I was repeating the same behavior over and over again… because I had already repeated the same behavior over and over again.

So in June 2015, I planned out the next 6-12 months with the goal of going to all new places:

  • Europe (Finland, Sweden, and Estonia)
  • South America (Argentina and Chile)
  • Africa (South Africa)

I didn’t know anyone in these places, I did almost no research, and I didn’t have a plan or goals.

I just said, “Time to leave!”

A Breath of Fresh Air

These trips turned out to be exactly what I needed.

Meeting new people was easy because there are so many apps, sites, and events for doing just that.

“Not having a plan” didn’t matter because I was still working the entire time, so if I ever got bored, I went back to Excel.

But I became less of a workaholic because it seemed like a waste to sit on the computer for 14 hours per day after traveling halfway around the world.

I wasn’t exactly working less: instead, I just re-allocated my down time from TV shows and reading to activities and socializing.

But the most important shift was in my mindset.

In the past, I had always been chasing something.

I set goals, such as 10x growth, and did everything imaginable to pursue them – even when the goal made no sense.

And then I followed females around trying to make relationships work, tried to keep business partners satisfied no matter what, and tried to stay in touch with “legacy friends” when there was no reason to do so.

I dropped all that and stopped caring.

My dating success rate skyrocketed.

There’s no better way to achieve success than to put yourself out there as an attractive option, but then not care about convincing anyone to do anything.

Or even better: take the opposite approach and tell them not to do something.

In sales, this is called “the takeaway close,” and it works remarkably well because people always want something more when you explain why they shouldn’t want it.

This new mindset actually worked too well.

I started getting distracted by too many text messages and emails, so I had to cut back a bit.

And dating had become so “paint-by-numbers” that I disabled all the apps and websites a few months after starting this experiment.

Cutting the Non-Core Assets and the Non-Core Habits

I started implemented similar policies in this business.

If someone emailed us at 3 AM, sent a 100-spreadsheet Excel file, and asked me to balance the Balance Sheet by 8 AM, I did not spend the next 5 hours fixing it.

If someone was annoyed that we wouldn’t draft a 20-slide presentation for them, we issued a refund.

If someone left an angry comment or response, I ignored it.

In short, I became more detached.

Cutting my non-core habits was a good start, but I had to do something more painful next: cut my non-core assets.

Slash and Burn

The best companies are the most focused companies.

This principle explains why Yahoo floundered and failed, while Google and Facebook are now worth hundreds of billions of dollars: they focused on 1-2 things and did them really well.

Working with The Marketers, guest writers, freelancers, and other companies over the years had created a lot of non-core assets and obligations.

People wanted me to promote their products/services, publish their articles, and in some cases, even run their marketing for them.

So I dropped many of these efforts.

I used to promote the NY School of Finance every quarter, but I cut back on that.

I wanted to make the podcast into more of a regular series, but I put it on hold because of the low ROI.

I wanted to publish more regular infographics, but I stopped because they were incredibly time-consuming to review and edit.

And then other guides and services were all put on hold or cut.

I didn’t like saying “No,” but it was now more important than saying “Yes.”

Even after all these cuts, there were still two big tasks remaining:

  1. Deciding what to do with The Marketers.
  2. Deciding what my long-term plan

Marketing vs. Ego

When it became clear that growth was slowing down and that the more complex strategies didn’t work so well, I knew I’d have to change my agreement with The Marketers.

But I made my typical mistake: I waited too long to make the change.

Almost a year later (May 2016), I proposed a lower-priced plan where they would be responsible for “maintenance” tasks.

They responded with a counter-proposal for a higher-priced plan, and they pointed out how some of their strategies had, in fact, generated sales.

They were correct, but it was also tough to argue that it made a big difference relative to my spending.

All that work had generated maybe 1.2 – 1.5x what I had spent on it.

But if I factored in my own time putting out fires, editing and revising documents, and fixing technical problems, it fell into “break-even” territory.

Still, I leaned toward accepting their counter-proposal at first: I wasn’t losing money, and something new might work well in the future.

BUT one thing bothered me.

On a conference call to discuss this change, one person kept probing me on why I wanted a less-expensive plan.

My reasons were crystal-clear: diminishing returns and a desire to save time/money.

But that explanation wasn’t good enough: he started asking about my long-term plans for the business and how I had been “spending more time traveling lately.”

They didn’t directly state it, but the implication was clear: I wanted to cut back on marketing because I was lazy and didn’t want to work as much anymore.

Yes, really. Me.

This one rubbed me the wrong way.

First off, personal matters shouldn’t impact business planning.

Second, yes, I was “spending more time traveling,” but I was still doing a ton of work at the same time.

It wasn’t “Now I’m in Buenos Aires; time to spend 10 hours a day drinking wine!”; it was “Now I’m in Buenos Aires; time to work all day and go check out a new restaurant for 1 hour at night.”

And finally, this implication didn’t address the real issue: growth.

So I stuck to something closer to my proposal and went with a reduced rate that included mostly maintenance tasks.

Long-Term Survival

On the other hand, The Marketers had raised a good point: What was my long-term plan?

Could I keep things running for decades if the business was dependent on me and required non-stop work?

Or would I just have to wind things down at some point?

These were broad questions, but two main factors influenced the answers:

  1. Lifetime support obligations. In other words, a big “unfunded liability.”
  2. The need to update and revamp the courses over time.

The Worst Business Policy Ever

When I first launched BIWS back in 2009, I made a bold decision: I gave customers free lifetime access, updates, and support.

There’s a reason why almost no other company in the world offers this: it’s a bad idea.

Most customers don’t even value it highly: it’s a nice bonus, but it’s not the main reason anyone signs up for a product or service.

But if a lot of people start taking it seriously, the economics can quickly break down: an upfront payment of $97 might result in $1,000 of support costs over time.

This point doesn’t matter if you only have 10 customers, but with 30,000 customers the risks increase significantly.

PayPal has also had major issues with lifetime access – they almost banned us several times for offering it.

And any acquirer or investor would be very hesitant to put in money into a business that had this kind of massive, unfunded liability.

But it was difficult to change this policy because doing so would affect every single account retroactively.

I knew that people who had signed up 5 years ago and barely used the site would start demanding refunds if their accounts stopped working.

Some team members argued that we should bite the bullet, change it to a 2 or 3-year access period, and issue refunds to anyone who complained.

Others said we should leave lifetime access in place, but limit the support obligation to 2-3 years.

And then others thought we shouldn’t change anything because doing so would lead to fiery Armageddon.

But none of these changes would solve the core problem: a small number of students abusing, or potentially abusing, the support services.

Sure, we could limit the support to 2-3 years, but people would say they didn’t know about it, claim they signed up before we changed the policy, etc.

So I just started limiting our responses and saying “No” more often.

I started giving shorter, more direct responses instead of writing detailed treatises.

If someone asked for something we couldn’t help with, we politely said, “No,” and offered a refund if it didn’t match their expectations.

I don’t know if this will work forever, but it’s more sustainable than our old approach.

The Course Creation Conundrum

While the newer courses and case studies were much better, I also realized that this practice of completely re-doing courses wasn’t sustainable.

If a product takes 2 months to create, it’s reasonable to release a new version every 2-3 years.

But if it takes 2 years to create, that stops being reasonable.

So was it necessary?

Putting aside questions of depth and quality, would the content start “looking too old” at some point?

Or did it not matter that much?

I would put this one in the “Vocal minority cares, but few others do” category.

Yes, some people will complain if something seems old, but most people just want something that works.

There is probably some upper limit on age; maybe 10-15 years?

I doubt it’s as high as 50 years because things change a lot over that much time.

But in theory, I could keep things running forever by constantly re-doing courses:

  • Year 1: Delete and re-do Course A to make it look newer.
  • Year 2: Delete and re-do Course B to make it look newer.
  • Year 3: Delete and re-do Course C to make it look newer.
  • [Repeat for Courses D – J through Year 10]
  • Year 11: Ten years have passed; time to delete and re-do Course A once again.
  • Year 12: Delete and re-do Course B.

But that seemed like a miserable existence.

I don’t mind creating new material or new courses that cover new topics; I actually enjoy it.

But redoing everything to make it look “newer” each year would be like torture in a Soviet labor camp.

So I made my biggest mindset shift yet: I realized that I might have to shut down everything if it came to that.

And I accepted it.

I would still revamp the older courses and guides, not to boost sales, but because I want to create the best products possible.

And I would still release at least 1-2 new courses in the future.

But I wouldn’t get into the “Do 1-2 years of repetitive work just to keep things going” game.

If complaints started piling up about a specific course, I would turn off sign-ups and make it bonus content.

And if that happened everywhere, I would have to find a new profession.

It would be a big change.

But maybe it was about time.

Goals, Purpose, and 10x Growth

We’re now close to the present day (July 2016), and Part 5 of my story ends here.

I don’t have a long list of takeaways, but I will leave you with one message.

The biggest mistake I made was the original goal I set: growing by 10x within 2 years.

The problem wasn’t the size of the goal.

The problem was the purpose of the goal: nothing.

It sounded like a big goal, and it was, but there was no reason for it beyond “getting bigger” or “earning more.”

Even if I had gotten there, it wouldn’t have impacted my life in any way.

But more importantly, it wouldn’t have helped you in any way.

Yes, dream big.

Aim high.

Do the impossible.

But make sure your goals have a purpose behind them, and if not, re-think them.

And even if your goals are big and have a solid purpose, don’t get too caught up in the chase.

Make yourself appealing.

Become the best option.

Put yourself out there.

And then, let them come to you.

The Rest of the Series:

[catlist name=brian-life-story numberposts=-1 orderby=title order=asc]

About the Author

Brian DeChesare is the Founder of Mergers & Inquisitions and Breaking Into Wall Street. In his spare time, he enjoys lifting weights, running, traveling, obsessively watching TV shows, and defeating Sauron.

Break Into Investment Banking

Free Exclusive Report: 57-page guide with the action plan you need to break into investment banking - how to tell your story, network, craft a winning resume, and dominate your interviews

We respect your privacy. Please refer to our full privacy policy.

Comments

Read below or Add a comment

  1. Brian – Great read. I have read this series several times and gained inspiration insights into my own life story.

    Just curious, taking into account your in-depth examination of career paths within financials services over the years… if you had to go back and take a job in finance, at any level, what area (or areas) would interest you? (with regards to some degree or balance for you of the following: meaning, fulfilment, intellectually engaging work, work-life balance, good pay)

    1. Thanks. I don’t think I can really answer this question because I’m not sure I would go back into the industry at all today. It’s a lot less appealing than it was in, say, 2005 or even 2010. But I still think investment banking for a few years is still the best option for maximizing your exit opportunities and learning a lot in a short period. The long-term outlook is worse, though, so I don’t think I would stay there very long.

  2. Hey Brian,

    I left my job on Wall Street and went head first into music, ultimately selling digital products and courses to help music producers. This story is awesome man and I wish you the best. Your guides and programs helped me land internships on WS and ultimately FT offer (which I did for 2 years in IBD).

    It took about a year, but my business is finally moving… it doesn’t happen overnight. Would love to hear what you are working on now my man.

    Best regards,

    NK

    1. Thanks, glad to hear it. I am still running this site.

  3. A Loyal Reader

    Hi Brian,

    I have been a long-time reader of your blog and I have to say that your 5 part series is the article that I have enjoyed the most. You are very talented with enormous self-discipline. I cannot imagine how I can keep up with the schedule that you set for yourself over the years, working more than 100 hours per week on this website. How about this business idea: becoming a YouTube vlogger / YouTuber? (I don’t know the term for it). You are adventurous and have a lot of interesting experiences that most people would like to hear about. You probably have lived a life that many others would dream of and would not have the courage to do so. They will definitely love to hear about your experiences. The thing about article is that it takes very long to read through. You are probably a reader since you like to read about GoT, but most people prefer watching to reading. It would not be very difficult for you to do so, since you are good with content creation. Maybe you can pivot into a career coach?

    Also, I realized that the isolation that comes from starting up an online business is that you do not have a business partner for now. It will become “us” against “the world” rather than “me/I” against “the world”.

    This is a lot of unsolicited comments/ opinions/ remarks.

    Whatever you choose to do, I wish the best for you. May 2021 be the best year of your life and Merry Christmas!

    1. It’s just not of interest at this stage. I am “semi-retired” and mostly managing my own investments. Not even sure why I’m still running this site, actually, since I now make more money from my portfolio than I do from product sales here.

      Also, the “look at my cool lifestyle!” space is incredibly crowded and also meaningless/boring for anyone past the age of 25 or so. And with Covid, I doubt that travel will return to normal anytime within the next decade.

      I have no interest in doing anything else career/coaching-related. Once you reach a certain financial stage, “work” just becomes less interesting in general, and you start to think about how you want to spend your limited time.

  4. Hi Brian,
    I just read the whole 5 part series, and I think it will be more helpful to me overall than anything else on the site.

    Although I don’t go to Stanford, I just finished my freshman year at USC and your initial lack of focus resonates with me a lot. You said you were vaguely looking for success, whether in “engineering, consulting, project management, and yes, ultimately finance.” I came in as an engineering major, switched to comp sci and business, then switched to Industrial and Systems engineering with intention of doing consulting, then added a finance minor when I decided to try for IB.

    I also think the 4-hour workweek being your motivation is perfect, given that I feel like I’m always just trying to create a situation where I can have that but instead I’ll probably just end up working harder now for some future payoff through IB>PE>MBA>??? Your “No, you can’t have it all” about how most goals are really just versions of “Become a deca-millionaire without doing much work and also getting my own private beach in Thailand while having the best life ever,” which never actually happens.

    That article also talks about how going into finance just for experience is generally a bad idea, since it really doesn’t carry over and the hours don’t ever get that great. Somehow, though, I’m still trying to go into IB, I guess because I have no idea what I really would enjoy doing and so the options become: 1) Take a chance at a lower paying job and if you don’t like it then your job sucks and your pay sucks or 2) Go into IB and if you don’t like it at least the pay is good. The only clear better industry looks like tech, but being a software engineer takes more actual skill than finance, and the amount of code I’d have to learn and side projects I’d have to complete just to get a job coding all day don’t seem worth it. In other words, it seems much easier to “fake” interest in finance enough to do well, but if you don’t like coding you can’t really pass as a software engineer. Also, I tend to socially prefer finance people but maybe I’ve just met all the nerdiest comp sci majors.

    From what you’ve written and my general knowledge, it seems that banking is better than consulting almost universally, “traditional” engineering is a trade-off with lower pay but better hours, software engineering is good, and entrepreneurship is risky, especially given that an online business like yours requires insane amounts of commitment in early years and often even longer and it can be extremely socially isolating.

    This comment ended up being more like an essay, and if you do read it, it’s probably going to be at 3AM after you spent 14 hours updating the BIWS courses and writing articles, so thanks for the time you spend on the site.

    A couple questions:
    1) If, as you say in a reply above, the site is a fairly stable operation now, do you still spend so much time? If you do, why? Do you ever plan to dial it back or start a family? Or to get closer to the 4-hour workweek, even if it’s more like 20-40 hours? You also said above “I have money, but little else.” So why keep working on the site instead of going after “else”?
    2) When you say, “bankers and PE people never get the hours that normal jobs get,” what are normal jobs? Like engineers? Corporate roles? Who’s filling all the F500 roles anyway? Just all the BBA grads from Penn State and similar?
    3) If I don’t plan to have kids or purchase an expensive house, car, watches, etc, would it be possible to actually do the retire at 40 thing and live on the beach (Not really just do nothing, that’d be boring in about 20 seconds, but just do passion stuff like a podcast of a miniseries like Cost of Capital or whatever I feel like with no pressure)? Or does working in IB mean I’ll spend my money to go out with coworkers and friends to maintain social ties and not feel like a lonely cheapskate, ultimately not saving enough to retire until much later than pure salary would suggest?
    4) I know it depends on the person, but in terms of overall trends, do you have any input on what industries are still the “best” if I don’t really know what I want to do? Even typing that I know it’s a cliche young kid question, but I don’t mean prestige, I just mean I don’t want to enter the newspaper industry in 2004 or go into law, which like you said in the first part of this series, is pretty clearly worse overall than other options. For added info, I am generally risk averse, and wouldn’t want to risk burning through years at a startup that goes nowhere. Seems like tech or banking, but I’m always ready to hear about the magic bullet industry I’m overlooking where everything’s perfect.

    1. 1) Because it’s not that easy. Things need to be updated and maintained. You can’t just create a product once and expect it to sell, unchanged, for 50-100 years. Some books do that (e.g., Think and Grow Rich), but not ones on technical topics. I have scaled back my hours and treat this more like a day job, though.

      2) Yes, those are examples. Engineers, accountants, some sales roles, corporate finance, etc. Yes, people from lower-tier schools get some of these roles.

      3) The premise of your question is flawed because what you want and need will change over time. No, right now, you may not care about anything like that, but that will change as you get older. In general, I think most of these “retire early” people are in for a shock when economic/market conditions abruptly change.

      4) If you’re risk averse but want to earn high compensation, your choices are pretty much tech or finance. Nothing is perfect, so decide which of the negative points you can live with.

  5. Hi Brian,

    I’ve read your entire life story series from cover to cover a few times over the last 3 years and every single time I was able to learn something new from it. Truly an amazing and inspirational story! I discovered your site back in 2016 when I was trying to break into IB in college and managed to land an internship at a BB in HK. But after the internship I figured that the industry was not for me and decided to switch career altogether. Now I’ve been working at a tech firm in NYC for a year and am happy with it. In spite of that, I still follow your work on this site. Great work!

    Also, would it be possible for you to share some advices/tips on how to meet new people and mingle with different groups in NYC? I still find expanding my social circle quite challenging after a year. Thanks!

    1. Thanks. I’m not a great person to ask for advice on meeting people in different places because I haven’t done a good job of it myself. The best advice I can give is to focus on activities you’re interested in, like sports or music (at least when the world returns to normal), instead of focusing too much on co-workers or other work friends, who tend to be more “transactional.” Of course, this means you must also have enough free time to pursue a hobby each week. My mistake was focusing so much on work that I didn’t develop other interests. And most of these efforts were for nothing – yes, I have money, but little else.

  6. What a read! Even if you might find the work boring sometimes, I just wanted to let you know that at the very least I really do appreicate what you’ve done. Coming from a middle class immigrant background with no idea what investment banking was until halfway through freshman year of uni. (and even then, it was a liberal arts school, so no business courses…), your posts and courses have been extremely helpful.

    I didn’t know anyone in banking, and I didn’t even know anyone who wanted to do it either, so all I had to rely on were your posts and WSO. So while you might feel you’re helping rich people get richer, most of those people are already well-networked anyways, so the benefit for them isn’t that large given they can just ask acquaintances. For the rest of us who aren’t so lucky, your work has really made a difference.

    1. Thanks! I’m glad to hear that everything here helped you.

  7. Really looking forward to the next one!!!

  8. Brian,

    I just want to start off by saying thank you so much for all the work you’ve done into not only your business and career but also in sharing your life stories with us. Your hard work has helped thousands of young readers who aspire to break into Wall Street and into an investment banking career path. That being said I just wanted to say that I wish you well and wanted to share my own story with you (either as a form of catharsis, gratitude, or both.)

    I was introduced to M&I through a friend who was super into the wall street culture after I told him i wanted to be an M&A lawyer, i was in my first half of my senior year and spent my whole college career working BS jobs and focusing solely on LSAT. No going out, no partying, no real kind of enjoyment in life, just grinding for a perfect score on a test that really wasn’t worth the grind. I took the test and realized in the middle and after taking it that being a lawyer was a miserable existence. So what did I decide to do? I decided to do the next best (albeit dumbest) thing, try to break into Investment banking with 0 network, 0 internships, and 0 finance knowledge despite being an economics major from a super non-target school. Long story short after doing 2 internships, 1 PE during my final semester in school where i learned nothing, and an 8 month investment banking internship at a global emerging markets brokerage firm after I graduated in may 2018, I landed a job in a boutique investment bank in NYC by sheer luck i would say. Now i’ve been on the job for 5 months and I can honestly say thank you again for your hard work, your materials have helped me immensely, along with studying for the CFA level 1 since September of 2018. But what i’d truly like to say is after reading you life story and how your business is currently running I hope that everything works out for you.

    After doing Investment banking related work I can honestly say (and hope that those who read this comment will heed my words) that the job isn’t worth it. It’s an over glorified sales role that millions of kids who don’t know any better chase after (i was one of them DESPITE your numerous warnings through your various articles which I’ve read multiple times). The industry is incredibly saturated as you’ve mentioned in your life story and now everyone knows about your products to the point that banks and buy side shops have started phrasing incredibly basic technical questions into convoluted riddles just so they can filter through their resume pile. I’ve now realize through working in finance that it’s really not worth it and that your articles have helped me see it as a result.

    To end this long comment, I wish you well and that things have been going smoothly for you. I came to this site originally seeking to break into Investment Banking, but now looking at things a year and change later since coming here, I’m looking to get out of it. I say this because although my situation is no where near yours, I understood what you said when you pushed and tried so hard to reach a goal only to realize in the end it has no value and brings you nothing. If M&I does shut down in the future, I hope the reason is that you’ve found what it is you are looking for and that everything will work it self out. I’d like to also add some books that maybe might help you (if you haven’t read so already) that have greatly helped me as well.

    Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and The Enchiridion by Epictetus.

    Thank you again for your hard work and wish you the best.

    Best,
    (A current reader, investment banker (soon to be former), and future who the f**k knows)
    Aaron

    1. Thanks for sharing. If you’re in a job you hate and you’re relatively young and can easily move into something else, you should do so. We give many, many, many warnings here about the downsides of IB and other finance jobs, and they’re definitely not for everyone (or even most people). I’m glad you figured that out early.

      Quitting a job you hate is fairly simple, but quitting a 12-year+ business with an established team, infrastructure, customers, etc. (my situation) is quite a different story. At this stage, I would be taking a massive pay cut (like, 10-20x) if I quit and tried to find a normal job, and that’s not an option since I’m supporting family members as well.

      So… I’m pretty much going to keep doing this until it is no longer viable or something forces me to stop. I actually don’t “hate” it, but I am definitely bored of certain aspects (crazy customers, people complaining on social media, etc.). But, as long as I see a way to improve the content and products/services here, I’ll have at least some motivation to continue.

  9. Dear Brian, I don’t know if anyone has said this in the past, but your 5-part “My life story” series is one of the most insightful and interesting pieces of work you have released… and they are free.

    Thanks for putting the time to write them and to distill for us 10 years worth of learning/experiences working with M&I.

    Whether if M&I thrives or goes belly up, you have proven you have the intrinsics to succeed both on a corporate or start-up environment. You will do well.

    Respect, brother.

    1. Thanks for reading!

  10. Great article! When will the next come out?

    1. At the current rate, maybe 2019 or 2020. But I may not even write another part in this series.

      1. But there must be :) where in the world is Brian DeChesare? We are all very involved now.

        1. I’m probably not going to write another new part until I sell this business or step down or otherwise dramatically change it. Otherwise, there just isn’t enough to write about since it’s now a fairly mature/stable operation.

  11. Brian – your post (2013-16) – so interesting! Thanks for sharing it, very generous of you. I’ve been considering doing some type of online business/videos for non-native English speakers in corporate settings who aren’t confident because of language / cultural skills. Your experience was eye-opening – appreciate the honesty. I look forward to your next life installment and hope things are going well for you!

    1. Thanks! Good luck.

  12. Hey Brian, this is easily the best article out of your library of articles I’ve read.

    Do you feel like you’ve returned back to the starting point, wherever that may be for you?

    1. No. Things have gotten worse since I wrote this. An upcoming article will explain why it’s a terrible idea to start an online business in general.

      1. Pietro Sgarbanti

        Hi Brian! This article is amazing but I think that a lot of people, like me, are very keen to read this upcoming article because your statement is very very catchy and we are courious to see the reasons for this hard position of yours.

        I hope to read it soon and wish you all the best! However it ends you have done a great service to tons of people with this blog!

        1. I wrote an article to answer this question in January this year, but then I deleted it because I didn’t like how it turned out (and I had 0 time to write it that week, so I was doing it in a sleep-deprived state, etc.). The short answer is that a business like this gives you no real exit opportunities other than selling it and starting another business, which is fine, but may not be exactly what you want to do. Also, you gain very little social recognition and do not gain any of the benefits of a more traditional career (the network, mentors, clear advancement path, etc.). So… you keep doing it and hope it survives, or sell it/shut it down and start something else. A more traditional career – even starting a venture-backed startup would be more normal – gives you more options, a broader skill set, and more of the other benefits.

  13. Bongkoch P

    I read this series twice! Thank you so much Brian, it taught me a big life lesson before me graduating next year. As I always think about making money after school but have never really thought about the purpose behind, thank you so much for reminding me to rethink about it and more importantly I really appreciate you sharing your story so openly I guess not many ppl out there would tell us the other side (e.g. loneliness) of starting their own business like you did.

    Wish you all the best, Brian !

    1. Thanks! Yes, I think one reason people don’t share their stories is that they run into a completely separate set of issues if they build careers at big companies or with traditional businesses…

  14. Great read and thanks for sharing your story with us.

    I was actually wondering whether you are going to start covering quant finance topics anytime soon? If you look at this summer’s full time conversion rate, only 40-50% of the IBD and S&T interns got return offers, but 90%+ quant interns are invited back. Wall Street is starting to appreciate quant skills more and more. The trading industry is shifting toward electronic/algo trading. I’m just curious if you are going to adapt to that change? I don’t think IBD is going to be replaced anytime soon, but I’d say that many years down the line, sectors like S&T would eventually die out and be replaced by machines. I just think that a decent number of students out there would appreciate the coverage of quant finance topics.

    1. Yes, quant finance is becoming more important, but unfortunately it is not something I know much about, so we would need volunteer interviewees to cover it properly.

  15. hi Brian,

    Good luck with everything and I really enjoyed reading your content. :)

    1. Thanks for reading!

  16. Ebolamonkey

    Looks like you are coming to some important life realizations. This story reminds me of my friends who went to MIT for his PhD after his undergrad stint at Gatech. I met up with him in Tokyo when I was serving in the US Navy stationed in Japan.

    During our conversations catching up after many years he told me tales of his accomplisments, world travels, studies, struggles, and relationships. It seems his life was rich at least in the modern social media sense with a full compliment of clout of FB and the like documenting his social progress. However, as the conversation drew on and I added more depth to our conversation I started to notice things I hadn’t expected before and realized he is more vulnerable than me. For his entire life he lives under the shadow of others hoping a trailblazing mental and physical exertion will get him to some enlightenment sooner or faster than those who cast shadows over him (father, brother, high achieving friends, prominent figures in XYZ community, etc). It was at that moment I knew of his sad, shallow, and aimless life. He was using society and social validations justify and define his existence.

    Well, as for me, I pail in comparison in terms of achievement, didn’t do well in school, and not as high in network or earning potential. But, I also worried a lot less and we are two individuals existing at the same place (Tokyo) irrespective of how we got there, me serving the country and he on a rotation program. Framed in Feynman’s thought experiment he learned from his dad, if an extraterrestrial were to look at us two that alien would not be able to distinguish the two of us. We are made of the same stuff and healthy. All the emotional rollercoasters we may experience individually would be incomprehensible to that outer space visitor that existed in our minds back then.

    Zero to One was an interesting book to listen to during my commute. In it Peter refers to Ted Kaczynski’s Industrial society and its future and tried to pose a better solution than simply returning things back to zero to then have the possibility of finding “one” again.

    We are forever chasing artificial goals for self satisfaction in the ultimate attainment. You’ve alluded to this by the 10x being a number. In military it is many trying to be the few top ranking officials, industry such as finance to be a C level/MD/President, in the corporate world infinite orders of fancier titles. None of this really means much unless you intimate and familiar with the system.

    I witness emptiness in those who achieved more and don’t have too many regrets. At the end of the day I am just really surprised and thought that those faster or smarter would have come up with better answers but even they don’t know. They might have clocked more miles in their minds or have more stamps posted on social media but in the end… refer to Patrick Bateman’s speech at the end of American Psycho. Hopefully your confession was for something at the very least self reflection.

    Looking back at your self, what are you to do in the future to have add more meaning to your life?

    1. Eventually, I plan to write fiction (historical novels), as I actually enjoy that and I would be doing something more useful than helping rich people get even richer. But there’s about a 0.0000001% chance of making money with fiction writing, so you have to save up a certain amount first…

      1. Hey, I’m not rich, and banking was a way for me to get rich (or at least a stepping stone to have a better life).
        But yes, 90% of the pool has $$$$$$, so I understand your point here

        1. My recommendation is to set a “stop loss” and move into something more meaningful after you earn enough money. To me, the whole industry is kind of ridiculous because I don’t understand why people with wealthy families would ever want to get in… but to each his own…

          1. Because who doesn’t like getting paid a ridiculous amount of money to do simple grunt work? At the end of the day, the “technical” stuff in finance is brainlessly simple that almost anyone can master it. It’s no rocket science.

  17. James Stevenson

    Hey Brian,

    Do you actually feel “behind” friends of the same age?

    I’m about the same age as you +/- 1 year, and I’m in a similar position (i.e. still single, marriage and kids are not really on the horizon). I see many of my friends & colleagues being pushed/jumping into marriages that are CLEARLY doomed to fail in less than 10 years.

    I have no interest in spending 50 grand on a wedding, 5 years of my life in misery, and then forking over the remainder of my net worth to a divorce attorney for the privilege of seeing my children every other weekend.

    Is this some strange North American rite of passage, or am I missing something here?

    1. Well, I agree that a lot of marriages are doomed to fail and that many people do it just because they feel like they “have to.” But I don’t think everyone is necessarily doomed to fail.

      My broader worry was that I didn’t have time for activities, socializing, or anything outside of work, and that there was no benefit to working 24/7 anymore, but I was trapped and unable to change it.

      By contrast, people who worked at normal companies, or who joined start-ups early on, or who started more traditional companies, had a better balance or at least a pathway to achieving that balance eventually.

      1. James Stevenson

        Startups – I was asked to join a company called Seamless.md as AE number 1.

        You’re a smart guy and have some knowledge of the startup world, what do you think of the company?

        1. I don’t know the company or team at all, so I cannot comment on it. I also have very little knowledge of the startup world as I spend 12-14 hours per day creating content, in isolation from all other humans.

  18. Great read, thank you! As mentioned by others your honesty and openness is much appreciated.

    On another note, I have always wondered why you decide so often to completely redo your courses. Maybe it’s because it gives you personal sarisfaction to always to make and sell the best products and that’s great!

    But as you say most people just want something that works, something good/ great that teaches well, but certainly not something ridiculously exceptional if that makes sense. Oh, at a relatively good price.

    Of course a bit of ‘refurbishing’ is needed here and there but you have good products as they are so people will keep buying them. (I hope that’s some sort of encouragement :) and reminder to ease off a bit and find free time to enjoy life more!!) All the best.

    1. Thanks!

      Part of it is market-driven – you really do need to know a lot more now (2016) than you did in, say, 2010 or 2005. But part of it is also that I’m not satisfied until we make everything the best it can be. This sounds simple, but it has taken a surprising amount of time and resources to get some concepts right (e.g., the actual definition of Enterprise Value – I’ve only seen ONE guide out of 20+ I’ve reviewed explain it correctly).

      But you are right that most people don’t care and don’t appreciate the extra work. Making more complex case studies has also led to a lot of complaining, nit-picking over irrelevant details, and sometimes even older clients coming back and complaining over these free updates.

      So, given all that, and the fact that I’m not exactly going to become a billionaire or cure cancer or send humanity to Mars from this business, I’m no longer in “kill myself” mode.

  19. If I were to switch from one bank to another bank as an analyst, would still I be able to negotiate an increase on my base or it’s pretty much fixed across all banks?

    1. Base salaries tend to be fixed at the junior levels

  20. Thank a lot Brian for great website and content. It was always pleasure to read your articles. I hope you keep going on. I wish all the best for you.

    1. Thanks! Nothing will change anytime soon; this was more about longer-term plans.

  21. Nice read and nice to get the behind-the-scenes of the madman who will go through creating all these complex programs. I imagine your content has helped the careers of thousands of people (myself included) if that’s any consolation.

    1. Thanks! I’ll take that as a compliment… I think…

  22. Great read, I am a long time member of your site and the content is superb.
    Please don’t quit cold Turkey.
    I am yet to go through all the courses.

    Stay positive :-)

    The world needs positivity, don’t become a hippie, work gives our lives meaning.

    Bless you

    1. Thanks! Like I said above, nothing is changing anytime soon. This was all much longer-term planning.

      I don’t really think I said anything shocking, as very few businesses last forever (look at how much the S&P has changed over time). Even Microsoft, a $400 billion+ company, had to stop supporting its older products after a point…

      1. Agreed, but what is the most successful business since the dawn of time ?
        Religion ;-)
        And from the looks of it, they are not going anywhere.

        So your analogy to MSFT is true but just like anything stagnation kills.

        So shedding new skin and wearing a new one is key.

        iirc -> MySpace-> Facebook -> the matrix

        1. Yes, sure, but neither religion nor Microsoft are dependent on one person working crazy hours consistently to accomplish something… it’s quite different when it’s a personal burden.

          1. Said the wise man

  23. I always like to remember something I read in Nietzsche:

    “What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: “This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to you, all in the same succession and sequence – even this spider and this moonlight between the trees, and even this moment and I myself. The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it, speck of dust!”
    Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus?… Or how well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?”

    If you imagine that you might come back to this life forever, you would want to live it the best way possible. If you aren’t happy with the way your life is, you have the moral obligation to make the changes that are necessary in order to have an existence that has meaning and significance.

    1. Well said, and definitely true. :)

  24. Amazing Brian, congrats on this piece, it is very inspiring as much as it’s inspired. Thank you for writing it and thank you for your honesty and transparency, its why I’ve purchased your courses and will follow your work as long as you choose to keep going.

    1. Thanks! Glad to hear it.

  25. If you do stop, it has been a privilege to read your articles over the last 4 years, so I just wanted to express a genuine thank you.

    Let me know if you stop by Sydney Australia in the next year.

    1. Thanks! Nothing is changing anytime soon, this is all much longer term. I hope to get to Sydney again (I lived there briefly in 2011).

  26. This was a great read. My favorite one. Seems like you’ve grown a lot! I do have a question about your business model. Don’t you worry that people who signed up my give their accounts away or let friends use it? I’m sure that is probably against your T&C, how do you track it do you account for the lost revenue? Also, BIWS is used by several schools and institution so you have a sustainable business model. I would assume you enter into a multi-year contract with them.

    1. Thanks! Yes, that is a concern, but it’s pretty easy to track and remove people who share accounts (as we can limit logins based on time and geography).

  27. Great read and thanks for everything you have done so far. I am one of the older customers and would have never broken into finance without your help. If you’re ever in Toronto, would love to meet up for coffee. Make sure you visit in summer though, the winters are brutal. :)

    1. Thanks! I haven’t made it Toronto yet, but maybe I will sometime before winter…

  28. Hello Brian,

    Thanks for sharing your emotions so openly, but you have built something great and this news came as a shock to me!I want this business to continue. I may have few suggestions for you to keep going . I was wondering why you posted less frequent recently,so this post explains why… I was just about to buy one of your products, shall I stop now I need your support on a valuation exercise. ? You spent your 10 years building something great from scratch, I am sure there must be ways other than shutting everything down..

    1. To clarify, what I mentioned here is much longer-term (i.e., 10+ years away). The most likely scenario is that we keep the sites up, but shut down new sign-ups at some point (similar to what software companies do). We still answer technical questions and provide comments on case studies, but we cannot complete the exercises for you.

      Posting less frequency doesn’t have anything to do with this story – that was a decision made a long time ago (2010) because I realized that more frequent articles actually reduced traffic. And other than a brief period where I changed it in 2011-2012, the publishing schedule has been once per week since 2010.

      1. Brian, could you please clear up something for me? You’re going to shut down new sign-ups in near future or or 10+years away?

        1. Nothing is changing in the near future. However, I anticipate that at some time in the far future, whether that’s 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, or something else, we’ll turn off new sign-ups.

  29. Alexander Gunnar

    Brian, you have no idea how I enjoyed reading the story! I basically have been following you since 2012 and I must say that this post touch me deeply. Thank you so much for sharing you story with us.

    I wish you all the best.

    If you are coming to Sweden any time just let me know and I will be more than glad to have a coffee and show you Gothenburg.

    1. Thanks! I was in Stockholm briefly, but haven’t made it to Gothenburg yet. Next time, next time…

  30. Nice one.

  31. Thanks for sharing, Brian. I’m in a “I don’t want to do banking anymore, so now what?” mood, so it’s great to see what it’s like on the other side.

    And let us know if you’ll be in Brazil/São Paulo, I’d definitely pay you a drink :)

    (I’m one of the “old” customers – I bought your courses many many years ago)

    1. Thanks! I’ve thought about Brazil before, but my lack of Portuguese makes me a bit hesitant… but who knows, maybe I’ll just go anyway.

      1. No need to know Portuguese – if you know a little bit of Spanish you’ll be fine here.
        And I’m sure you’ll catch up the basics in 1-2 weeks – hey, I can teach you!

        Wish you all the best!

        1. Yeah, I know both languages are “similar,” but I’m a little skeptical because the sound is quite different even though the written language is nearly the same. But hey, I don’t need a visa if I go there within a few months of the Olympics, so maybe I’ll head there for a bit…

  32. Hey, Brian.

    Sadly, I was one of those customers that ordered the whole program and didn’t do much with it until recently. But aside from that, you’re the only one in this business that shoots straight with people and I think it’s served you well. So I want to take a moment to say: thanks for putting up this site and making these courses. They’ve made a huge difference for my professional development. I’m indebted to you for unveiling what goes on behind the curtain in the world of investment banking, et. al., and for assisting people like me make it finance.

    1. Thanks! Glad to hear it.

  33. Great story Brian, thanks for sharing with us

    I’ve got a quick question for you – I’ve done 4+ years in other areas of finance and want to get into IB. Do you think it’s a good idea for me to start off as an analyst or go to MBA school and try to get in as an associate?

    1. I think it would be very tough to get into IB directly as an Analyst with 4+ years of experience elsewhere, so at this point you’ll probably need an MBA.

  34. creamertnh

    Really good. I love this whole series I hope it is cathartic for you.
    The whole website is great.

    1. Thanks for reading!

  35. Great read. Good luck!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *