Episode 096
What I Wish I Knew: Private Equity Leaders’ Advice to Their Younger Selves (2024, Part 1)
In this special compilation episode, private equity leaders share the invaluable advice they would give to their younger selves. This collection of insights offers timeless wisdom applicable to professionals at all stages of their careers. Hear lessons on adaptability, patience, relationship building, and trusting your instincts from some of the most respected voices in the industry.
Episode Highlights:
1:04 - Grant Kornman (Align Collaborate, Episode 53): Discusses the importance of hard work, relationship-building, and creating your own luck.
3:20 - John Caple (Hidden Harbor Capital Partners, Episode 57): Talks about embracing feedback, making small process adjustments, and balancing personal strengths.
11:02 - Carl Press (Thoma Bravo, Episode 60): Reflects on trusting your instincts, building confidence, and speaking up when you've done the work.
13:13 - Doug Horn (Clairvest, Episode 63): Shares the metaphor of not holding the grip too tight and how it applies to life and career.
14:58 - Ami Mehta and Joe McIlhattan (Periscope Equity, Episode 64): Ami emphasizes patience and balance, while Joe focuses on skill development and appreciating the journey.
19:00 - Cory Eaves (BayPine, Episode 66): Encourages thoughtful planning and doing more of what you love, like sailing.
23:12 - Jessica Ginsberg (LFM Capital, Episode 67): Reminds us to stay open-minded, take risks, and trust the process.
24:52 - Chris Cathcart (The Halifax Group, Episode 72): Highlights patience, perspective, and learning from each season of life.
Episode Links:
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/grant-kornman-align-collaborate/
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/john-caple-hidden-harbor/
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/carl-press-thoma-bravo/
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/doug-horn-clairvest/
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/ami-mehta-joe-mcilhattan-periscope-equity/
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/cory-eaves-baypine/
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/jessica-ginsberg-lfm-capital/
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/private-equity-spotlight-chris-cathcart-on-cultivating-entrepreneurship-in-pe/
Episode Highlights:
1:04 - Grant Kornman (Align Collaborate, Episode 53): Discusses the importance of hard work, relationship-building, and creating your own luck.
3:20 - John Caple (Hidden Harbor Capital Partners, Episode 57): Talks about embracing feedback, making small process adjustments, and balancing personal strengths.
11:02 - Carl Press (Thoma Bravo, Episode 60): Reflects on trusting your instincts, building confidence, and speaking up when you've done the work.
13:13 - Doug Horn (Clairvest, Episode 63): Shares the metaphor of not holding the grip too tight and how it applies to life and career.
14:58 - Ami Mehta and Joe McIlhattan (Periscope Equity, Episode 64): Ami emphasizes patience and balance, while Joe focuses on skill development and appreciating the journey.
19:00 - Cory Eaves (BayPine, Episode 66): Encourages thoughtful planning and doing more of what you love, like sailing.
23:12 - Jessica Ginsberg (LFM Capital, Episode 67): Reminds us to stay open-minded, take risks, and trust the process.
24:52 - Chris Cathcart (The Halifax Group, Episode 72): Highlights patience, perspective, and learning from each season of life.
Episode Links:
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/grant-kornman-align-collaborate/
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/john-caple-hidden-harbor/
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/carl-press-thoma-bravo/
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/doug-horn-clairvest/
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/ami-mehta-joe-mcilhattan-periscope-equity/
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/cory-eaves-baypine/
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/jessica-ginsberg-lfm-capital/
https://www.bluwave.net/podcasts/private-equity-spotlight-chris-cathcart-on-cultivating-entrepreneurship-in-pe/
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Sean Mooney: Welcome to the Karma School of Business, a podcast about the private equity industry, business best practices, and real time trends. I'm Sean Mooney, BluWave's founder and CEO. In this episode, we have one of my favorite episodes that we publish annually. This is an incredibly insightful year end. Part one of two compilation of the top things that our 2024 Karma School business guests wish they knew when they were 22 years old and starting out in their careers.
[00:00:38] This is really a treasure trove of timeless advice from some of the best business builders in the world. Enjoy.
[00:00:54] First up from episode 53, we have Grant Kornman from Align Collaborate where Grant talks about making your own luck through hard work and relationship building.
[00:01:04] Grant Kornman: So I think when I was 22, I think I felt like business was having a great plan, working the plan, not deviating from the plan.
[00:01:16] And there is a lot of truth in that. I mean, you gotta have a plan, you gotta work your plan and you gotta stay true to it. But I think when you talk to folks. And people think about key moments in their life where they either found an opportunity or met the right person or got the right break. There feels like there's a little luck or serendipity involved.
[00:01:36] And so I think if I was 22 and I told myself, Hey, in the next 20 years, there's going to be these moments of luck or serendipity. They're going to make a big difference in your life. I probably would have had a little bit of a meltdown back then. What I would tell myself is the harder you work, the more you get out there and talk to people.
[00:01:54] The more you kind of bounce around and interact with industry or executives and relationships you build, what maybe feels like luck actually becomes somewhat predictable and somewhat reliable.
[00:02:09] Sean Mooney: I think that's really good advice. I think on one end, particularly as you're a young, hard charging pup, I was back in the early days, you're like, there's no such thing as luck.
[00:02:17] I make my own luck kind of a thing. But then as I learned more perspective over time, you kind of learned that, yeah, you make your own luck, but you have to be open to it. You have to be looking around. It takes a lot of hard work to put yourself in front of it. And so it's this interrelated, it's an and not or, and there's a lot of reasons why we came up with the name BluWave.
[00:02:37] But that was one of the things that always resonated with me is there's a lot of hard work you're paddling out, you've got a series of waves that are coming in, and you're not going to catch everyone. And when you first start, it's going to be really, really hard. But as you get up enough and you put yourself in front of that wave, you're going to start catching them.
[00:02:55] And then still, it's not going to be easy. Half the time, you're still going to get tumbled underwater, but eventually you're going to learn. And if the idea that I had for our company is like, we can give you things that are going to make the odds of you riding that wave right into the beach, a lot more seamless.
[00:03:08] Next up. In episode 57, John Caple from Hidden Harbor Capital Partners talks about embracing adaptability while sticking to who you are.
[00:03:20] John Caple: I think the hardest thing about anyone's career is both giving and receiving feedback. How do we get better? How do we give and receive feedback, give it in a way that people can act on it and then receive it in a way that they can make you better.
[00:03:35] The more time I've gone through, the more time I've found that, like, there are a whole series of things you can change. They're relatively small. They're what I call your process. So at the end of the day, it's almost impossible to change who you are. Right. Like we talked about that personality trait of, do you like consistency or do you like change?
[00:03:54] Like, I can't change that about you. It is what it is. You can change a little bit and you can take the edges off, but at the end of the day, you kind of are who you are. You have all these things about you that are almost certainly. Pretty unchangeable, particularly in the short term, but there's all sorts of things about your personal process that can have like a huge impact in how well you perform your job. And so let me give you an example of one so you can understand what I mean by process. So when we raised our first fund at hidden Harbor, we came off the road, I'd spent literally the last two years driving to the airport every Monday night, hopping on a plane, pitching. Three to four investors in a day, flying to a new city.
[00:04:31] I mean, totally painful. Right. And I get back and the first thing we decided to do is we're going to do an employee survey. This is the beginning, right? This is our first employee survey. We're going to find out like, how are we doing? And this is like the 10 people that hit and we get the survey back and they're like, Hey, We don't feel like the communications are very good.
[00:04:47] We don't know what's going on. Communications at hidden Harbor are very good. I'm like, are you kidding me? We have like 10 people here. What do you mean? Right? Like my door's always open. I'm a totally open guy. I'm always happy. You have any questions, come ask. And like, this is nonsense. okay.
[00:05:03] But they're telling me that my communications aren't very good. So maybe I should listen. And what I did was we have a Monday morning meetings we talked about. I now start the Monday morning meeting with announcements and I write down a couple things and then I ask, does anyone else have anything to announce?
[00:05:17] That's it. My communication scores went through the roof. Like I didn't become better at being a communicator or care more or any of that stuff. I just made like a really small change in my personal process that like all of a sudden I'm a great communicator, right? And it's amazing. I think the number of things in business that are like that.
[00:05:37] And so I do think that one, when you're giving. feedback, the more you can give that kind of feedback. So telling someone, early in my career, you're not detail oriented enough. I mean, like you are, aren't as detail oriented as certain you are. Right? So the one I give junior guys is never go directly from the printer to my office.
[00:06:01] I want you to go back to your desk and look at it for five minutes and like you'd be shocked Mistakes you find when you do that. It's a little simple thing, right? Like I can't tell you to be more detail or any because you are who you are you know what I mean? And so both when you're getting and giving feedback, understanding like what people can do that are different, that they can really execute on.
[00:06:22] So I just had a three 60 review. We do three 60 reviews for everyone at hidden Harbor, including our partners, by the way. And so the person gave me my review. It was like, I have a very distinctive style. My partners tell you all about it. I'm extremely straightforward, extremely blunt. I will tell you exactly what I think, by the way, I'm not then mad at you afterwards.
[00:06:40] Right? So we can have a disagreement on something. A minute later, I'm done. And I like you just as much as I liked you before. That's sort of my style. And so they were like, look, your style lands really differently with different people. And so those of us have known you for a long time, get you, and we get exactly how you are and
[00:06:55] we love your style, but it lands differently. And so you should probably figure out how to modify your style. It's going to be almost impossible for me to do that, right? Cause it's my style and I've been doing it for 30 years or what have you. And by the way, it's deeply ingrained in my personality in a million ways.
[00:07:09] Oh, by the way, also, if you give me a test, you'll find out I'm actually not very good at figuring out how my style lands. That's one of the EQ things I'm actually low at. I'm high at some others, but I'm really low at that. So the interviewer said, but you know what you can do. You can do what's called voice or vote.
[00:07:26] In other words, you need to be clear with people on whether they have a voice or whether they have a vote. So like when you're just telling someone to do something, just tell them that that's what they have to do when they have a voice, but you're making the decision, tell them that when they have a true vote.
[00:07:40] Make sure, but just make sure you're clear about that. People get wildly less frustrated with you and your style. I can do that. I can change my process. The idea that I'm going to change my whole style is almost impossible. And so I would say that's the thing I've learned kind of in my career, both when you're giving feedback and receiving it.
[00:07:56] And a couple of folks have given me awesome feedback that looked like that throughout my career. Another one, that's a great story. So when I was a new manager at Bain. My case team scores were decent. So at Bain, you like literally get rated by your team every month. So you get rated like once a month by your team on how good a job you're doing. My case team scores were decent. And I sat down with one of our partners for my annual review. And he's like, Cable, like when you were a consultant, you wanted to be given the problem and just go away and you wanted to solve it.
[00:08:26] And by the way, you were really good at that and that's how you wanted to be managed. And he's like, your problem is that's how you're managing others now. And so you're doing the same thing to them. And they go away and they work on it for two weeks and they come back to you in your office and, you correct everything, right?
[00:08:43] You completely redirect and you say, no, you do this, this, this, this, this, and he's like, so that isn't working for you. What you need to do is just tell people what to do, like literally sit down and say, I want you to do this exact set of things. Here are the slides, go fill them out. I'm like, no way. They're going to hate that. Right. Oh, that's awful. I can't do it. It's like, no, no, trust me. You do this. I started doing my case team scores went through the roof because it really worked well because I knew exactly what I wanted and people wanted to be communicated with, on what I wanted.
[00:09:10] And all of a sudden I got great scores. So it is those little things that through your career, the best mentors you have will give you sort of very, actionable, direct changes to your process that you can do. And then once again, is your mentoring others and trying to help them along, do the same thing.
[00:09:28] Don't tell people. You need to be more detail oriented or you need or whatever, try to give them very specific things they can change in their personal process. And you'll see real improvements in people.
[00:09:38] Sean Mooney: I really, really like that advice. And it's interesting. So we do quarterly engagement surveys with our team.
[00:09:44] And one thing that constantly comes up is this concept of feedback. And it's interesting as you poll people. Everyone wants more of it, almost a hundred percent and almost a hundred percent are also afraid to give it. It's a journey and we do trainings, we do all the things that, but it's still really hard.
[00:09:58] But think the way that you set out this kind of framework, it's a great way to think about how to activate it. Hey, as a quick interlude, this is Sean here. I wanted to address one quick question that we regularly get. We often get people who show up at our website, call our account executives and say, Hey, I'm not private equity. Can I still use BluWave to get connected with resources? And the short answer is yes.
[00:10:21] Even though we're mostly and largely used by Hundreds of private equity firms, thousands of their portfolio company leaders. Every day we get calls from every day top proactive business leaders at public companies, independent companies, family companies. So absolutely you can use this as well. If you want to use the exact same resources that are trusted and being deployed and perfectly calibrated for your business needs, give us a call.
[00:10:45] Visit our website at BluWave. net. Thanks. Back to the episode. In episode 60, here comes Carl Press from Toma Bravo talking about trusting your instincts.
[00:11:02] Carl Press: probably a lot, but starts with trust your instincts more. I probably didn't do that enough. If you're generally doing the work and you're working hard and you're accepting good feedback and you're listening, which is probably something I also didn't do enough of when I was 22, your instincts will generally be more right than not, even at a young age.
[00:11:22] And so if I had to go back, I would tell that person, trust your instincts a little bit more. Which is another way to say, be a little bit more confident, kind of believe in yourself. That is so cliche, but it is so true. And it's so much easier to say when you're in your late thirties and when you're in your early twenties.
[00:11:36] So I would probably tell that kid that along with many other pieces of feedback, like listen a little bit more, talk a little bit less.
[00:11:44] Sean Mooney: I love that advice. And it's one of the things too, is I kind of like, when I hear you talk about that, as I think back in time, if you've done the hard work, you're kind of positioning yourself to catch these waves.
[00:11:55] There's so much going on. There's a calculus in your mind that's going on that you're not even aware of. But as you think about the instincts in some ways, it's like you just know it. I mean, you don't know why, but you've done a lot of work both overtly and subconsciously to know it and to have that trust and kind of what you're concluding, you know, not only in the top of your mind, but also behind the mind.
[00:12:15] Carl Press: I think you're right. And when you're young, sometimes you just don't have the confidence to go with that instinct. You have imposter syndrome. Um, you're saying, well, I'm new to this job. I'm learning. So that can't be right. I can't be right. And that person is wrong. That can't be possible. Well, as it turns out, if you've done the work and you're the deepest in the numbers and you spent all night analyzing it, you might be so speak up.
[00:12:36] And it's an asymmetrical trade, as we would say, in investing, like the benefit of being right and speaking your mind and trusting your intuition is a lot better than being wrong. If you're wrong. Okay. That's okay. Move on. Right. It's not a big deal. It didn't feel like that at the time, but that's probably the advice I would give myself or anybody in that position.
[00:12:55] Sean Mooney: I'll share that with my kids and we'll see if the 13 and 16 year old version of their future selves will listen. I don't know, but no try, no get. So let's see.
[00:13:03] Next up in episode 63, Doug Horn from Clarivest talks about don't hold the grip too tight.
[00:13:13] Doug Horn: There's one thing that comes to mind, and I definitely didn't create this kernel of wisdom, but someone once reminded me of what it was like when you were learning to play tennis.
[00:13:22] And the tennis instructor would come and say, Hey, like You can't hold the grip so hard, right? Cause you're actually a better effective tennis player when you're holding the grip just right, but you're inclined to kind of hold it harder. Cause you think that's going to make you more effective. I always remember that kernel of sports wisdom, because I think it applies in life and business in my career.
[00:13:44] And I definitely have not mastered it, but even in my older self, I still need to remind myself not to hold that grip too tight because I can be more effective. When I don't,
[00:13:53] Sean Mooney: I think that's an amazing metaphor. And not just because we just had a team tennis outing fresh in my mind, but it probably will fix my stroke a lot too.
[00:14:02] Now that I think about it, but you're right. It's just, when I was coming up, I was so tightly wound and it was just so easy to get wrapped up in the moment. And like, how do you just kind of. Ease up in those types of things and kind of go with the flow a little more. And you kind of, in some ways it's consistent with this conversation.
[00:14:21] If you can kind of remove that tension, go with the flow, you're better at what you need to do and your life's probably going to be a lot more enjoyable because you only got one match in life to play. I love that pearl of wisdom there. And look forward to sharing that with my kids pretty soon.
[00:14:38] We'll see if they listen.
[00:14:39] Doug Horn: I'm still learning. I'll be honest, but I'll try
[00:14:42] to remember it.
[00:14:43] Sean Mooney: In episode 64, we've got a power duo of Ami Mehta and Joe McIlhattan from Periscope Equity with Ami talking about having patience and Joe talking about the importance of developing skills.
[00:14:58] Ami Metha: I think, just speaking to all the hardworking women out there, the advice I'd give myself at the age of 22 is Yes, you can have it all, but not possibly maybe all at the same time or, you know, even to whittle that down on the same day, right?
[00:15:17] So you have to be okay with having some patience for yourself and saying, today I was an A at work. And it's okay if I'm a B at home, possibly, because I'm getting home late, or whatever the case may be, I have three young kids at home, so that dichotomy is very active in my mind, but vice versa might be true sometimes, where I showed up to all the things, yesterday, today, this week, and, you know, Maybe I need to get creative about how to be that rock star at work because for high caliber women and, you have to know and trust that you're a rock star and you're still going to average out to that rock star.
[00:15:56] It was very relieving to kind of understand that it doesn't need to be on full throttle every day because, you know, I'm type A. So, um, there you have it. And one more that is more focused on learnings from my time at Periscope. Steve himself has kind of helped me with this journey, which is we have semi annual reviews, annual reviews here at Periscope.
[00:16:19] We're very structured about that and love to invest in people development. He says, be loud, be louder, be louder before this podcast, loud and proud of me. And it's something that as a woman, sometimes you have to learn, is that it's okay to sometimes not be the most polite person or Wait your turn, but make your presence known, make your thoughts known, and do that at every opportunity you can.
[00:16:46] And try to learn that faster versus slower. It really helps a lot, it's just Be loud as it has helped a lot.
[00:16:53] Sean Mooney: That's a great piece of advice in life. And it's this idea, life's it's just marathon run and you're not always going to be, running all out. And if you are, you're going to lose the race.
[00:17:01] So you got to pace yourself. You're going to get there. And this idea that you've earned the right to have a perspective. So use it. You're never going to always be right, but if you don't try, who knows? And so give yourself that grace. And those are both things I just wrote down on the side here, by the way.
[00:17:17] Great piece of advice. So Joe, what do you have for us?
[00:17:20] Joe McIlhattan: Yeah, I think similarly with that marathon approach, but maybe a little bit more focused on skills. I think, for all the aspiring private equity professionals out there, I would say something around just being patient and look around you and try to gather the skills that you can in other roles.
[00:17:36] For everyone, that has private equity ambitions, they're always thinking about it as the ultimate exit opportunity, but it's a lifelong skill that people gain. And I think everyone in the industry would agree with that, that you never stop learning and trying to be a better investor, and I think the places where you can gather skills that are applicable here are really broad, whether that's consulting or banking or sales or marketing, there are skills out there that you could bring to a investment.
[00:18:04] Or to a value creation plan to generate alpha. And I think it's kind of keep an open mind and be patient until you get here.
[00:18:12] Sean Mooney: I think another pearl of wisdom, right? It's a, we're on this journey. It's not a destination. And maybe some of the angst that I would feel when I was in the same shoes as you all was like, I never felt like I was crossing a finish line.
[00:18:25] And then at some point I realized that, no, that's part of the fun is that you're never going to get to Rome, but it's a really beautiful walk through the Italian countryside getting there. And so why not join it? And I'm not just saying that because I tried to go to Italy again this summer, but it's sold out already.
[00:18:43] Ami Metha: You and everyone else.
[00:18:44] Sean Mooney: Next summer, I'm going to do it and then I'll be able to personify what we're just talking about here.
[00:18:50] Next, in episode 66, Cory Eaves from Bay Pine talks about play more and do more of what you love.
[00:19:00] Cory Eaves: I think back to when I was 22, I was very, very focused on my career like a lot of young people are, and in a way. I sort of had that healthy impatience to improve and progress and learn and do more. So that was probably all positive. I think the advice I would probably give myself is to do two things.
[00:19:19] One is maybe plan a little more back to the serendipity point you made about getting into private equity. I'm always a little jealous of people who can kind of chart this multi year course and navigate some 20 year career in some thoughtful way. That didn't happen for me. And I sort of look back and wonder if I could have been a little more intentional.
[00:19:37] I probably stayed at a couple of jobs early in my career a little longer than I should have if I had been a little more thoughtful. My other piece of advice to myself would be sail more. My personal passion is sailing. I love to do it. And I think if you look back There's a lot of weekends and travel and stuff where I was putting in the extra hours at work in the long run, probably would have been better off if I had been sailing with my kids or something, instead of traveling around the world.
[00:20:05] Sean Mooney: I think it's a great piece of advice, particularly if I dared to look back and I try not to, it's just so scary. But yeah, I was just running and half the time I'd run right into a wall, bounce off it, it's like, settle down, dude, just look left and right, maybe a little bit and don't just go charging. I love that.
[00:20:22] It's And sailing is a uh, skill that I'm also tremendously jealous of because I lived in the coastal areas of Connecticut for years. We joined a club that was a sailing club and it was mostly because it had a pool for the kids and tennis courts for them. When I, we joined it was like, I'm going to learn to sail and I grew up in Texas so there really wasn't an option.
[00:20:42] And to this day, I really regret that I didn't because it seems like it's just tremendously peaceful but also it has this element of sport and tactic and strategy and you can decide which one you want to do depending on your mood.
[00:20:55] Cory Eaves: Yeah, that's what I love about sailing. I think you nailed it. The other thing I think is sort of cool about sailing and this will be the engineer that comes out in me a little bit, but they teach kids to sail in these tiny little boats.
[00:21:05] They're like a bathtub. They're called an Opti. Opti. And these are the world's most boring boats. Every kid learns to sail on these boats. And if these things don't snuff out the passion for sailing, nothing will. They're absolutely terrible boats, but everything you learn on that boat, how to steer, how to trim the sail, how to read the wind, all of that.
[00:21:26] Applies all the way up to a 200 foot yacht. It's absolutely the same theory, the same learning, the same skills. And so, and I think there's something kind of neat about learning some skill as a five year old that you can take all the way through your life. It's one of the things I love about sailing.
[00:21:42] Sean Mooney: Quick aside on this. My wife's father was a, like a champion sailor growing up. He was on the star boat class and he went all over the world. in these boats. And I understand they're kind of like little race boats, kind of a thing. So he tried to get his daughter, my wife, into sailing and her sailing career was apparently pretty short.
[00:22:02] And I think she'll forgive me for telling this story. On her, one of her first ventures out in those little bathtubs, she had a firm disagreement with the young person who is deemed to be the captain. And she immediately threw him overboard. So apparently that was the end of her sailing career. So she wasn't able to teach me to sail.
[00:22:22] So Cory, this has been a tremendously insightful conversation. I've got a little stencil pad where I take all these notes during these conversations. I really do appreciate you taking the time to share your lens into the world that that's a really unique one and particularly in an industry of private equity that's so rapidly changing.
[00:22:41] Commercial: Today's episode is brought to you by BluWave. Building a business is hard. Top third parties can help you create value with speed and certainty, but it's difficult to know who's best. That's why you need the Business Builders Network. Visit BluWave at bluwave. net to learn more and start a project today.
[00:23:02] Sean Mooney: In episode 67, Jessica Ginsberg from LFM Capital talks about not taking yourself too seriously.
[00:23:12] Jessica Ginsberg: It would be to not take myself so seriously. Be patient. Explore more. I think as a much younger person, I thought that life and careers, especially everything had to be linear. You use that word earlier. Everything had to be up into the right. My best advice would be like, learn as much as you can stay as open minded as you can be opportunistic and always trust your gut.
[00:23:38] I just think it's super important, and that's what you have to fall back on. I also have come to realize, I think it takes us until we're like, 35, to really know who we are, and what we're about. So as long as you get there by 35 ish, everything's going to be okay.
[00:23:56] Sean Mooney: I'm 35 and I still don't know who I am.
[00:23:58] Yeah, right, right. I'm a little bit older. No, but I think that's phenomenal advice. And I think for probably a lot of the listeners on this podcast who are high achievers, who are goal oriented and particularly everyone who's gone through that life's journey and is on it right now, right? You never get anywhere.
[00:24:13] You're just constantly going towards some destination you can't see. And it's so easy to get caught in like just collecting badges and medals and ribbons. And I was certainly that kid growing up. And you look back and you're like, I wish that guy chilled out a little bit.
[00:24:29] Jessica Ginsberg: Well, right. And I think, you know, every so often you've got to step out of the box and you've got to take a risk.
[00:24:35] They don't always pay off, but you always learn something about yourself, about the world. It's worth it every time.
[00:24:41] Sean Mooney: Up next, in episode 72, Chris Cathcart from the Halifax Group talks about focusing on patience and perspective
[00:24:52] Chris Cathcart: There are two things, part of which is sort of you can't get, I mean, I think it's patience and perspective.
[00:24:57] Perspective, the truth of the matter is, you only get that by being 50 and by being 75, will have different perspective as you get more experience. And so maybe the only way to really do it as a 22 year old is get good mentors, right? You have to sort of synthesize the perspective. And that's important.
[00:25:14] It's hard to do, right? You want to find people who you trust, who have the same values alignment, who have analogous experiences and I think that's the way you have to do that. But the patience thing would be advice I'd give to myself. I don't think I had the maturity to look at different seasons of my life are great opportunities to learn.
[00:25:34] I look at our younger professionals. By the way, whether they're on the investment banking side or they're in the private equity, and maybe it's because we have this sort of in our industry, a two to three year window that each professional that you kind of go through. But the young professionals who are really excellent are the ones that seem to approach each of these seasons as an opportunity to learn.
[00:25:56] So every task, every deal, every day to day interaction is an opportunity to learn more about business, to learn more about their trade. To learn more about anything that they're interested in, but that's how they attack it. And they want more and more and more. I gave this advice actually to a Wake Forest senior recently, he's going to go and join a middle market investment bank that we all know well, very, very good.
[00:26:18] He knows he's going to work really hard. That was the advice I gave him. I said, listen, take this next two or three years and think about as an extension of your academic career. Fortunately, you're going to be renumerated rather than having to go the other direction, but you're going to learn. in this phase of your career.
[00:26:35] And then the next two to three year stint, you're going to learn something more. I didn't sort of realize that until I went to business school, right? I was going back, I was going to pick up these and complete that. But fill in the pie chart of my personal development and stuff I hadn't gotten. And then that would have been my investment banking approach as well.
[00:26:52] I would have done two or three years there again to learn everything I can about how businesses work. That's sort of the approach. I wish I had learned earlier and appreciated earlier. And I think for today, and I think this is true, particularly for folks in our industry, where you've got a lot of really smart, ambitious, hardworking people.
[00:27:12] I see, and I was guilty of this too, a lot of happy feet, whereas looking back on it, take it as this really special opportunity to learn as much as you can and have the patience to do it. That would be my counsel to myself and wish I had the maturity then that many of my colleagues do. I see it. They have it.
[00:27:32] So it's neat to see.
[00:27:33] Sean Mooney: I think that's really, really profound advice in some ways that also hit just even hits me as I think about just where I even where I am in my life. Many people in our industry and in people who've been successful, you kind of have this concept of you never cross a finish line. What that means though, it can be daunting because you're on this endless race and there's no break to it.
[00:27:55] It can be fatiguing. And at times that also causes me to lose perspective on like the mile markers and the seasons as they're turning. I love your concept of seasons because it has that concept of perpetuity. But it breaks it up into natural way points where you can more naturally kind of experience and reflect on and appreciate the growth and the winds in between versus this one ongoing kind of march that you're just trying to run faster and faster.
[00:28:26] So it really struck me as you were saying that I was like, that's a great way to think about not only having this idea that you're perpetually trying to get better and improve and go faster and better and faster, It's a process, it goes through these seasons, and you can have these natural delineations to take a breath, look left or right and go, yeah, I got something done.
[00:28:47] Chris Cathcart: That's right. And, let's face it, gives perspective and meaning to what, inevitably, there are going to be long, arduous days in our industry. And so, having that perspective and that patience, I think, is key. Helps endure.
[00:29:05] Sean Mooney: Thanks for listening. If you'd like to listen to any of the full episodes we referenced today, please see the episode notes for links. Please continue to look for the Karma School of Business podcast anywhere you find your favorite podcasts. We truly appreciate your support. If you like what you hear, please follow 5 Star Rate, review and share.
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[00:29:46] Give us a call or visit our website at bluwave. net. That's B L U W A V E, and we'll support your success. Onward.
[00:00:38] This is really a treasure trove of timeless advice from some of the best business builders in the world. Enjoy.
[00:00:54] First up from episode 53, we have Grant Kornman from Align Collaborate where Grant talks about making your own luck through hard work and relationship building.
[00:01:04] Grant Kornman: So I think when I was 22, I think I felt like business was having a great plan, working the plan, not deviating from the plan.
[00:01:16] And there is a lot of truth in that. I mean, you gotta have a plan, you gotta work your plan and you gotta stay true to it. But I think when you talk to folks. And people think about key moments in their life where they either found an opportunity or met the right person or got the right break. There feels like there's a little luck or serendipity involved.
[00:01:36] And so I think if I was 22 and I told myself, Hey, in the next 20 years, there's going to be these moments of luck or serendipity. They're going to make a big difference in your life. I probably would have had a little bit of a meltdown back then. What I would tell myself is the harder you work, the more you get out there and talk to people.
[00:01:54] The more you kind of bounce around and interact with industry or executives and relationships you build, what maybe feels like luck actually becomes somewhat predictable and somewhat reliable.
[00:02:09] Sean Mooney: I think that's really good advice. I think on one end, particularly as you're a young, hard charging pup, I was back in the early days, you're like, there's no such thing as luck.
[00:02:17] I make my own luck kind of a thing. But then as I learned more perspective over time, you kind of learned that, yeah, you make your own luck, but you have to be open to it. You have to be looking around. It takes a lot of hard work to put yourself in front of it. And so it's this interrelated, it's an and not or, and there's a lot of reasons why we came up with the name BluWave.
[00:02:37] But that was one of the things that always resonated with me is there's a lot of hard work you're paddling out, you've got a series of waves that are coming in, and you're not going to catch everyone. And when you first start, it's going to be really, really hard. But as you get up enough and you put yourself in front of that wave, you're going to start catching them.
[00:02:55] And then still, it's not going to be easy. Half the time, you're still going to get tumbled underwater, but eventually you're going to learn. And if the idea that I had for our company is like, we can give you things that are going to make the odds of you riding that wave right into the beach, a lot more seamless.
[00:03:08] Next up. In episode 57, John Caple from Hidden Harbor Capital Partners talks about embracing adaptability while sticking to who you are.
[00:03:20] John Caple: I think the hardest thing about anyone's career is both giving and receiving feedback. How do we get better? How do we give and receive feedback, give it in a way that people can act on it and then receive it in a way that they can make you better.
[00:03:35] The more time I've gone through, the more time I've found that, like, there are a whole series of things you can change. They're relatively small. They're what I call your process. So at the end of the day, it's almost impossible to change who you are. Right. Like we talked about that personality trait of, do you like consistency or do you like change?
[00:03:54] Like, I can't change that about you. It is what it is. You can change a little bit and you can take the edges off, but at the end of the day, you kind of are who you are. You have all these things about you that are almost certainly. Pretty unchangeable, particularly in the short term, but there's all sorts of things about your personal process that can have like a huge impact in how well you perform your job. And so let me give you an example of one so you can understand what I mean by process. So when we raised our first fund at hidden Harbor, we came off the road, I'd spent literally the last two years driving to the airport every Monday night, hopping on a plane, pitching. Three to four investors in a day, flying to a new city.
[00:04:31] I mean, totally painful. Right. And I get back and the first thing we decided to do is we're going to do an employee survey. This is the beginning, right? This is our first employee survey. We're going to find out like, how are we doing? And this is like the 10 people that hit and we get the survey back and they're like, Hey, We don't feel like the communications are very good.
[00:04:47] We don't know what's going on. Communications at hidden Harbor are very good. I'm like, are you kidding me? We have like 10 people here. What do you mean? Right? Like my door's always open. I'm a totally open guy. I'm always happy. You have any questions, come ask. And like, this is nonsense. okay.
[00:05:03] But they're telling me that my communications aren't very good. So maybe I should listen. And what I did was we have a Monday morning meetings we talked about. I now start the Monday morning meeting with announcements and I write down a couple things and then I ask, does anyone else have anything to announce?
[00:05:17] That's it. My communication scores went through the roof. Like I didn't become better at being a communicator or care more or any of that stuff. I just made like a really small change in my personal process that like all of a sudden I'm a great communicator, right? And it's amazing. I think the number of things in business that are like that.
[00:05:37] And so I do think that one, when you're giving. feedback, the more you can give that kind of feedback. So telling someone, early in my career, you're not detail oriented enough. I mean, like you are, aren't as detail oriented as certain you are. Right? So the one I give junior guys is never go directly from the printer to my office.
[00:06:01] I want you to go back to your desk and look at it for five minutes and like you'd be shocked Mistakes you find when you do that. It's a little simple thing, right? Like I can't tell you to be more detail or any because you are who you are you know what I mean? And so both when you're getting and giving feedback, understanding like what people can do that are different, that they can really execute on.
[00:06:22] So I just had a three 60 review. We do three 60 reviews for everyone at hidden Harbor, including our partners, by the way. And so the person gave me my review. It was like, I have a very distinctive style. My partners tell you all about it. I'm extremely straightforward, extremely blunt. I will tell you exactly what I think, by the way, I'm not then mad at you afterwards.
[00:06:40] Right? So we can have a disagreement on something. A minute later, I'm done. And I like you just as much as I liked you before. That's sort of my style. And so they were like, look, your style lands really differently with different people. And so those of us have known you for a long time, get you, and we get exactly how you are and
[00:06:55] we love your style, but it lands differently. And so you should probably figure out how to modify your style. It's going to be almost impossible for me to do that, right? Cause it's my style and I've been doing it for 30 years or what have you. And by the way, it's deeply ingrained in my personality in a million ways.
[00:07:09] Oh, by the way, also, if you give me a test, you'll find out I'm actually not very good at figuring out how my style lands. That's one of the EQ things I'm actually low at. I'm high at some others, but I'm really low at that. So the interviewer said, but you know what you can do. You can do what's called voice or vote.
[00:07:26] In other words, you need to be clear with people on whether they have a voice or whether they have a vote. So like when you're just telling someone to do something, just tell them that that's what they have to do when they have a voice, but you're making the decision, tell them that when they have a true vote.
[00:07:40] Make sure, but just make sure you're clear about that. People get wildly less frustrated with you and your style. I can do that. I can change my process. The idea that I'm going to change my whole style is almost impossible. And so I would say that's the thing I've learned kind of in my career, both when you're giving feedback and receiving it.
[00:07:56] And a couple of folks have given me awesome feedback that looked like that throughout my career. Another one, that's a great story. So when I was a new manager at Bain. My case team scores were decent. So at Bain, you like literally get rated by your team every month. So you get rated like once a month by your team on how good a job you're doing. My case team scores were decent. And I sat down with one of our partners for my annual review. And he's like, Cable, like when you were a consultant, you wanted to be given the problem and just go away and you wanted to solve it.
[00:08:26] And by the way, you were really good at that and that's how you wanted to be managed. And he's like, your problem is that's how you're managing others now. And so you're doing the same thing to them. And they go away and they work on it for two weeks and they come back to you in your office and, you correct everything, right?
[00:08:43] You completely redirect and you say, no, you do this, this, this, this, this, and he's like, so that isn't working for you. What you need to do is just tell people what to do, like literally sit down and say, I want you to do this exact set of things. Here are the slides, go fill them out. I'm like, no way. They're going to hate that. Right. Oh, that's awful. I can't do it. It's like, no, no, trust me. You do this. I started doing my case team scores went through the roof because it really worked well because I knew exactly what I wanted and people wanted to be communicated with, on what I wanted.
[00:09:10] And all of a sudden I got great scores. So it is those little things that through your career, the best mentors you have will give you sort of very, actionable, direct changes to your process that you can do. And then once again, is your mentoring others and trying to help them along, do the same thing.
[00:09:28] Don't tell people. You need to be more detail oriented or you need or whatever, try to give them very specific things they can change in their personal process. And you'll see real improvements in people.
[00:09:38] Sean Mooney: I really, really like that advice. And it's interesting. So we do quarterly engagement surveys with our team.
[00:09:44] And one thing that constantly comes up is this concept of feedback. And it's interesting as you poll people. Everyone wants more of it, almost a hundred percent and almost a hundred percent are also afraid to give it. It's a journey and we do trainings, we do all the things that, but it's still really hard.
[00:09:58] But think the way that you set out this kind of framework, it's a great way to think about how to activate it. Hey, as a quick interlude, this is Sean here. I wanted to address one quick question that we regularly get. We often get people who show up at our website, call our account executives and say, Hey, I'm not private equity. Can I still use BluWave to get connected with resources? And the short answer is yes.
[00:10:21] Even though we're mostly and largely used by Hundreds of private equity firms, thousands of their portfolio company leaders. Every day we get calls from every day top proactive business leaders at public companies, independent companies, family companies. So absolutely you can use this as well. If you want to use the exact same resources that are trusted and being deployed and perfectly calibrated for your business needs, give us a call.
[00:10:45] Visit our website at BluWave. net. Thanks. Back to the episode. In episode 60, here comes Carl Press from Toma Bravo talking about trusting your instincts.
[00:11:02] Carl Press: probably a lot, but starts with trust your instincts more. I probably didn't do that enough. If you're generally doing the work and you're working hard and you're accepting good feedback and you're listening, which is probably something I also didn't do enough of when I was 22, your instincts will generally be more right than not, even at a young age.
[00:11:22] And so if I had to go back, I would tell that person, trust your instincts a little bit more. Which is another way to say, be a little bit more confident, kind of believe in yourself. That is so cliche, but it is so true. And it's so much easier to say when you're in your late thirties and when you're in your early twenties.
[00:11:36] So I would probably tell that kid that along with many other pieces of feedback, like listen a little bit more, talk a little bit less.
[00:11:44] Sean Mooney: I love that advice. And it's one of the things too, is I kind of like, when I hear you talk about that, as I think back in time, if you've done the hard work, you're kind of positioning yourself to catch these waves.
[00:11:55] There's so much going on. There's a calculus in your mind that's going on that you're not even aware of. But as you think about the instincts in some ways, it's like you just know it. I mean, you don't know why, but you've done a lot of work both overtly and subconsciously to know it and to have that trust and kind of what you're concluding, you know, not only in the top of your mind, but also behind the mind.
[00:12:15] Carl Press: I think you're right. And when you're young, sometimes you just don't have the confidence to go with that instinct. You have imposter syndrome. Um, you're saying, well, I'm new to this job. I'm learning. So that can't be right. I can't be right. And that person is wrong. That can't be possible. Well, as it turns out, if you've done the work and you're the deepest in the numbers and you spent all night analyzing it, you might be so speak up.
[00:12:36] And it's an asymmetrical trade, as we would say, in investing, like the benefit of being right and speaking your mind and trusting your intuition is a lot better than being wrong. If you're wrong. Okay. That's okay. Move on. Right. It's not a big deal. It didn't feel like that at the time, but that's probably the advice I would give myself or anybody in that position.
[00:12:55] Sean Mooney: I'll share that with my kids and we'll see if the 13 and 16 year old version of their future selves will listen. I don't know, but no try, no get. So let's see.
[00:13:03] Next up in episode 63, Doug Horn from Clarivest talks about don't hold the grip too tight.
[00:13:13] Doug Horn: There's one thing that comes to mind, and I definitely didn't create this kernel of wisdom, but someone once reminded me of what it was like when you were learning to play tennis.
[00:13:22] And the tennis instructor would come and say, Hey, like You can't hold the grip so hard, right? Cause you're actually a better effective tennis player when you're holding the grip just right, but you're inclined to kind of hold it harder. Cause you think that's going to make you more effective. I always remember that kernel of sports wisdom, because I think it applies in life and business in my career.
[00:13:44] And I definitely have not mastered it, but even in my older self, I still need to remind myself not to hold that grip too tight because I can be more effective. When I don't,
[00:13:53] Sean Mooney: I think that's an amazing metaphor. And not just because we just had a team tennis outing fresh in my mind, but it probably will fix my stroke a lot too.
[00:14:02] Now that I think about it, but you're right. It's just, when I was coming up, I was so tightly wound and it was just so easy to get wrapped up in the moment. And like, how do you just kind of. Ease up in those types of things and kind of go with the flow a little more. And you kind of, in some ways it's consistent with this conversation.
[00:14:21] If you can kind of remove that tension, go with the flow, you're better at what you need to do and your life's probably going to be a lot more enjoyable because you only got one match in life to play. I love that pearl of wisdom there. And look forward to sharing that with my kids pretty soon.
[00:14:38] We'll see if they listen.
[00:14:39] Doug Horn: I'm still learning. I'll be honest, but I'll try
[00:14:42] to remember it.
[00:14:43] Sean Mooney: In episode 64, we've got a power duo of Ami Mehta and Joe McIlhattan from Periscope Equity with Ami talking about having patience and Joe talking about the importance of developing skills.
[00:14:58] Ami Metha: I think, just speaking to all the hardworking women out there, the advice I'd give myself at the age of 22 is Yes, you can have it all, but not possibly maybe all at the same time or, you know, even to whittle that down on the same day, right?
[00:15:17] So you have to be okay with having some patience for yourself and saying, today I was an A at work. And it's okay if I'm a B at home, possibly, because I'm getting home late, or whatever the case may be, I have three young kids at home, so that dichotomy is very active in my mind, but vice versa might be true sometimes, where I showed up to all the things, yesterday, today, this week, and, you know, Maybe I need to get creative about how to be that rock star at work because for high caliber women and, you have to know and trust that you're a rock star and you're still going to average out to that rock star.
[00:15:56] It was very relieving to kind of understand that it doesn't need to be on full throttle every day because, you know, I'm type A. So, um, there you have it. And one more that is more focused on learnings from my time at Periscope. Steve himself has kind of helped me with this journey, which is we have semi annual reviews, annual reviews here at Periscope.
[00:16:19] We're very structured about that and love to invest in people development. He says, be loud, be louder, be louder before this podcast, loud and proud of me. And it's something that as a woman, sometimes you have to learn, is that it's okay to sometimes not be the most polite person or Wait your turn, but make your presence known, make your thoughts known, and do that at every opportunity you can.
[00:16:46] And try to learn that faster versus slower. It really helps a lot, it's just Be loud as it has helped a lot.
[00:16:53] Sean Mooney: That's a great piece of advice in life. And it's this idea, life's it's just marathon run and you're not always going to be, running all out. And if you are, you're going to lose the race.
[00:17:01] So you got to pace yourself. You're going to get there. And this idea that you've earned the right to have a perspective. So use it. You're never going to always be right, but if you don't try, who knows? And so give yourself that grace. And those are both things I just wrote down on the side here, by the way.
[00:17:17] Great piece of advice. So Joe, what do you have for us?
[00:17:20] Joe McIlhattan: Yeah, I think similarly with that marathon approach, but maybe a little bit more focused on skills. I think, for all the aspiring private equity professionals out there, I would say something around just being patient and look around you and try to gather the skills that you can in other roles.
[00:17:36] For everyone, that has private equity ambitions, they're always thinking about it as the ultimate exit opportunity, but it's a lifelong skill that people gain. And I think everyone in the industry would agree with that, that you never stop learning and trying to be a better investor, and I think the places where you can gather skills that are applicable here are really broad, whether that's consulting or banking or sales or marketing, there are skills out there that you could bring to a investment.
[00:18:04] Or to a value creation plan to generate alpha. And I think it's kind of keep an open mind and be patient until you get here.
[00:18:12] Sean Mooney: I think another pearl of wisdom, right? It's a, we're on this journey. It's not a destination. And maybe some of the angst that I would feel when I was in the same shoes as you all was like, I never felt like I was crossing a finish line.
[00:18:25] And then at some point I realized that, no, that's part of the fun is that you're never going to get to Rome, but it's a really beautiful walk through the Italian countryside getting there. And so why not join it? And I'm not just saying that because I tried to go to Italy again this summer, but it's sold out already.
[00:18:43] Ami Metha: You and everyone else.
[00:18:44] Sean Mooney: Next summer, I'm going to do it and then I'll be able to personify what we're just talking about here.
[00:18:50] Next, in episode 66, Cory Eaves from Bay Pine talks about play more and do more of what you love.
[00:19:00] Cory Eaves: I think back to when I was 22, I was very, very focused on my career like a lot of young people are, and in a way. I sort of had that healthy impatience to improve and progress and learn and do more. So that was probably all positive. I think the advice I would probably give myself is to do two things.
[00:19:19] One is maybe plan a little more back to the serendipity point you made about getting into private equity. I'm always a little jealous of people who can kind of chart this multi year course and navigate some 20 year career in some thoughtful way. That didn't happen for me. And I sort of look back and wonder if I could have been a little more intentional.
[00:19:37] I probably stayed at a couple of jobs early in my career a little longer than I should have if I had been a little more thoughtful. My other piece of advice to myself would be sail more. My personal passion is sailing. I love to do it. And I think if you look back There's a lot of weekends and travel and stuff where I was putting in the extra hours at work in the long run, probably would have been better off if I had been sailing with my kids or something, instead of traveling around the world.
[00:20:05] Sean Mooney: I think it's a great piece of advice, particularly if I dared to look back and I try not to, it's just so scary. But yeah, I was just running and half the time I'd run right into a wall, bounce off it, it's like, settle down, dude, just look left and right, maybe a little bit and don't just go charging. I love that.
[00:20:22] It's And sailing is a uh, skill that I'm also tremendously jealous of because I lived in the coastal areas of Connecticut for years. We joined a club that was a sailing club and it was mostly because it had a pool for the kids and tennis courts for them. When I, we joined it was like, I'm going to learn to sail and I grew up in Texas so there really wasn't an option.
[00:20:42] And to this day, I really regret that I didn't because it seems like it's just tremendously peaceful but also it has this element of sport and tactic and strategy and you can decide which one you want to do depending on your mood.
[00:20:55] Cory Eaves: Yeah, that's what I love about sailing. I think you nailed it. The other thing I think is sort of cool about sailing and this will be the engineer that comes out in me a little bit, but they teach kids to sail in these tiny little boats.
[00:21:05] They're like a bathtub. They're called an Opti. Opti. And these are the world's most boring boats. Every kid learns to sail on these boats. And if these things don't snuff out the passion for sailing, nothing will. They're absolutely terrible boats, but everything you learn on that boat, how to steer, how to trim the sail, how to read the wind, all of that.
[00:21:26] Applies all the way up to a 200 foot yacht. It's absolutely the same theory, the same learning, the same skills. And so, and I think there's something kind of neat about learning some skill as a five year old that you can take all the way through your life. It's one of the things I love about sailing.
[00:21:42] Sean Mooney: Quick aside on this. My wife's father was a, like a champion sailor growing up. He was on the star boat class and he went all over the world. in these boats. And I understand they're kind of like little race boats, kind of a thing. So he tried to get his daughter, my wife, into sailing and her sailing career was apparently pretty short.
[00:22:02] And I think she'll forgive me for telling this story. On her, one of her first ventures out in those little bathtubs, she had a firm disagreement with the young person who is deemed to be the captain. And she immediately threw him overboard. So apparently that was the end of her sailing career. So she wasn't able to teach me to sail.
[00:22:22] So Cory, this has been a tremendously insightful conversation. I've got a little stencil pad where I take all these notes during these conversations. I really do appreciate you taking the time to share your lens into the world that that's a really unique one and particularly in an industry of private equity that's so rapidly changing.
[00:22:41] Commercial: Today's episode is brought to you by BluWave. Building a business is hard. Top third parties can help you create value with speed and certainty, but it's difficult to know who's best. That's why you need the Business Builders Network. Visit BluWave at bluwave. net to learn more and start a project today.
[00:23:02] Sean Mooney: In episode 67, Jessica Ginsberg from LFM Capital talks about not taking yourself too seriously.
[00:23:12] Jessica Ginsberg: It would be to not take myself so seriously. Be patient. Explore more. I think as a much younger person, I thought that life and careers, especially everything had to be linear. You use that word earlier. Everything had to be up into the right. My best advice would be like, learn as much as you can stay as open minded as you can be opportunistic and always trust your gut.
[00:23:38] I just think it's super important, and that's what you have to fall back on. I also have come to realize, I think it takes us until we're like, 35, to really know who we are, and what we're about. So as long as you get there by 35 ish, everything's going to be okay.
[00:23:56] Sean Mooney: I'm 35 and I still don't know who I am.
[00:23:58] Yeah, right, right. I'm a little bit older. No, but I think that's phenomenal advice. And I think for probably a lot of the listeners on this podcast who are high achievers, who are goal oriented and particularly everyone who's gone through that life's journey and is on it right now, right? You never get anywhere.
[00:24:13] You're just constantly going towards some destination you can't see. And it's so easy to get caught in like just collecting badges and medals and ribbons. And I was certainly that kid growing up. And you look back and you're like, I wish that guy chilled out a little bit.
[00:24:29] Jessica Ginsberg: Well, right. And I think, you know, every so often you've got to step out of the box and you've got to take a risk.
[00:24:35] They don't always pay off, but you always learn something about yourself, about the world. It's worth it every time.
[00:24:41] Sean Mooney: Up next, in episode 72, Chris Cathcart from the Halifax Group talks about focusing on patience and perspective
[00:24:52] Chris Cathcart: There are two things, part of which is sort of you can't get, I mean, I think it's patience and perspective.
[00:24:57] Perspective, the truth of the matter is, you only get that by being 50 and by being 75, will have different perspective as you get more experience. And so maybe the only way to really do it as a 22 year old is get good mentors, right? You have to sort of synthesize the perspective. And that's important.
[00:25:14] It's hard to do, right? You want to find people who you trust, who have the same values alignment, who have analogous experiences and I think that's the way you have to do that. But the patience thing would be advice I'd give to myself. I don't think I had the maturity to look at different seasons of my life are great opportunities to learn.
[00:25:34] I look at our younger professionals. By the way, whether they're on the investment banking side or they're in the private equity, and maybe it's because we have this sort of in our industry, a two to three year window that each professional that you kind of go through. But the young professionals who are really excellent are the ones that seem to approach each of these seasons as an opportunity to learn.
[00:25:56] So every task, every deal, every day to day interaction is an opportunity to learn more about business, to learn more about their trade. To learn more about anything that they're interested in, but that's how they attack it. And they want more and more and more. I gave this advice actually to a Wake Forest senior recently, he's going to go and join a middle market investment bank that we all know well, very, very good.
[00:26:18] He knows he's going to work really hard. That was the advice I gave him. I said, listen, take this next two or three years and think about as an extension of your academic career. Fortunately, you're going to be renumerated rather than having to go the other direction, but you're going to learn. in this phase of your career.
[00:26:35] And then the next two to three year stint, you're going to learn something more. I didn't sort of realize that until I went to business school, right? I was going back, I was going to pick up these and complete that. But fill in the pie chart of my personal development and stuff I hadn't gotten. And then that would have been my investment banking approach as well.
[00:26:52] I would have done two or three years there again to learn everything I can about how businesses work. That's sort of the approach. I wish I had learned earlier and appreciated earlier. And I think for today, and I think this is true, particularly for folks in our industry, where you've got a lot of really smart, ambitious, hardworking people.
[00:27:12] I see, and I was guilty of this too, a lot of happy feet, whereas looking back on it, take it as this really special opportunity to learn as much as you can and have the patience to do it. That would be my counsel to myself and wish I had the maturity then that many of my colleagues do. I see it. They have it.
[00:27:32] So it's neat to see.
[00:27:33] Sean Mooney: I think that's really, really profound advice in some ways that also hit just even hits me as I think about just where I even where I am in my life. Many people in our industry and in people who've been successful, you kind of have this concept of you never cross a finish line. What that means though, it can be daunting because you're on this endless race and there's no break to it.
[00:27:55] It can be fatiguing. And at times that also causes me to lose perspective on like the mile markers and the seasons as they're turning. I love your concept of seasons because it has that concept of perpetuity. But it breaks it up into natural way points where you can more naturally kind of experience and reflect on and appreciate the growth and the winds in between versus this one ongoing kind of march that you're just trying to run faster and faster.
[00:28:26] So it really struck me as you were saying that I was like, that's a great way to think about not only having this idea that you're perpetually trying to get better and improve and go faster and better and faster, It's a process, it goes through these seasons, and you can have these natural delineations to take a breath, look left or right and go, yeah, I got something done.
[00:28:47] Chris Cathcart: That's right. And, let's face it, gives perspective and meaning to what, inevitably, there are going to be long, arduous days in our industry. And so, having that perspective and that patience, I think, is key. Helps endure.
[00:29:05] Sean Mooney: Thanks for listening. If you'd like to listen to any of the full episodes we referenced today, please see the episode notes for links. Please continue to look for the Karma School of Business podcast anywhere you find your favorite podcasts. We truly appreciate your support. If you like what you hear, please follow 5 Star Rate, review and share.
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THE BUSINESS BUILDER’S PODCAST
Private equity insights for and with top business builders, including investors, operators, executives and industry thought leaders. The Karma School of Business Podcast goes behind the scenes of PE, talking about business best practices and real-time industry trends. You'll learn from leading professionals and visionary business executives who will help you take action and enhance your life, whether you’re at a PE firm, a portco or a private or public company.
BluWave Founder & CEO Sean Mooney hosts the Private Equity Karma School of Business Podcast. BluWave is the business builders’ network for private equity grade due diligence and value creation needs.
BluWave Founder & CEO Sean Mooney hosts the Private Equity Karma School of Business Podcast. BluWave is the business builders’ network for private equity grade due diligence and value creation needs.
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