If you want to succeed in the finance industry, you need to have these qualities.
Among the most important qualities you can have in business, but particularly in the financial sector, is to be determined and resilient. The nature of the industry suggests setbacks are frequent; there are very few people, if any, that have had a long career without having some sort of difficulty to manage. Not only is this attribute important in overcoming obstacles, it is useful because there are very long working hours that are full of hectic schedules. As so many individuals want to work in finance, you must keep up a high work ethic to fend off potential replacements. The compensation for the intense work load is generous pay and numerous other perks. With this sort of pay, people can retire early, such as JP Livingston, who retired at 28 after a short yet successful career in finance. This option is not for everybody, with many investment bankers working at financial institutions well into their 70’s, but it is obviously a tempting possibility.
As financial services are an sector that revolves around statistics and reacting to changes, having a strong intellect is crucial to success. Specifically, individuals must have strong numerical skills with an emphasis on studying mathematical trends and figures. To prosper you require a real knack for discovering problems or anomalies in any set of data, and this takes a sharp eye for detail. Naturally, the most successful financiers come from a mathematical history, where they would have studied something like maths, economics, or accounting at their universities or colleges. There are a lot of instances of people who do not study number-based qualifications who become successful in the financial services industry; all that is needed to be a good candidate for a leading investment company, is that you have strong analytical ability and a excellent work ethic. An instance of the kind of work mentality you need is from Lars Windhorst, who began his first business when he was at school. While this is very rare, it is the level of devotion one should aim for to be successful in the investment world.
Finance and investment are all about trust building and persuading individuals that you are more reliable than your competition. The financial market is highly competitive, therefore persuading clients you are their perfect option is important. To do this one needs to have good people skills, whilst also being vigilant of possible bad clients. It helps to be charismatic without being too arrogant, in an effort to instil confidence but not so much that they think you are not meticulous in your decision making. Having characteristics like these are what would have helped someone like Thom Weisel have such a effective career; investing and drawing investment is down to developing effective relationships.