I have been thinking what I have learnt in the past year. I have indeed learnt a lot in the technical sense, about Black Scholes model, about Greeks, about Vasicek Model etc. These are indeed very important and will be extremely important in my career.
But I have been thinking. I think I have learnt much more in the non technical sense than from the books. We have great professors here at LBS. Great classmates. Great school. But what they taught me is far more than that. I have learnt, by coming to London alone, that I can be alone. Overseas. And be happy. This is a personal breakthrough for me. And I think I will benefit greatly from it. To venture into the unknown, To do things I thought I could never do. To take risks. Life is all about risks isnt it?
The second I learnt is what is life all about. I have not figured out the answer yet and I figured I will never know until the day I die. But I do know I have the courage to find out and to enjoy the process of life much more than before. No longer is each test just a paper to me. I realised I actually enjoy the process. I want to enjoy the process. Cos isnt that what life is all about?
My professor just sent us the last email for exam preparation. Inside it was a speech by Steve Jobs which was indeed inspiring...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3014637678488153340
"Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."
"I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."
"I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking.
Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."
"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."
"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."
