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Anniversary of a Good Thing


"Yo Mista! How come you left yo job when you wuz makin' so much?"

Today marks the one year anniversary of my last day as an investment banking monkey analyst.

Traditionally, most investment bankers send a generic farewell e-mail to their colleagues on their last day in the office (unless of course they got fired and were escorted out by security). This is what they tend to look like:
Friends and Colleagues,
Today is my last day at [firm name].
Thank you for making the past [time at firm] such a rich and rewarding experience. I wish you all the best of luck.  Please keep in touch.
Regards,
[monkey name]
[monkey contact info] 
Yes, these are quite short and boring. Most bankers don't even bother to compose their own - they just copy and paste farewell e-mails from their predecessors and replace the personal information with their own. I find it hilarious that even on their last day, bankers can't help but use copy and paste. Very fitting. 

It makes complete sense then that the first thing I did this morning was read the farewell e-mail I sent exactly one year ago. Here it is: 
Friends and Colleagues,
 
Today is my last day at [my firm's name]. After nearly two years, I could not be happier. Seriously.

There are some people I want to sincerely thank for my learning and development, but I'm pretty sure they already know who they are. A special thanks to my friends in the healthcare bullpen - I hope you all find what you're looking for.

My contact information is below for those interested in keeping in touch. With that, I would like to close with a quote from Andrew Lahde, a former hedge fund manager:

"… I will let others try to amass nine, ten or eleven figure net worths. Meanwhile, their lives suck… they look forward to their two week vacation in January during which they will likely be glued to their Blackberries or other such devices. What is the point? They will all be forgotten in fifty years anyway… Give up on leaving your mark. Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life."

Enjoy life. I like the sound of that.
All the best,
[Yo Mista]
That was a good day. And I've had many more since.
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Comments

nh said…
congratulations!
March 3, 2010 at 9:44 AM
Anonymous said…
I remember that day and rejoicing your termination. many happy days of wife swap, super glue, and afternoon coffee lay ahead of us.... we were so young.
March 4, 2010 at 12:06 AM
freudianslips said…
ooooh I remember getting this email! It was a pretty good email considering like you said most people just write generic bullshit when leaving.

Also if I hadn't said before I really like reading your blog. It's personal in a very touching way. I really admire that quality, the ability to just put yourself out there, talking about things that most people would hesitate to address (this is mostly in reference to "The Hero" post). I know I often have a problem opening myself up easily to other people, so perhaps we all can learn that from you! :)

Anyway dude enough with the gushy talk. Hope you're not getting anymore snow days because that's just bullshit!!!
March 4, 2010 at 11:39 AM
Yo Mista! said…
@ NH and Anonymous:
Thank you! Yes, they were indeed fun times. Lots of Dexter, coffee and random house "projects"...

@ Laila:
Thank you so much! Seriously, I appreciate your readership and thoughts.

Unfortunately, no more snow days for me. Sad face :(

When are you leaving for Pakistan?
March 4, 2010 at 8:13 PM
Unknown said…
This is so freakin awesome. Love your writing style :D you're starting to inspire me to write..we'll see how that turns out1 lol
But hey, you're rite about people copy pasting stuff. I would want to avoid that as much as possible, or at least re-phrase is it for God sake.

Keep writing, Finance is so booring though. Chill ;)
March 11, 2010 at 2:08 AM
Yo Mista! said…
@ Farooq:

Thanks dude. Appreciate your comments!

You should write. Although, it took quite a lot of people telling me over a long period of time to write to actually get me to write.

The easiest way to write is to keep reminding yourself that you're writing for you rather than an audience (to avoid "pressure" to blog on a regular basis). It's so much easier that way.
March 11, 2010 at 6:56 AM
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