The Olympics are an elite event – the best of the best compete there. The investment banking industry is an elite industry – the best of the best work there. Success is based on a meritocracy and you’ve got to be at the top of your game as a person to play and thrive in either arena. There are many ideas and principles that banking professionals can take from Olympians and apply in our industry.
#1. Getting there is just the start – athletes strive to reach the Olympic games – being there is a tremendous achievement given that sports careers are generally short, competition is very high and the opportunity only comes around every 4 years. But getting there is not enough for most athletes – even if they are not favourites, no olympic athlete arrives at the games being satisfied by just being there. They want to do the best they can and compete for medals.
This is also how we should think. Gaining a role in an investment bank is a tremendous achievement, but limiting our ambitions upon entry or in the early years because you think you’ve “made it”, will not result in a long, lucrative and successful career.
I remember when I first got a role in the investment banking industry – with Citibank London in the 1990s. I was so excited and my parents were really proud. It was a big deal and a life changing event. I bet you felt the same especially if you had to get through many grueling rounds of interviews and tests.
I soon realised that was just the beginning. Our industry is very competitive, things move very fast and expectations are high. So just like you, I buckled down and kept on going, learning as I went along, gained some qualifications and gained very valuable experience. Even now, 25 years on, I still don’t rest on my laurels because what’s important now wasn’t even a thought a quarter of a century ago. I treat every day as a new start and a new opportunity – there is far too much innovation, change and progress to declare that I’ve made it. You can do the same – just like the athletes have done each time they entered their arena in Tokyo.
#2. The challenge is the way and the fight is the way through – Medals are never awarded just for showing up. Every event at the Olympics has multiple entrants – competition is therefore very high. Every competitor has to beat a multitude of champions to claim a place on the podium. In many events, its not even other competitors that are the primary challenge – its the course or the environment or the weather or more often than not, its the athlete’s own mindset.
You can see the determination and the grit on the faces of every competitor – whether they be smashing records or just about completing their events. The challenge in front of them is what helps them to thrive – they know that their ability to even comprehend tackling these challenges is what sets them apart from non-Olympians. They also know that their journey to success depends entirely upon facing and fighting their way through the most difficult challenges.
The challenge and the fight is exactly what you need to face head on if you truly want to succeed in your investment banking career. More often than not, the easy challenges have been taken care of by other colleagues or by automation. So you’ll have to tackle the big challenges if you want to get ahead.
And you can do it. You overcame a big challenge to get into the industry in the first place – you know that you beat others to get your first position. I hope you realise that you’ll have to continuously face and conquer the big challenges to make meaningful progress. That often requires you to innovate, inspire others, think outside of the box and operate outside of your comfort zone even if that’s the least attractive option.
You can also create and take advantage of challenging situations. Think about the paralympic games. Most people would not be able to do what the paralympians can do. Anybody can complete a 100 metres run, even if they are slow. But hardly anyone can complete a full wheelchair basketball game. I couldn’t – I’d be exhausted within 5 minutes. So the point is that challenging situations sort out the wheat from the chaff and you can use this principle to create your own competitive advantage. Do things which are hard, which others are scared of doing (because they have a fear of failure) – you’ll have little competition which will massively increase your chances of over-achieving and succeeding.
#3. Behind every gold medalist is solid rock – every participant at the Olympics has a coach, a mentor, a guide. These are the support system or solid rocks that support the athlete. Some coaches are former athletes themselves who can pass on their practical experience. Other coaches help with mindset, nutrition and fitness – using their own particular expertise and methods. The best athletes are those who are willing to seek out advice and guidance and who acknowledge that they can always learn and improve. The ‘solid as a rock’ support that athletes receive is the main reason why the best of the best win the medals. All Olympians are undoubtedly superbly talented – but its their coaches that have polished them, their mindset and their performances.
The most successful colleagues in our industry are the same. Apart from the small handful of high achievers with egos who claim to have reached the top on their own, most successful people in our industry will acknowledge that they had support on their journey. Nothing of note was ever achieved by an individual on their own. For those of you who are early to mid career, you can fast track your performance and career by leveraging on the experience of others. You really don’t have to do this on your own.
Our industry is very competitive and you’re doing well if you manage to thrive over a long period of time. Have a rock solid team behind you who can guide you throughout the different stages of your career, who can help you with your mindset, who believe in you when you most doubt yourself. An ad-hoc mentor who you meet for lunch once in a while is ok, but not outstanding. Engaging with the right professional coach with high levels of commitment from yourself will help produce great results for you.
#4. High Standards are everything – The one thing that really caught my eye at these Olympic games from Tokyo is that the Japanese organisers have done everything to a very high standard. Every single aspect has been carefully thought through, designed properly and executed with the utmost highest quality. The attention to detail is outstanding. This was very apparent when I watched the opening ceremony. We’ve just had 18 months of disruption due to the pandemic, where many things have been compromised and yet that opening day of the games clearly showed that approaching a challenge with a mindset of high standards allows us to overcome and achieve.
The Brazilians did an amazing job in 2016; the British did an amazing job in 2012; the Chinese did an amazing job in 2008 and the Japanese have done an even better job than all of the previous hosts. You’ve probably heard of the Japanese business term Kaizen which is derived from 2 words: ‘Kai’ which means change and ‘Zen’ which means for the better. Its clear to see that the principle of Kaizen has been applied to these games – everybody has operated to the highest standards and made things better than they were before.
Whichever investment bank you work for, this is a very powerful idea to take forward. I’ve spent most of the last decade working for a Japanese bank and I can see that aiming to do the right thing and doing it in the right way has been a central pillar in the organisation. Every initiative and project that I’ve worked upon has aimed to raise standards and I can see the benefits. Our regulators also operate with this mindset. All of these annoying regulations that we have to adhere to aims to raise the standard. Its hard work operating at this level, and we’ve all had to reinvent ourselves and our organisations, but I think that our industry is in a much better shape than say around the time of the credit crunch for example.
Every competitor at the games lives to the highest standards. They know what the prize is and do the best to get there. They focus on their nutrition, their health, their sleep, their technique, their daily routine. We can do the same even if we are not elite athletes – but we are the best in what we do. Its actually much easier (and better for you) to operate at a clearly defined high standard every day than to just show up like a roller-coaster where nobody knows whether you are functioning at a high level or a low level.
Holding other people up to higher standards is also important. They are probably doing the best they can, but if you know better then its your responsibility to guide them – even if they are in another team. That’s not about stepping on anybody else’s toes or interfering – its about thinking holistically for the greater good. For example, I’ve worked on a number of processes (at various banks), where one team was tolerating the bad outputs produced by another team. Yes, they did highlight issues and raised requests for changes but they never got implemented. Over time, the consumer team built temporary tactical workarounds just so they could get on with their work. However, over time these temporary solutions somehow became permanent because the original people who knew about the problems had moved on. New people thought that everything was working fine so did not seek to investigate and improve. Its only later on that it became apparent that everybody had collectively accepted low standards and tolerated inadequate solutions. Don’t do that if you find yourself in that situation – instead escalate and get the problem solved once and for all. If you don’t, then I guarantee that a regulator or auditor will eventually find out the low standards that you tolerate.
#5. Continuity. The Olympic flame and the relay baton are both symbols of continuity. Whilst we marvel at the efforts of the host city and the performances of each athlete, its clear that everything is transitory. Tokyo has collectively been the custodian of the Olympic spirit and now that responsibility has been passed over to Paris. Similarly, this year’s crop of gold medalists are the new champions – but they took over from the previous champions from Rio-2016 and they’ll hand over their crowns to the new champions of Paris-2024.
That idea of custodianship and passing on the baton is very true for all of us in the investment banking industry. The organisation that you currently work for, most likely existed before you started your career and indeed before you were even born. And at the other end of the time spectrum, after you’ve retired and even later after you’ve gone for good, the organisation will still be there. So we are merely custodians. Its very liberating once you realise this. You can’t get too possessive about your team, department, function or process. They will eventually be taken over by others. Your only responsibility now is to ensure that you leave things in a better state than they are today. If you get this right, then you’ll get a chance to create a positive impact now and leave a legacy for the future.
Adopt the Olympic Spirit
Our industry is challenging – there are many challenges that we face individually and in our organisations. I’ve had days (and weeks) when everything seemed too hard – the work was hard, the environment was difficult, the work-life balance was non-existent. This was very true at the beginning of my career. And yet like you and like an Olympian, I’ve done my best and appear to be making progress – I’m too humble to say that I’ve made it – I haven’t. I’m on a journey with a beginners mind and with curiosity and I’m having fun.
The Olympics are all about human spirit and collectively doing things together for the better. There is a lot we can learn from elite sports and the olympians.
I trust that you found the above informative and inspiring (or even entertaining), but I am also aware that you may not have the capacity or know-how to action / implement changes so that you (or your colleagues) can get to a gold medal standard. Remember that all good things take time. Become aware of what is possible and take the first baby steps to get there – no Olympic medalist was ever an overnight success – it takes time to do the right thing properly – but it does start with you.
Did this article resonate with you?
I’d love to hear your thoughts and if you need help with something that I’ve triggered in your mind, then drop me a line.