Yanwen’s blog

Yesterday I talked about an asset manager. As a first generation immigrant, she realized her American dream in a matter of a decade, an extraordinary accomplishment in this short timeframe!

Yesterday I talked with my children about her and asked them, what's her secret for success? I know there’s no one size fits all formula for success. Still, I'd like to capture one salient feature in her that, I think is essential to her success.

That is her curiosity. She started as an analyst of domestic stocks. She read intensively and extensively stocks in her field, yet she was not content with that. She was driven by her curiosity to read beyond her job description and venture into new fields of knowledge and transformed herself from a novice into an expert in these new areas. 

This is how she accumulated knowledge in breath and depth. With this heightened level of knowledge base, she could command a high vantage point and have a broad perspective and a far-reaching vision, and thus was able to make informed decisions. This is how she made herself stand out and advanced from an analyst to a fund manager and to her current position—Director and Portfolio Manager/Senior Analyst.

A Chinese saying describes her like this, "站得高, 看得远" (zhàn dé gāo, kàn dé yuǎn). That is, stand from a high position and see far away. For anyone who wants to rise above the average in her field, she must start with this process of knowledge accumulation. From that high vantage point, she can see farther and be able to think strategically for the future.

Last October we interviewed someone from finance industry, a director and portfolio manager/senior analyst at a capital management company. I'm quite an outsider when it comes to finance. Still I learned a lot from her. Here are two of them.

(1) What qualities are you looking for when hiring people? 

--After passing the initial technical screening, the final crucial considerations are to see if the applicant has the passion for the job. We don't want to hire someone who jump around. Another one is teamwork or cultural fit.

(2) Can you describe your normal workday?

--There's no normal day for me. I spend almost two-third of time outside office. If I'm working on a new company, I will most likely go to the company and talk with the company's management, with its customers, also with its competitors. I will spend a lot of time inspecting the company physically. 

I like to travel and learn from field observations, especially in areas that I am not familiar with. For example, to understand how Indian consumers consume, I have to go to India to see for myself. This is my style as an asset manager. You can't get firsthand knowledge by sitting in the office.

A Chinese saying perfectly describes her style: "读万卷书不如行万里路" (dú wàn juǎn shū bùrú xíng wàn lǐ lù). The literal meaning is "Reading 10,000 books is not as beneficial as traveling 10,000 miles." 

The saying emphasizes the importance of seeing for yourself and of real-life explorations through travel. We acquire knowledge from books, but more importantly from our own observations, exploration and analysis.

A few days ago I mentioned one of my meetings with my Korean student. I told her this, "It's essential to balance a focus on the present and an eye on a large timeframe in your life. ... Don't lose sight of the future when you are overwhelmed with the busy life today." During our next meeting, I will explain why she should never lose sight of the future. 

Most people autopilot their daily activities, me2. That is, people are mostly controlled by inertia, product of habits, always taking the path of least resistance, regardless of happenings outside.

Thus people are easily caught up in unimportant daily minutiae and miss the large picture. Even with their set goals, they get lost or miss their targets. This is one of the reasons why people let go of their resolutions.

Here comes a Chinese wisdom: "纲举目张" (gāng jǔ mù zhāng). The literal meaning: When you lift the head-rope, the meshes will come open. The deeper meaning is: when you take care of the essential and all the non-essential will take care of themselves. 

纲举目张 emphasizes the importance of focusing on the essential, the main issue. This is what Chinese like to say, 抓主要矛盾, solve the key problem first.

When you have a clear goal and the blueprint to reach it, keep in sight of this instead of getting sidetracked or entangled in the messy non-essentials.

Thursday morning I received Chinese New Year greeting call from someone in Ning Xia, China. It's always great to hear from old friends during holiday seasons. She was here in 2020 with her young boy.

During the call, she recalled how we helped her while she was in Kansas. It was always heartwarming to hear people express gratitude.

To be sure, over the years in Kansas we have helped many people in whatever way we could, including our young relatives. One of them expressed his gratitude to us saying, he can't imagine where he would be today if without our help in 2006 in Kansas. We never expected anything at that time. That’s why any expression of gratitude comes like a delightful surprise now.

A few years ago I heard of this Chinese saying, "赠人玫瑰，手有余香" (Zèng rén méiguī, shǒu yǒu yú xiāng), meaning, you give someone a rose, its fragrance is left in your hand. This perhaps comes from the English saying, "The roses in her hand, the flavor is mine." I must say many cultures overlap heavily when it comes to propagate positive values.

The idea is obvious, when you do a good deed, the positive effect is yours and will stay with you for the long time. The saying essentially encourages people to offer kindness to others in need because helping others benefits both sides. 

I often share these words with high school graduates: nothing makes you happier than knowing the world becomes a better place because of you. Do good now and see the long rippling effects of your kind actions in the years to come. The blessings are always yours.

Last Sunday meeting with my Korean student was not an easy one. She started apologizing profusely, "I am so guilty for not having done my homework."

My student has been in the U.S. for over 10 years. Her ability to read and write in English is highly proficient. But since she works at a Korean company, goes to a local Korean church, shops at Korean stores, and lives pretty much in a Korean community here, she needs help with listening and speaking. So I told her, homework each day: listen to news video one per day and sharing with me during our meeting.

She told me, I am very busy, with my work and two kids. I have to listen to the news many times to understand it and take notes but I don't have time every day. Wednesday I shared this with my other Korean student. She told me the same thing.

Then and there I realized my mistakes. I’m not her, so I don’t know how much time it will take to complete the assignment. I thought the homework would take at most 10 minutes and I never intended to burden her with a heavy workload each day. 

I told her not to worry about homework, it's just something for you to do when you have time. It's essential to balance a focus on the present and an eye on a large timeframe in your life. Like in 10 years your eldest daughter will be in college, think what you do today and what you want her to take with her in college. Don't lose sight of that future when you are overwhelmed with the busy life today.

When Zhuang-zi said, "Look how happy the fish are swimming in the river, his companion said, "子非鱼，安知鱼之乐" (Zi fēi yú, ān zhī yú zhī lè), "You are not fish. How do you know fish is happy?" 

These words capture the challenges of empathy. Without being in the same shoes or sharing a similar experience, it is difficult to imagine and understand how others feel. Even under an exact similar situation, people may feel differently. Still, we try.