Improvise, Adapt, Overcome
Thinking about the Memorial Day weekend, I remember reading somewhere that there is an old adage in the Marine Corps - “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome”.
Having lived and learned, one thing that I am convinced of is that the change is the only constant in life. In order to thrive in life, you must accept this fact. I think this slogan is as applicable to our lives in general as we traverse thru this world and face change. Some changes are pleasant, such as welcoming a child into the world, moving to a place you like, or getting into shape. Others, not so much. I wanted to share a short story of improvising, adapting, and overcoming in my life.
When I was in my early 20s, I was hell bent on passing three really hard tests to complete the CFA Program, which is a fairly well-known graduate level credential in finance.
As I faced this monumental task of self studying for 300 hours for each of the three exams over the span of 3 years, I was also working as a junior financial analyst for a hospitality firm on the west coast. Being junior, I was given mountains of grunt work that would soak up all of my energy, rendering me incapable of doing just about anything else, let alone study for a really hard test. To add to the stress, the firm I was working for was unprofitable, and was being sold, which further added a sense of instability to my life.
As I faced a hard deadline for the CFA Exams to be administered on the first Saturday of June in Sacramento, CA, I knew that I had to somehow study "faster" and more efficiently. So I devised a solution - I set a goal that every time I studied every one of nearly a hundred complicated subjects in finance, I needed to be able to explain the concept verbally within a minute without using a pen, paper, or a spreadsheet. This worked amazingly well. As I practiced this approach, I got very good at it. But then came the second issue.
The issue was that there were so many of these concepts across accounting, derivatives, corporate finance, and lord knows what else, at times I felt that I would “forget” what I was able to verbally regurgitate just a week ago. It sort of felt like my brain’s “hard-drive” was approaching its capacity. It also did not help that after I finished Topic A, and then switched to Topic B, which had nothing to do Topic A, Topic B would completely erode my sterling knowledge of Topic A.
So I came up with another idea. I started making “selfie videos” of myself explaining the topic verbally to “bottle” my understanding as soon as I figured it out. Once I had this video, I could go always go back and listen to myself explaining the concepts the way I understood them. In other words, if I forgot a concept, I would “go back in time” and hear myself explain it exactly how understood it then. Soon, these videos went from a few dozen to over 50! I found myself doing nothing but watching these videos over and over again on my commute to work. Now, I could use even my commute to study! It was a breakthrough! To top it off, I got very efficient in time management. As the firm was undergoing a sale, I would find myself "idling" from time to time in the office, and I would use every spare minute at work to study. I learned how to eat faster, shower faster, make my bed faster, do laundry faster. I basically optimized all of my non CFA Candidate life (which thankfully is still fairly optimized).
But none of this solved a larger issue that I chronically lacked the energy to study these topic because of my imposing job. As the weeks grew into months, I would feel mental exhaustion, combined with chronic back pain from sitting on a chair for over 15 hours daily (between work and study). To counter this issue, I figured out if I just slept for 3 hours between 7pm and 10pm after finishing work, I had more energy to study from 10pm to 1am (had to do this daily). I somehow altered my body's circadian clock to accommodate this, and I felt a lot more energized to study on a daily basis.
I am generally a person who runs “cold”, yet ironically, I prefer to wear shorts over sweatpants. Maybe the two are interrelated. So when I would study at night between January and May for these exams (usually wearing shorts), I would have a space heater running under my desk. One day, I visited my mother, who noticed a weird change in color on my left calf. I could not figure out what it was. After some soul searching, I figured out that as I was lost in the studying and making my “selfie videos”, I was slowly burning my leg with the space heater! I got thru the test, but permanently lost the ability to grow hair on the calf of my left leg. No love lost here!
The CFA Program was a challenging journey. The exams were difficult, but so was my life situation at that point. But I will categorically state that going through this mental challenge expanded my ability to think critically, teach myself new topics, stay motivated, and take on big monumental projects with high risk of failure. Although I ended up getting this certification, yet never traded a stock, a bond, or a derivative professionally in my life, it taught me how to improvise, adapt, overcome. I finished the program in 2013, and since then, I had the privilege to take on other monumental and high stakes projects at work, and my ability to get through the low points in some ways is built on the playbook of obtaining the CFA Charter. The battle is mostly in our head; if we can get past the initial shock of change, and get our focus back, it kick starts the strategic thinking.
Have a Happy Memorial Day! Semper Fi!
- Bill Singh, CFA
Founder, LTM Consulting Group