How
we perceive the world differs from how others perceive it. Our personality, upbringing,
education, knowledge, and experience shape our values and belief systems. Those
who are equipped with knowledge and a willingness to keep learning will excite
and broaden their creativity and imagination. Investing in knowledge will make
us more interesting, enhance our charisma and confidence, and prepare us to
overcome life's challenges and difficulties.
When
I look back on my life, further study in the UK was my best life decision. This
decision stemmed from one of my top values – pursuing personal growth. My
qualification MSc in Finance gave me an excellent entry ticket to the
investment bank back in the 90s. The booming industry benefited from China's
growth and foreign investors’ interest in Asia. The fast industrial expansion
created many opportunities for investment bankers in terms of career
advancement and income generation.
I am
a committed lifetime learner, and my curiosity drives me to strive to gain an
in-depth understanding of the issues I explore. Another strong motivator for me
is to desire to act as a role model for my kids. I teach my kids to keep
learning and aim to make progress continuously. A small step each day will
constitute a big stride in a year. I wish to exert a positive influence on my
kids, coachees, and readers and inspire them to strive for personal growth.
The early stage of
my education
I
came from a poor family. Early on, I realised education was the only way for me
to escape from poverty. When I was in secondary school, I found I was neither a
fast learner nor hardworking. Like most kids, I loved to play, but at the same
time, I was able to commit to finishing my assignments on time. I usually
studied two weeks before examinations, which was enough for me to get an
average mark of above 80. I felt it was good enough and allowed me time to
play. I never aimed at excellence, or to be the best. For me being among
the top 20 for the year of around 250 students (Form 1 to Form 3) was good
enough. I had one experience in Form 2, I didn’t work hard enough, which led to
my below-80 average mark and beyond 20 rankings, I was upset. Therefore, I
reflected and decided to work harder since then.
In
my life, I generally aim to achieve above-80 or above-90 marks, depending on
the task or the project and the constraints of time and resources. I am not a
perfectionist, but I wish to achieve relatively high standards. I believe
chasing perfection demands too much time that could be spent doing something
else I can benefit from. This approach of leaving some margin for improvement
allows me to handle criticism relatively easily.
When
I was young, I could not sit down to read books other than my textbooks because
reading books was optional. Textbooks, on the other hand, were crucial to my
academic results. I could not read novels or science fiction that my
friends were keen on. I felt stressed especially when faced with thick
tomes. Huge numbers of pages scared me. At that stage, when I started to
read, I would drift off into my own thoughts. For example, reading descriptions
would set my mind into a thinking mode, inspire me to invent my own story and
distract me from what I was reading. In addition, I loved and enjoyed thinking
about life. Where would I go after I die? Why does the world exist? Whether God
exist? Besides, I also imagined my story with myself being one character. Occasionally,
I thought about different topics till 2-3 am before I slept. I was more engaged
in my thinking world than in the real world. Maybe my imagination was funnier
and happier.
In
Hong Kong, most of our older generations came from China after World War II or
the Cultural Revolution and they were not much educated. My parents only
received basic education in primary school, so they didn’t understand education
was important. The Hong Kong government implemented nine years of free and compulsory
education, and our generation benefitted. My parents were unaware of my strong
desire to keep learning. They knew I enjoyed learning in school and was
motivated to do homework and revision. I always passed tests and
examinations, so I never bothered my mum to meet my teachers. My parents didn’t
have high expectations of me, and my brother and sisters, they just needed us
to pass tests and examinations.
In
1985, my parents decided to set up a factory to manufacture children’s wear in
Kowloon, leaving me to live alone in our public housing flat in the New
Territories so I could finish my Form 5 education. Thereafter, I moved to live with
them in the factory and studied A levels. I wished to support my parents in
doing chores and taking care of my younger sisters who were 12 and 4 because I
am the eldest. It was challenging for me, as my parents were busy at the
factory. Frequently, I was busy with cooking, laundry, and cleaning. I also
helped them with factory work such as sewing, packaging, cutting thread, and
even carrying cargo. I had no time to play with friends. My daily routine
during that time was going to school, and then taking care of the chores and
cleaning. After showering, at about 9 pm, I would start to do my homework or
study, sometimes till 3-4 am. I only had 3-4 hours of sleep every day. I
remember one time when I was studying physics, which was a difficult subject
for me, my mum scolded me and asked for help in sewing, so to finish production
to meet shipping deadline. I understood their difficulties, so I also
prioritised their needs. Despite their challenging situation, my parents never
requested me to stop my education to work with them. Later, they still
supported me to study at Hong Kong Polytechnic and further study in the UK.
I
loved mathematics, but I wasn’t intelligent enough to handle all Pure
Mathematics questions. We had an exercise book of around 2000 questions, and I
attempted to finish all of them. At a later stage of my life, I found out that
the answers to these questions had no contribution to my life, but continuous
trying and attempting different approaches helped me to hone my persistence and
perseverance. This never-give-up spirit has become an essential trait in my
career and life. It was the hardest period of my life, but I value it as it
served me well later, so I was fine to work till midnight to publish strategy
reports. Also, I didn’t mind contributing more work to the team, so most
colleagues liked to work with me. Toughened by some hard times in my younger
years, I found managing the initial stage of my career was relatively easy,
because of my ability to focus, apply myself, multi-task, work efficiently and
my willingness to help others.
When
I finished my A levels, there were only two universities in Hong Kong, and I
could not get in due to my poor results. Hong Kong Polytechnic accepted me to
study for the Higher Diploma in Mathematics, Statistics and Computing. After
finishing the higher diploma, I still wished to study further. My goal of
pursuing personal growth is never-ending.
Further study
After
graduating, I helped my father by working in his factory for around one year.
Then I explored outside opportunities and worked for 11 months in Bridge
Information System (a financial information provider) and eight months in Prime
East Securities (a Singapore equity house) between 1994 and 1995. My husband
(who was my boyfriend at the time) and I decided to further study in the UK. As
we got an exemption with our higher diploma, we directly went to the final year
of the BSc (Hons) in Statistics and Operational Research, and we studied very
hard to achieve our first-class honours. Then Lancaster University accepted us
to MSc in Finance, I also received a scholarship to support a small portion of
my tuition fees. We worked very hard and achieved distinction.
Career development
Despite
obtaining my master’s degree, I still believed there were many things for me to
learn in the financial market, I kept reading news and research reports written
by other analysts or strategists internally or externally, and I kept
validating the information through my analysis. I tried to understand different
perspectives and insights and gradually built my analytical models with
multi-dimensional perspectives. My attitude to keep learning and growing
allowed me to stay competitive in the demanding and ever-evolving financial
industry. I worked hard but investment banks are highly competitive and full of
intelligent and hardworking fast learners, so the pressure was never off.
I
worked in the BNP Paribas Macro and Strategy team between 2000 and 2005; my
focus was on quantitative analysis for the Asia ex-Japan markets. I supported
my boss in analysing liquidity, earnings, valuation, interest rates and
sentiment of different markets. My responsibility was to do a comprehensive
analysis of strategy reports. My boss would write the cover, executive summary
and occasionally with a theme, and I wrote the rest. I learned by reading his
writeups, analysing how he formulated a market view and built supporting
arguments. His focus was on marketing events and interaction with clients
globally. Not long, he became my role model, and I wished to become a
strategist. I also regard him as my mentor in life.
I
realised that some younger colleagues, expected their bosses to adopt a
teacher-like approach to training. They complained they were not being taught.
A crucial point is that in a fast-paced working environment, there's hardly
ever room for school-style teaching, therefore the ability to self-learn, and learn
by observation, analysis and imitation is essential.
Although
I enjoyed my quantitative analyst and assistant strategist role, I was
disappointed because I could not apply the derivatives knowledge that I learned
from my master’s degree. Fortunately, when I transferred to the derivatives
department, I could apply my derivatives knowledge. Together with the valuable
know-how that I learned from my boss and other economists made my experience unique
in the market and lifted my confidence and job satisfaction.
When
BNP Paribas set up a hedge fund sales team in Hong Kong in 2005, I moved to
work with the team as the desk analyst. I went to work with the global
derivatives research team in Paris for two weeks. My goal was to learn their
quantitative and derivative research models and explore how to apply them in
Asia. Because I had solid experience in the macro and strategy realm, I could
integrate macro, quantitative and derivatives into my research, which was
relatively unique in the market. In addition, when the company requested me to
write investment research on Pakistan, Vietnam, Japan, and Shenzhen, although I
did not have any ideas about these markets at the start, I still put my best
effort into researching, learning, and organising proper investment research. I
dared to embrace new tasks and allow imperfections, but I knew it was
advantageous for me to learn and grow.
The challenging
stage
In
my 40s, when I faced a career setback and found raising kids not that
straightforward, I thought my thinking was inflexible. It was the stage I began
to read. I started to explore solutions by reading some Chinese books that were
outside my professional areas. I chose books about positive psychology,
enneagram, and parenting, which were inspiring. Those books helped me to
broaden my knowledge, expand my horizons and tune into the right mindset. I
learned that when I couldn’t change the situation, I could change my attitude
to it and make my life happier. During that challenging period, reading helped
me a lot. When I learned about the fixed mindset and growth mindset a few years
ago, I realised my growth mindset had a breakthrough in development when I
faced hurdles.
I
started reading English books about wisdom and parenting in early 2022.
Initially, I read and comprehended very slowly, I needed to keep checking the
dictionary. After two years, I can feel my improvement.
Tips to the young
generation
My
advice to young people in tertiary education is to have a sense of gratitude,
and not take anything for granted. Many people may not have the resources to
further study, therefore, appreciate what you have. I advise my mentees who
seek further study to go to a famous university if possible. Choose a relevant subject
they like because it is hard to predict what their future employers will
prefer. When I interviewed job candidates, most of their qualifications were
similar, I chose flexible team players with good attitudes.
Young
people should realise that whatever you learn and experience, will create your
unique profile. Treasure the people who gave you the opportunity and support
you to learn and grow. Having a sense of gratitude and expressing appreciation
can draw more positive events into your life.
Tips to parents
In Hong Kong, some
parents overly focus on "winning at the starting line". Parents
expect small children to deliver
excellent academic results and excel out of school in extracurricular
activities which puts them under tremendous
pressure. This oppressive atmosphere frequently makes the
children lose interest and joy in learning.
Parents can help their children cultivate a growth mindset so that they will pursue growth along their life journeys by:
1) Cultivate the growth mindset themselves;
2) Praise their children’s effort, not their talent;
3) Encourage their children to embrace new challenges despite possible mistakes and failures;
4) Inculcate in their children with a positive perspective that mistakes and failures are lessons and opportunities that lead to growth and advancement;
5) Teach their children to approach constructive criticism positively, to absorb but not neglect, reflect, and improve;
6) Foster persistence and perseverance during the learning process;
7) Remind their children to enjoy the journey, be proud of progress and cultivate motivation.
This mentality focuses on sustainable development but not on
the starting line. By equipping with a growth mindset, children will be able to
keep growing and conquering life's difficulties and challenges.
Readers can refer to Dr Carol Dweck’s “Mindset” to
learn more about the growth mindset, and the advantages of having a growth
mindset for children, parents, and athletes, as well as in relationships and
businesses.
More about my
learning
I
shared another article “My Path to Coaching – A Journey of Learning and
Growth”. Being a lifetime learner and a Life Coach, striving for personal
growth via reading and learning is essential to my development.
Winner Lee
Life Coach, Mentor, Writer
The original article was published on LinkedIn on May 18, 2024.
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