•A Review of The Past Decade

I’m sure all of us have done the “what has happened in the past 10 years” dig through New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, [Your City Name] Chronicle, etc.  Although the collective memory of this past decade exist in those documented articles, everyone’s experience and history is different.  So, in order to contribute my part, I’ve selected to write about the key moments of each year…

2000: I bought into the whole Y2K bug, like many others, so I forced my parents to buy tons of canned foods, fill our bathtub with water, print out all the important documents stored on our PCs, and then ended up sleeping through the new year, only to wake up at 3am and realize that nothing had changed and our digitized world didn’t explode.

2001: Who can forget 9/11?  I was getting ready for school when the radios and TV stations blasted the fact that the Twin Towers had been hit by a plane.  Although we didn’t shut down school that day, everyone’s attention focused on the news.  I remember just feeling an unexplainable pain for the families of those who died.  For them, it was just another typical day where their loved ones went to school, work, store next door, etc… but on 9/11, they never returned…

2002: I made a list of all the places I wanted to visit/live in before I turned 35: LA, New York, Paris, Venice, Madrid, London, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, and more.

2003: Looking out the window, I saw the wings of the plane glide through the white cloud.  I was on my way to the East Coast… leaving everything I knew behind and starting on a new adventure.  I didn’t know what was ahead of me, but I was excited.

2004: On our drive down to LA, my friends and I encountered a large bee/wasp that flew in through the window.  It stung my friend and we had to use frozen pees from a local supermarket to stop the swelling but that didn’t stop our journey.  We continued and right outside of the city of LA, I had a leg cramp from gassing and breaking for over an hour due to traffic.  I hate LA traffic!

2005: My director stared at me and obstinately said “No” to my proposal.  I gave her a written proposal of changing the way the program had been run for the past several years.  My proposal meant a reversal of everything we did, but I knew that it was either make a change now or fail miserably in the future.  Finally, I convinced her that this change could be temporary and that if it didn’t work and we didn’t get the results I had promised, we would go back to the past… but we never had to because it was a success!  Determination, perseverance and good politicking goes a long way…

2006: Met some of the best friends I could ask for, who stood by my side through thick and thin.  You know who you are!  Thank you!  (Oh, and by “met” I mean not just 2006 but 2003-2007!)

2007: Like any other typical training day in Investment Banking, the analysts listened to the drum of the instructor’s voice as he tried to teach us about finance.  My colleagues snoozed in their seats, while I wrote down every single word.  I had no idea what anything was, but I knew I had to learn.  I promised myself that I would gain as much out of Banking as I possibly could.  The end result…?  I did.

2008: I watched with horror as our company stock dropped to single digits in a matter of hours.  We hovered above the $1 mark.  How did all this happen?  How did we go from boom times to the deep recession?  The first thing that came to my mind was my parents.  What about their 401k?  What about their retirement money?  I haven’t earned enough in my lifetime to be able to support them… at least, not yet.  I could do nothing, but just watch and hope for a recovery.

2009: My MD gave us his notice of resignation that Friday noon.  We were shocked.  He had been one of the best MDs in the bank… perhaps even on the Street.  He understood our need to be the best as well as our need to have a life of our own.  He was like a father to us analysts… and he just up and left us.  This moment made me realize something pivotal… that nothing is forever.  He did a cost-benefit analysis and saw there were other opportunities elsewhere.  I realized then and there that I had to stop and reevaluate what I truly wanted… what it meant for me to be happy and successful… and, like him, make a change in my life.

Although I am still exploring my options, I now know that fear is only 50% of the process… it’s my checks in life… it’s something that keeps me to grounded in reality, but the other 50% is to push aside those fears and push myself from the ground and into action.

•New Year’s Resolution, pt. 2: A Tribute to 2009!

This post is a tribute to the many things that has happened and the many people I have met in 2009:

Events:

• Retaining my banking job at the height of lay-offs
• US Airways Flight 1549 crashes into the Hudson river
• Barack Obama wins the presidency
• Swine-flu reaches pandemic levels
• Re-evaluating my goals, quitting banking and getting a life
• Starting a new job
• Moving to a new apartment
• Improving my health

People:

• My grandparents.  Although this year, I lost my grandma, I am still grateful to have known her well.  All of my grandparents have brought me up at one time in my life, and they’re the ones that taught me to care for others, to strive for excellence and, above else, to be proud of who I am.
• New friends.  As many of my friends know, I love meeting new people.  The different tastes and passions each person has creates such diversity in views that I become excited with the aspect of meeting someone different from myself.  I learn about great new cultures and jobs because of the different people I meet, and I am thankful that this year, I have met many many different people, from whom I can draw inspiration.
• A Mystery in my life.

Of course, no true tribute can be without the incompletion of my lofty 2009 goals. (See full list and what’s actually been completed.)

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Part 1: Enjoy Life Now!
Part 3: A Letter to Myself

•Swine Flu Sheds Light on Role of Public Health

Today, the Economix blog on New York Times published “Swine Flu vs. Financial Panics”, which notes 5 key advantages public health has over economics:

1. The public takes these officials more seriously.
2. Public health officials know how to communicate effectively.
3. They, with the help of doctors, provide us warnings and indications of vulnerability as often as possible.
4. Practice makes perfect.  They practice how to handle situations like this (not just model them out in spreadsheets).
5. The public being worried equals potential gains for the public health sector.

PEOPLE, the last point is the KEY difference between public health and economics!  Of course, the public health officials will want to communicate effectively, warn constantly, and practice even when unnecessary.  They generate profit for industries like big pharma, consumer products, and media every time they open their mouths.  Just think of how much government funding is given to pharma companies to create vaccines, how many times you’ve gone into Duane Reade/CVS/Walgreen’s etc to get abundant supplies of anti-bacterial soap, hand sanitizers, etc, and how often you’ve read or watched the news recently!

However, for economics, it needs stability.  One little peep of a possible recession turns the economy into a wobbling mess.  And, trust me, you don’t want the economists to “practice” doomsday scenarios.  Heck, I don’t even want to think about the possibility of global financial failure (oh wait…).

Plus, the government is an aid to public health but interference for economics.  In public health, the big G actually wants to help and usually steps aside and let the public health officials lead the stage.  In economics, the big G wants to be the centerfold and is sometimes willing to destroy or at least hurt companies in their way.

The take-away?  The health industry is where the $$$ lies.  People will always be willing to pay to maintain their health.