Birds and, well...no Bees.

This morning was full of wildlife…well, compared to what I saw in Korea on my way to work—which was none. On my walk to the train I saw a coyote crossing the road: the thing was quite fearless. Then there was a pair of ducks right on the train tracks. It looks as if they were eating some grain that had spilled out of a hopper car as it went by. They were also pretty domesticated; only flying away when the train was a few meters away. Granted, they were on the neighboring tracks, but you’d think a 1 kg (2.5 lb) bird would be spooked be a 55 tonne (60 ton) locomotive.


You can barely see them in the early morning light. The male Mallard is on the rail feeling for the rumbling of a train while his hen feeds.

Time for another book review…let me think, which one stands out in my mind? Ah, yes, Monkey Business. This was written by a guy who went through the investment banking analyst position training and workload at Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette (now part of CSFB). If you need a good read and insight into that system (granted, it has changed a bit since then…but I find that most things in this industry are more likely to be the same than change—especially if the firms figure that the old ways are just fine/profitable). I don’t have as much to say about this one because, like so many of its genre, it is autobiographical. One of the standouts is when he was working on an IPO he spent days and weeks traveling and sitting in on useless meetings until the prospectus was finally ready. His big job was to ensure that the printers had the firm name in the correct font and the company motto was centered just right underneath it. If he screwed that up then his name was mud…you’ll have to read it now to find out if he washed out of there on one screw-up.

I’ve been meeting more of the brokers in the office and getting, generally, a warm reception. We’ll see how many actually step up to the plate and refer, but I know that these concepts (estate and insurance planning) are pretty alien to the financing and trading brokers that we have here. Many of them have quite a few questions about how this stuff works (which is cool) and I’m pretty amazed at how much I’ve retained over the years (even after 2 years in soju-soaked Korea). I have to be thankful to my estate lawyer buddy too—he always has the answers for me when the brokers have a technical question. For that, he will get all of my referrals.

A few days ago my old boss emailed me saying that he’d like me back in Seoul. Oh man, it’s like the mafia (I keep getting myself out, but they keep on pulling me in again!). Well, I’ll have to refer a few other guys to him, as (unless my felling on this position is way off) I think it’s going to be pretty good here and there are the additional benefits of: (i) good schools for the kids, (ii) relatively no pollution, (iii) no threat of war, (iv) I’m dealing in things that I fully understand and have 10+ years experience in, (v) the office environment is very similar to my first real job at RBC Dominion Securities and (vi) everyone speaks English (which is a bigger plus than I ever thought possible).

Well, time to get things done here…later.