I go through periods where I pick a topic I’m interested in and then try to learn as much about it as possible. Thanks to Google and Youtube (owned by Google) there is so much information available and most of it is free.

Financial Modelling

Last year my focus was on improving my financial modelling skills. I realised, even as a qualified accountant, that my financial modelling, and dare I say Excel skills, were not up to scratch. Even though there is so much information on the internet, I find it quite difficult to distinguish the good from the bad.

So instead, I opted to do the Financial Modelling and Valuation Analyst (FMVA) course. An excellent online course and one that I would highly recommend for anyone interested in improving their financial modelling, Excel and PowerPoint presentation skills.

I will admit that I still cannot build models like an investment banker. Then again, I didn’t spend 2 years as an investment banking associate, working 100 hour weeks refining this skill set.

I recently read a Twitter thread by Austin Rief, the founder of Morning Brew, where he talks about his time in investment banking.

“Create a model, copy it into PowerPoint. Create a model, copy it into PowerPoint. Over. And. Over. And. Over. Again. 100 hours a week”.

Put that much time into anything and you will become good. Having said that, my skills are light years ahead of where they were a year ago.

I should note that I still continue to work on this skill often. I’m always looking for new Excel short-cut key combinations and occasionally sign up for new courses to add to my repertoire.

It’s an ongoing process that was started by taking this course.

2021: The Year of Writing

If financial modelling was 2020’s topic, this year (2021) my focus is on writing and particularly writing on the internet.

The internet is such a powerful tool. Not just for research but also for reach. Anyone with a laptop can gain an audience around the world. It is the ultimate form of leverage.

By creating online, and this could take for form of videos, podcasts or writing you are creating opportunities for serendipitous moments (h/t to David Perell). Sharing what you find interesting attracts like-minded people. The internet and technology have meant that our circle of friends is no longer constrained to the area in which we live. Instead, we can find our tribe and make friends with people all over the world.

I’ve never been a good writer. I disliked it in school and it’s never felt comfortable. I constantly second guess my grammar, I’m always writing in the passive voice (took me a while to even know what that meant) and I’m generally filled with doubt. But I want to get better. Writing well is a skill and I’m a firm believer that all skills can be improved.

Why do I want to learn to write well? Because a good writer is a good communicator. And being able to communicate well is such an important life skill.

Writing also encourages clarity of thinking. It is only when you write something down that you truly know whether you’ve understood it or not. The ideas and thoughts we bounce around in our heads are just ideas and thoughts. Writing them down, and writing them for someone else to read, forces us to think clearly.

Writing also makes you a better speaker and storyteller. Almost all the best speakers are good writers.

I should be clear that my goal is not to write a book or have an article published in the New York Times. I certainly don’t intend to write full-time. This is merely improving a skillset and I’m a big believer in overlapping skillsets.

Stacking Skills

I first came across this concept when I read Scott Adams’s book How to Fail at Everything and Still Win Big (highly recommended). He goes into a lot more detail in the book but I’ll try and summarise this concept in a few sentences.

Being the absolute best in a particular field is an almost unattainable goal for most people. You could dedicate your entire life to something and still not be in the top 1% in the world. It seems a bit sad but we live in an unforgiving world.

For the rest of us, the best way to approach this is to rather combine skillsets. That way we become the best version of a very specific set of overlapping skills.

As an example, let’s say you studied to become an accountant. You’re now competing with all the accountants in the world. But you decide to specialise in SaaS businesses. You’ve already narrowed down your niche. You’re an accountant who now has specialised knowledge in a particular industry. You have differentiated yourself. To take this a step further you also decide to become a better public speaker.

If you think of each skill as a circle in a Venn diagram (accounting, SaaS, public speaking), the intersection of those skills is your niche. This opens you up to a.) less competition and b.) more opportunity.

For example, your overlapping skills might allow you to travel around the world presenting complex SaaS accounting issues to finance leaders. Or instead, you could offer online video courses to students and professionals.

I like to think of this as skill stacking. By adding more skills to your toolbox you are opening yourself to opportunities that would not normally be available on a traditional path.

Each skill is unrelated but complementary. Each one building on top of the one before it. Yes, this takes time, but we are long term thinkers here, and the results will speak for themselves.

This is a long way of saying this is a big reason for wanting to improve my writing. It’s another skill and I want to keep stacking.

*I’ll address how I’m going to do this in a separate post but it will consist of the following: online courses, copy work and writing often.