Interview

Introduction

The person interviewed was Dominque, a 20-year-old male, from Miami Florida. He has completed one year of college, and enjoys sports and investing. He is single. He currently works as a part-time broker at Charles Schwab.

Question1 What are the challenges you faced transitioning to young adulthood

Rationale: The reasoning behind the question is related to how adolescents transition in to young adulthood. In many instances this transition can be very difficult given a litany of variables. These variables can include education, social-economic status, financial resources, and economic conditions prevailing at the time. As Dominique is as an African American, a group that has historically suffering for injustice, I was particularly interested in his response.

Response: Dominques response was somewhat surprising to me as he was actually relieved to leave his parents and transition into adulthood. Here, Dominque, like many other minorities suffered from a lack of influence from his father. He also has a mother that worked multiple jobs in order to afford and pay for an adequate living arrangement. Dominique was eager to leave the environment he grew up in to make a better life, not only for his family, but for his community. During his answer, Dominque sited the influence of prominent financial analysts in his life and how these individuals influence his thought process toward money and investing. He cited Jack Bogle, Phil Fisher, Seth Klarman, and Charlie Munger as large influences on his life. He wants to use investment as a method to helping create generational wealth for his family (Acierno, 2010)

Question 2 What are your goals and aspirations.

Rationale: The rationale behind this question is related to what his medium and long-term goals are. I was particularly interested in where Dominque would see himself in the next 5 to 10 years.

Response: Dominque endeavors to be a money manager. His goal is the earn the chartered financial analyst designation. From our interview, I could literally see the passion, when he explained what this designation was. The chartered financial analyst designation also known as the CFA is the most prestigious award within the field of financial analysis. The exams are very difficult with the pass rate being roughly 40% per each of the three exams. Typically, exams are only given once every year and thus adds additional pressure on the candidate. Dominque is looking the pass all three levels of the exam within the next 3 to 4 years. He then wants to work on wall street and eventually own his own hedge fund. Interesting for our interview, it appears that Dominique is looking to use his skills to build a better life for his family and community.

Question 3 Who has influence you the most in your life?

Rationale: Influence is critical element in the behavior of children and has a strong correlation as to what they will become in the future. For example, Dominique grew up without a father for a majority of his life. Traditionally, research has shown that a lack of a father figure has a strong correlation to crime, imprisonment, and low socio-economic status. Here, due to his extreme passion for finance, Dominique was better able to leverage these skills to achieve academic success. Through his studies, Dominque was able to read and study multiple investors who exhibited many of the skills he believes would make him successful. These skills included the ability to think critically about relevant materials and financial figures. From our interview, Dominique noted that his strongest influence was Charlie Munger who advocated for a multidisciplinary approach to learning and instruction. Here, Munger believed that education should be less siloed....

…brought up was politics. Here, Draymond, at 16 years old, sited the movement toward black Americans always voting democratic. He believes that crucial thinking skills should be leveraged during the political process. To Draymond parties dont matter. Instead it is the critical thinking component that allows certain students and practitioners to flourish over others. To improve outcomes, minorities must ban together to evoke a political and economic response according to Draymond. Here, he draws on his experience as a young black male in a very low socio-economic household.

Conclusion

To conclude, my experiences with the interviewees was phenomenal. I learned a large amount from both related to the plight of minorities and what they often face on a daily basis. My conceptions about life stages was not confirmed. Here, I learned that a litany of factors is often integrated into a persons life stages. In fact, life stages can vary simply by race in a developed country such as America. If found that life stages often depend on the individuals temperament. If a person is determined overcome the negative impacts of these life circumstances, then they will do so. However, those who intend to be slave to these circumstances often end up being so. What I found through this assignment is that race and social economic status, although important, dont determine success. Instead, it is what is done with the hand the individual is dealt that determines outcomes. Those that work hard and overcome objections often are successful. Those that blame other parties or other people are often not successful. Instead they become mediocre. It is for these reasons that society should realize that many of the issue brought up during this interview are often irrelevant. Emphasis on education and teaching skills that will be useful for future generations is much more beneficial…