A friend of mine recently joined an Education start-up, he sees huge growth there. He's got a healthy stock package (I felt it was over-valued). Anyway, today, most Edu-start-ups are high flyers. Who's to argue with him!
Another friend sends his kids to a high-cost online tutorial.. after all, who would want to penny-pinch for education, right? He made a point that he will spend all that he can, to get his kids the best education there is.
It made me think. I was not sure if I had to write about it. But, then again, I felt I should pay my thanks to two teachers who thought me a lot. For free. No noise, no fees.
Well, read more to find out.
Now, let me come back to my story.
Mentally, yesterday, I got transported to around 2012 when I was seriously considering whether I do a second MBA - Stanford or INSEAD (1 year MBA which they offer). That's exactly 10 years back!
I was in Germany working then and I started seeing some of my Indian friends do a second foreign MBA. Mostly, they were unhappy that they did not get a globally recognized name tag like an IIM when they did an MBA at NITIE.
A NITIE MBA was cheap. I spent around Rs. 2L (~$4000 then), of which I majorly recovered the cost by winning B-School case study competitions that offered handsome cash prizes over the 2 years. I had no major loans when I came out unlike some of my counterparts from other B-Schools when I joined the workforce.
A marquee MBA is not a bad thing. I pondered if that will help me. I called my former manager who I admired, who had also taken a similar path by getting a 1 year MBA at Stanford.
He was at best 50-50. His thoughts were neither for nor against doing a second MBA. I came out more confused after speaking with him. I thought he could give me a clear yes or no answer.
Most things in life don't have a simple yes or no. Now, that's entering the real world. Bummer...
That's when I was somewhat unclear on what path I foresaw my career growth, over the next decade.
My motto at that time was - "I am on the highway, and I love driving"! I literally had that piece framed on my office desk in Munich. I was traveling to customers every day. Meeting companies, trying to grow Cypress's business. That was super fun. I loved it.
Well, on the other hand - I had saved up enough to get a 1-year INSEAD MBA without loans. It was in France after all. Not a bad idea to just remain in Europe, and get an MBA when I am there. On the other hand, when I looked at their average salary post MBA - I felt that was lower than what I was making already.
Anyway, what I realized is, that I had some time on my hands when I was traveling. I felt I was not learning anything. Seeing people go back to do an MBA made me think about that.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I felt - somewhere down the lane, I wanted to learn more about finance. NITIE unfortunately did not offer the best of the teachers. It was not known for Finance.
I was 30, and I decided I might not want to work at all, by the time I was 40. So, spending a year on MBA was not really worth it. I just loved to invest and pulling money out for an MBA was not something I wanted to do.
So, that gave me an answer on the MBA part. Now, I got looking at how to go about learning Finance - portfolio management, security analysis, and valuing companies.
Of course, I googled it. I bought a few books. Also, I religiously downloaded Buffett's annual letters. Read them all that year.
Enter Gurus: Prof Aswath Damodaran and Prof. Sanjay Bakshi
There appeared to be two names that always popped up when I searched on these topics. Prof Aswath Damodaran of NYU Stern and Prof. Sanjay Bakshi of MDI, Gurgaon.
The greatness of these two gentlemen was that their teachings were all there on their websites! All their class notes, lecture notes, and even the question papers were uploaded on their websites.
Having a mentor is great when you are on the path of self-education. Having two is even better!
Years 2012, and 2013 on and off were spent heavily doing every single case study, and question paper and reading through their courses - Valuation, Corporate Finance (Damodaran), and Behavioral Finance and Business Valuation (Bakshi).
You see, I was working, so most of my learning was slow. You could ask - how I took 2 years doing a few courses. But, then again I was not in a race. I thought I was giving myself 1 hr here or there to do this reading. I was also reading a bunch of letters/memos from hedge fund managers, investment partnerships, etc (which I continue to read even today).
The basic foundation I received from both these professors is something I would be forever grateful for. I tried emailing and providing my answers to the professors once (for their question papers/case studies), but I never got an answer - I realized that the courses were a year old, so my answers were probably a year old. So, I stopped doing that. But, who cares, if I got graded or not!
Around the same time, I did get an executive management program at Santa Clara as part of Cypress's CYPA. But, that helped mostly to meet and know people.
Also, later in California, it was great to take courses on and off at Stanford Continuing Studies (also sponsored by Cypress - could that get better!). Now more recently - I've taken NISM Courses and now enrolled for a CFA this year (kinda late - doing that mid-life you'd say!... but, who cares? I am in no race).
Continuous education is very important. To be a lifelong student is one of the joys of life!
In Summary
I know, I am meandering. Let me come back.
I felt I have to write a blog post to thank both Prof Damodaran and Prof Bakshi for their generosity. Their courses are fundamentally the building blocks for anything I've learned in security analysis.
I have sent them my own annual letters - on my investments which I started writing ever since 2016. I have got a warm short reply sometimes.
I have got a world-class securities valuation education from these two gentlemen for no money at all. They've never looked at monetizing their courses. Courses are even today available on their websites (I've linked the latest classes above).
Here's just a note to thank you. That $100K saved then on a second MBA is worth far more than $1M today.
Professors, If ever, we meet in person - I would love to thank you in person. Your work has helped one individual (me:-)) to learn. That individual is very grateful for your efforts.
