As some of you know since I was 17 (now 27) I have had to deal with extreme dizziness on a daily basis. Debilitating to the point where I haven’t been able to go to college, have a “Normal” job, or really do anything that I have wanted to do in the past 10 years. That all finally looks to be changing as I am on a new medication where I have felt very good over the past three weeks. The best I have felt over a sustained period of time since before this started nearly 10 years ago and think that I am finally ready to be hired.
On Dedication, Constant Learning, and Persistence
I have always loved learning and had planned to go to college before the dizziness started. My plan was to get my Bachelor’s in business administration/management and then to get an MBA. Of course nearly 10 years later that has not worked out but my thirst for knowledge has never waned. When I was at my worst a few years after graduating from high school I was so dizzy every day for literally a couple of years straight that I could do nothing but lay around and watch tv. After finding an occupational therapist who helped me out some, I very slowly got better to the point where I could read again and started learning about anything that interested me. I continued to fight, get better very slowly, and rekindled my love in investing that was spawned in high school, and started to learn about it again.
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For around five years now I have been constantly learning about investing and how to become the best value investor that I can become. I have devoured everything I could find (books, blogs, articles, videos, etc) and slowly started to teach myself the intricacies of how to evaluate, value, and determine whether a company is a good investment. I have completely dedicated myself to becoming the best investor that I can be. At one point for a year straight between taking care of my then only daughter full-time, and learning about investing full-time, I was working 100+ hours a week (to the detriment of my health) so that I could become a better investor faster.
My investment learning was kicked into overdrive when I found Csinvesting’s wonderful site and decided to start my investment blog several months after that. In two and a half years I have gone from my first ever “analysis” article to these kinds of in-depth articles, (KOSS, STRT, BOBS 1, BOBS 2, UNAM) and written an entire full length book (How To Value Invest) about my investment journey in the hopes of helping newer to intermediate level investors become better investors faster by teaching readers how to do different valuations and do in-depth research if they are like me and could not or would not go to college.
I have done all of this while still dealing with my dizziness on a daily basis, (although it has continually gotten very slowly better over time) having a wife, two daughters, and being a full-time stay at home dad to my now two daughters.
Why You Should Hire Me
Literally every job I have looked to apply for requires at least a Bachelor’s degree, not necessarily in a finance field, to even be considered for a job in the investment world. Most also require an MBA and/or CFA. In valuing and evaluating if a company is a good investment or not (something that I and many others have proven you do not have to get a degree to be very good at) I do not understand those requirements except the CFA, to a degree. Most people I know have gotten their Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees, get a job, and then stop learning. Most people I know also absolutely hate working. I love reading annual reports, proxies, and other financial reports of a company. I enjoy doing it and it relaxes me so I do not consider it work. I have a deep passion for finding companies to invest in for my personal portfolio and the portfolios that I manage. I spend my time reading the equivalent of at least 200 pages a day either of financials, looking for companies to invest in, or learning and improving on some aspect either related to investing or one of my other interests. My first year results, second year results, and updated second year results after discounting cash can be viewed at the links above. My stock picks in the last two years since I have truly dedicated myself to the craft of value investing are up a cumulative 98.13% not compounded. I still have a ton to learn and my goal every day that I wake up is to improve my self in some way every single day.
Again, I do and have done all the above in a very part-time manner while still dealing with my dizziness on a daily basis, having a wife, two daughters, and being a stay at home dad full-time to my now two daughters.
My health issues have given me great perspective, the will and want to work desperately, and most importantly as it pertains directly to investing, has taught me an extreme amount of patience which is something that most people lack. Now that this new medicine is helping me to hopefully get fully healthy I think I would be a perfect hire for any value/research/business analyst/consulting firm. I am confident in my investment processes, my ability to dig deep to analyze and value companies, my will to fight, and I have the self motivated drive to constantly improve and learn. I want to work, I have a deep passion for evaluating companies, I am dedicated to it, and I have shown that I will work very hard, long hours to learn and improve. Wouldn’t you rather have someone with those qualities than someone who has a degree but doesn’t want to keep learning or hates what they do? If I can get this far largely on my own, admit that I still have a lot to learn, am willing and want to learn and be taught, imagine what I could do with some actual direction and tutelage.
I am open to any and all opportunities, even if they involve moving, and think that I would be a great asset to any firm. My wife and I are willing to move anywhere in the world if the right job opportunity comes. I am also willing and plan to get my degree and CFA if I get hired but do not have the means to get either of those until I am hired.
If you know anyone who would possibly want to hire someone like me with my skill set, please pass this along to them. If you are reading this and would like to talk with me, learn more about me, hear specifically about my investment philosophy, how I do research, how I decide when to sell a company, the kinds of markets I search in, or hire me please contact me at one of the links here and I will send you my CV and give you my cell phone number so that we can chat in-depth. I have been learning Mandarin Chinese (Simplfied) and plan to become fluent in the language if any firms out there need someone who knows that language. 我一直在学习中国普通话（简体），并计划成为流利的语言，如果任何厂商那里需要有人谁知道语言。
Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon.
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Interesting cover letter there; I stumbled upon your blog from reddit, read the chinese bit at the end, and felt compelled to comment. Frankly, it looks like you google translated the chinese sentence. It’s one thing to prove (boast?) about your work ethic, but if you can’t get the sentence structure and grammar right, I think you should stick to just plain english to describe your keenness in mastering mandarin chinese. 反过来讲，你应该说的是：我一直在学习中国普通话，并计划精通这语言，已服务任何在这方面需要帮助的公司。
Welcome to the blog and thanks for reading.
Nowhere did I boast that I am fluent in reading, writing, or conversing in Mandarin. If you would have read the entire piece I state that I PLAN to become fluent in Mandarin and on my LinkedIn profile I state that I have a limited to very limited working proficiency of Mandarin. Meaning that at this point that if someone talks slow that I can understand parts of the conversation and that I can read some words and get the general gist of some written sentences. I did Google translate that part at the bottom of the post above just in case any potential employers that spoke Mandarin could understand what I said without the need of translating it themselves if they do not understand English.
Thanks for your comment.