In this week’s episode I am joined by Carrie Sun!

Carrie Sun was born in China and raised in Michigan. She is a math and finance dual-degree graduate of MIT, successful Fidelity Investments analyst, and holds an MFA in creative writing from The New School. 

Private Equity is her first book - gripping memoir of one woman’s self-discovery inside a top Wall Street hedge fund, and an urgent indictment of privilege, extreme wealth, and work culture.

PRIVATE EQUITY not only chronicles her experience within the instant tornado of information, colossal expectations, packed schedules, 24/7 accountability, and normalized last-second changes to plans (all set to world-class standards), but, more importantly, provides a searing examination of our relationship to achievement, family, labor, the promise and destructive power of money, and the illusiveness of our own identity.

Key Points

• Resetting Life's Optimization Equation

• High Performers: Excellence & Intensity

• Flying Private vs Choosing Simplicity

• Burnout: The Pitfall of Constant Optimization

• Defining Success on Your Own Terms

 

Best Quotes

06:49 - 06:59

• "And I think what drove certainly me, my boss, and I, from what I can tell everyone else at the firm, was just this constant drive for excellence."

14:22 - 14:34

• "I just, I now substitute it with new variables. There's nothing more meaningful to me than writing and seeing my worth on a page at the end of a day."

28:56 - 29:08

• "I think it intersects with your philosophy of life so, so much and to be able to just have an impact and bring about the energy that I want in the world..."

48:12 - 48:18

• "But I also think that that future comes from actually confronting your past self."

51:52 - 52:10

• "I really wanted my book to be one woman's journey of professional sort of self-realization and coming of age and to just, but also more than that, it's primarily set at work, but it's so much more than that."

For more about Carrie: https://www.carriesun.com/