10 Things You Didn’t Know about Alex Sacerdote
Who is Alex Sacerdote? He is a stock market analyst, one who used to work at Fidelity and now runs his own firm, Whale Rock Capital. He has spent the overwhelming majority of his professional life investing in other firms that he believes are about to take the world by storm. He also provides the same type of advice to his clients. As a matter of fact, there are a number of interesting things about this individual, 10 of which are listed below. Read through them and see what you think.
1. He wasn’t always primed for a career in finance
Despite the fact that he is widely considered one of the most reliable professionals in the financial sector, that wasn’t always the career that he planned on having. In fact, he went to college for a bachelor’s degree in political science. While he was there, he started dabbling in the stock market and by the time he graduated college, he had decided that he wanted his career to be in finance. As they say, the rest is history.
2. He believes that the key to success is being given the freedom to explore
When he graduated after receiving his MBA, he did an internship for Fidelity where he was given a tremendous amount of personal freedom. As far as he’s concerned, that is one of the reasons for his success. He strongly believes that without being given the freedom to explore, succeed and fail at one’s own pace, it becomes almost impossible to experience a high level of success. As far as he’s concerned, people cannot succeed when someone else constantly has them under their thumb. A person who is micromanaged cannot achieve great things because they never have the freedom to strike out on their own and do much of anything. As a result, he believes that giving people freedom to grow and learn is paramount to success.
3. He knows that without passion, you will never experience the highest level of success
He also realizes the value of passion. There are loads of people working in fields that they aren’t passionate about and they genuinely try to do their best, each and every day. However, there will always be something missing in the person who is not passionate about what they do for a living. Without passion, it’s impossible to have that spark that allows people to go the extra mile when the going gets rough. That’s why he’s so dedicated to finding people who are passionate about working in the field of finance as opposed to merely seeing it as a job.
4. He’s not afraid of trying new things
He’s never been scared of trying something new. That’s evidenced by the fact that he tackled e-commerce back when there were only about 10 companies that had anything to do with the internet which were traded publicly. He knows that without trying something new, nothing ever changes. While everything won’t always work out for the best, everything becomes stagnant if you’re not willing to strike out and do something new from time to time.
5. He’s a big fan of “faking it until you make it”
You have undoubtedly heard the saying “fake it until you make it.” He’s a big fan of this line of thinking, and for good reason. He knows that it’s not always possible to be completely confident in what you’re doing at any given moment in time, especially when you are relatively new to something. However, he also believes that it’s important to visualize yourself as being the person that you ultimately want to become and then acting like that person, whether you actually believe it or not. According to him, you’ll go much further in life and you’ll achieve your dreams much more quickly by doing so.
6. He got his MBA at a prestigious school
Once he decided that he wanted to work in the financial sector and made the commitment to getting his MBA, he decided that it was important to go to the best school possible. As a result, he chose Harvard. Clearly, this was a good choice for him because he has demonstrated that he learned everything he needed to know to strike out on a solid foundation while working in one of the most competitive industries in the world.
7. He’s extremely well respected
There’s no doubt about it, he’s become one of the most well-respected individuals in his line of work. That is precisely what has allowed him to become such a popular hedge fund investor. People tend to trust him in situations where they might not be so willing to trust someone else.
8. His popularity is reflected in the strength of his company
His company currently holds a portfolio worth more than $11.8 billion. Clearly, he’s one of the most popular individuals in his line of work and that fact is reflected in the number of people that choose to do business with his company. As a matter of fact, he does more business than most other companies of this type, even giving Fidelity a run for its money.
9. He routinely watches for new stocks that haven’t yet peaked
There’s no question about the fact that he specializes in the technology sector, but the other thing that makes his investment strategy unique is that he doesn’t automatically go for the companies that are already immensely popular. Instead, he prefers to examine stocks that haven’t yet gone public, but have the potential to do great things later on down the road. That’s where he places his focus.
10. He has a unique ability to pick the most successful stocks
He also has a unique ability to pick out the companies that seem to perform the best on the stock market, despite the fact they haven’t quite achieved that particular status when he chooses them. Some people have a gift for such things, and he has clearly demonstrated that he is one of those individuals.
