Finance changed my life….full stop. For many though, achieving a position at a top-tier firm can seem completely unattainable. Especially when the concepts can seem wildly confusing and it can appear as if everyone in top-tier roles comes from a ‘perfect’ background.

In light of this perception, two of my core goals with finance|able are to make finance more approachable (and god forbid…a little fun!) and to increase awareness around the range of options for top-tier finance careers.

I endlessly debated with myself whether to share this, but for anyone who thinks you need a ‘normal’ background to get into finance, I hope you can see here that you don’t.

By way of background, I am the oldest of five children and we lived a relatively normal life in central PA before moving to West Virginia when I was 10. West Virginia was much more affordable but required my father to work long hours and to commute 3.0 hours (total) every day. Around this time, my mother decided we would be homeschooled.

My world went into a downward spiral around age eleven when my mother was diagnosed with a disease the doctors didn’t know how to treat so they endlessly prescribed her ‘pain pills’ which put her out of commission for weeks on end for several years. In short, what the media now calls ‘the opioid crisis’ was my childhood. Opioids would later affect (sometimes fatally) numerous close friends and family members as well.

Thrown into a position of significant responsibility as the oldest child, I had to learn to teach my myself, teach and mentor my younger siblings and to fend for myself while my dad worked long hours to make ends meet. I’ve often joked to friends that I ‘taught myself middle school’, but it wasn’t really a joke. In short, a basic education, which many take for granted, wasn’t nearly as straightforward for us.

Things began to normalize somewhat when my parents put us back in public school when I was in ninth grade. Given all the challenges I had experienced, I wanted to be fully independent.

Despite the turmoil, I was never lacking for love or encouragement from my parents or grandparents. Our family faced major hurdles, but my siblings and I were incredibly fortunate to have people around us that always loved us and told us we could do anything we wanted if we set our minds to it. And I was silly enough to believe them

Fast forward to my senior year of high school and the company my dad worked for went public. Despite watching the stock drop over 95% in the six months before he could sell his shares, we could now afford to pay for in-state college tuition. Needless to say, I was intrigued with how business and finance could create such a step-function change in our lives.

I researched the Stock Market and Investment Banking only to discover that the firms that I wanted to work for wouldn’t hire me at my in-state, ‘non-target’ University. Despite my family thinking I was crazy to do so, I took on debt to pay for out of state tuition and transferred to the University of Virginia where I ultimately landed my dream job which set me on a path that has given me economic independence and a stimulating career where I truly never stop learning.

Working in finance has dramatically changed my life for the better and I’ve committed to helping others get their ‘shot’. As a result of all of these experiences, I’ve helped mentor and train people in nearly every role throughout my career.

And while it might sound odd, I wouldn’t change anything. My childhood challenges instilled so much ‘grit’ in me that helped me to get through some of the toughest moments of my career. It also showed me how powerful mentorship can be. I’m so proud of all four of my younger siblings who have gone on to incredible careers and wonderful families of their own.

I was also incredibly lucky on so many fronts. I had loving parents and grandparents, my dad’s company happened to go public at just the right time and I just happened to stumble on investment banking. If any of those things hadn’t happened, I likely wouldn’t be writing this today…much less starting finance|able.

Further, while I faced many ‘initial’ hurdles, I realized very quickly that once I arrived in Investment Banking, I wasn’t subjected to discrimination related to my race, gender, or sexual orientation. In short, as a white male, once I got past my ‘initial’ hurdles, it was smooth sailing which wasn’t the case for many of my colleagues.

In light of all of my experiences, in 2019, I helped launch Access Distributed (AD) which aims to provide students from underrepresented backgrounds at non-target (i.e. non-ivy and top public) schools gain access to top-tier careers in finance and other fields. At AD, I lead the Finance track where we have successfully helped students secure jobs at top-tier firms including Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citigroup. While finance|able is clearly my business, with my activities at AD and finance|able, I aim to be a force for good in leveling the playing field and helping others achieve their dreams.