"In the end, I am a teacher; that is really how I see myself." – Jorge Paulo Lemann[1]

When we think about teaching, instructional delivery is the defacto thing that comes to mind. This is probably the most familiar setting in which a professor or a lecturer pulls up a set of powerpoint slides and speaks to the class.

Giving a two-day lecture on financial modelling has always been an enjoyable session for me - the interaction, debates and sharing of anecdotes. One of the biggest highlights personally is to see someone complete his/her Excel financial model (plugging the ending cash from the cash flow statement into the balance sheet) for the very first time.

Doing up a financial model might be considered rudimentary for seasoned bankers but a ginormous task for someone who is either not trained in corporate finance or struggling to put together an investment thesis at the workplace.

But my teaching engagements go beyond the classroom.

At the work place, I am also the go-to person when it comes to troubleshooting excel files and powerpoint, explaining a financial model to an analyst or investor, or when someone needs a slightly older person to be present in the room or to do the presentation in English, etc.

Aside from that, I've also been a listening ear to many of our colleagues at the office, from the senior and mid-level folks all the way to the rank and file. I've even been called to help in a situation whereby someone had called our front desk complaining about an imposter who offered him a job at our company.

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In August, we closed a landmark financing transaction with a highly reputable investment firm.

The process was lengthy - mostly because we had very sucky lawyers - but also because it involved a deal structure that no one else had done before. Parts of the term sheet were tricky and the closing was even more convoluted.

One of the analysts in my team had the 'privilege' of assisting me on the deal. Joke was that I had brought her aboard a pirate ship[2], unleashing an incredible amount of documentation in the process, spanning at least seven inter-connected agreements. The deal was eventually closed and some weeks later, she resigned for better opportunities and left this note:

Over that same period (with a separate team), I had also been simultaneously running another workstream involving the accreditation of the firm's first-ever ESG financing framework as part of a syndication loan deal. The negotiation process had been tough because the ratings team sitting in Europe didn't have a clue on the workings of how pharmaceutical companies and hospitals in China worked under the public healthcare system. By the time we eventually obtained the certification, I counted at least a hundred email exchanges.

In these situations, I find the process of teaching taking on a more practical aspect because the discourse is no longer within the harmless confines of the classroom whereby I can talk freely in hypotheses. My actions and words have real commercial repercussions on the deal, and often come with bearing the responsibility for the outcome.

Middle-to-senior management roles--much like my typical classroom lectures on financial modelling--are often like stage performances. As long as you don't screw it up big time, a few slip ups are perfectly normal, but the show has to go on.

Look, most of the time, you work for money and are subject to the obnoxious KPIs placed on you because of your position. But every once in awhile, your job gives you the unique opportunity to make a difference.

That difference is sometimes not purely measured in revenue dollars or cost savings for the firm, or the bonus at the end of the year. Sometimes it is about the intangible impact on the people around you--fixing the alignment on a powerpoint slide, troubleshooting a financial model, or simply giving counsel to someone junior in the negotiations of a transaction.

It is often said that we can't let our jobs define us. But how we do our jobs, and behave with our colleagues and clients ultimately determines the kind of person we are.

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[1] As quoted by Jorge Paulo Lemann from Jim Collins https://www.jimcollins.com/article_topics/articles/Dream-Big.html

[2] Literally translated from the Chinese saying dai shang zhei chuan "带上贼船"