Gifted Lives by Joan Freeman

Author:Joan Freeman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

We’d talked for a couple of hours before Gary managed to tell me how really ambitious he was. He explained how it had all begun so long ago at school. It was just a spark that had lit his fire, unplanned but specific. It burst like the flames from the fumes leaving the chimneys of Widnes, his home town. I don’t suppose his teachers ever knew what they had done for him. I hope they will read this book and find out:

I’m pretty driven. Yeah, I’m driven. I want to be working with bright people; I want to be working for the best organisations. I want to be successful. I’ve always wanted to be the best I can. I wouldn’t say I felt it from being very small. I’d say it sort of crept up on me. It became more and more important the closer I got to actually doing my O-levels, when I realised that this was a real opportunity. The fact that I got maths a year early I think was the catalyst. I was accelerated just for that one subject. About 20 of us took it early. I knew then that I could actually get out and do well.

My life is a sacrifice of long hours. My alarm goes off at a quarter to six, and I’ll be back at about 9.00pm. When I was a junior, if I left work before midnight, that was an early night. I’ve done so many 24-hour days. The longest I did was a Monday afternoon to Friday morning; I didn’t leave the building. You don’t really sleep until you go. I may have a cat nap, and send my secretary out to buy me a shirt. You always work through the night if you’re doing a deal. The announcements go out first thing the next morning. Imagine the scenario — everything cranking up getting ready to make an announcement seven o’clock on Monday morning that you’re going to make a bid. So you work all through the weekend and Sunday night. Then you’ve got analyst briefings, press briefings, whatever you need to do.

The night before the deal, you’re still going to be in all night, because that’s what your client’s paying you for. And you’ve got your team. You may be able to leave at three in the morning and ask the team to put the document to bed, or put the announcement to bed. Then they’ll be doing the last-minute admin, so you can get a couple of hours sleep, and come in for seven. With just a little sleep, I’m ready to field questions. That’s what a merger and acquisitions banker does. That’s our job. I’m quite happy with who I am and what I’m doing.

You’d be amazed how you can train yourself to keep going. My wife knows when I’m in deal mode. My adrenalin’s going, I’m very alert, my mind is exercised. I sleep badly when a deal is on, but I feel as if I’m sleeping pretty soundly.

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