In general, I have quite enjoyed my Private Equity job. It has a lot of elements which i find quite interesting and am keen to learn and master. There is one element, however, which is the most difficult and frustrating part of this whole job.
"There's plenty of slip between the cup and the lip," is the proverb that sums it up best. One can slog one's butt off working on a transaction and sort through all the difficult issues - getting the better of the seller's greed (including telling him that you wont pay for his underwear just becuase he has to stay overnight to conclude the discussions; telling your investment committee why this is the perfect deal in post-1991 India and why it will not blow up in your face the day after you remit the money; screaming away at the lawyers for not getting the documents out on time or screwing them up; arguing with the diligence teams when they try to fight issues when there are none (after all this is the perfect deal!!); and last but not the least, fighting your own demons as you are going to deploy $20-30 mn of your investors' money on your own judgment (and how flawed that is, no one knows better than you!!).
And just when you have done all this and are ready to celebrate the completion of yet another deal (and these occasions are hard to come by indeed..), someone catches a cold somewhere. That one sneeze queers the whole pitch. Suddenly, all the existential doubts start emerging and you find questions like - Why am I here? What is my mission on earth? What do you want? Why should I give this to you? I do not like his face? - and so on.
Such is the situation I am in right now. Its Christmas and New Year's eve. I could be sitting at home and enjoying the yule-tide (with deal not closed), or burning the midnight oil and accomplishing a hard fought, yet well earned victory.
Its a difficult choice.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment