I wasn’t at all times a private finance nerd, however I steadily turned one out of survival. That is my story — and my statement over the previous 27 years — of why being an “American nerd” has turn into extra necessary than ever if you wish to rise in your profession or achieve financial freedom sooner.
For context, I not view the phrase nerd pejoratively as I did in highschool, after I was inspired to play sports activities, exercise, discover a girlfriend, and do nicely at school. As a dad or mum now, I’d be thrilled if my children was tremendous nerds. It is likely to be the one manner they will thrive and stay impartial in as we speak’s ultra-competitive world.
No girlfriend or boyfriend in center or highschool? Superior! Extra time to check and fewer danger of being a teenage dad or mum with a harder highway forward.
Not touring each weekend for membership soccer? Hooray! More cash saved, fewer accidents, and extra time for studying an instrument, a language, or the humanities. In spite of everything, solely about 2% of U.S. highschool athletes obtain any form of athletic scholarship to play in faculty.
Solely have a few buddies who’re additionally nerds? Fantastic. Problem one another to continue to learn and rising. With loving dad and mom and perhaps a sibling, one good good friend is absolutely all you want anyway.
As we speak, nerds clearly rule the world. Let’s dig in!
Rising Up Common
Since 1999, I’ve lived in New York Metropolis and San Francisco — two of probably the most aggressive, brain-powered cities in America. They’re magnets for high college students from elite universities who come to make their fortunes. The competitors is relentless. If you happen to can’t sustain intellectually, it’s exhausting to remain afloat.
Once I was in public highschool in McLean, Virginia, I attempted to do nicely. I’d heard from an older scholar again in Kuala Lumpur throughout center college that top college grades mattered, so I took that to coronary heart.
However irrespective of how exhausting I studied, I couldn’t crack the code. I completed with a 3.65 GPA — a B+/A– common. Spanish verb conjugations tripped me up, superior math appeared pointless, and science academics had been brutal graders. After studying some SAT prep books on the library, I could not break a 1,200 on the SAT both. Ultimately, I gave up attempting to be a nerd and centered on tennis and enjoyable as a substitute.
And boy, did I’ve enjoyable, maybe an excessive amount of of it. I received into hassle for shoplifting, preventing, and pulling dumb pranks. Fortunately, I nonetheless received into The School of William & Mary, a very good college, however not elite. I knew my household could not comfortably afford sending me to a non-public college, so I stayed in state.
With a second probability, I vowed to not mess issues up in faculty too.
My Fortunate Break
My huge break got here from a mixture of luck, timing, and hustle. One Saturday, I got on a 6 a.m. charter bus for a Wall Street recruiting occasion.
None of my classmates confirmed up, so after half-hour of ready, the motive force drove me to a random shed and switched out the bus for a Lincoln Towncar to drive me 2 hours up from Williamsburg to Washington D.C. There I landed interviews with a number of bulge bracket companies. Thanks largely to a recruiter named Kim Purkiss, who believed in me, I joined Goldman Sachs in 1999.
13 years on Wall Road taught me that intelligence is simply desk stakes. Being good counts for perhaps 35%. The remainder is figure ethic, teamwork, attraction, and luck. Everybody is sensible – so the true edge comes from being obsessive about studying and execution.
Enter the Tremendous Nerds
Working on Wall Street uncovered me to loads of tremendous nerds from high faculties. However what stunned me was what number of of them had been additionally well-rounded, particularly when it got here to sports activities.
My instant colleagues at Goldman had each brains and brawn: my boss performed soccer at Dartmouth as a fullback, one other at Penn State as a linebacker. Later, my direct boss at Credit score Suisse had additionally performed soccer at Cal and was president of his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE). The man oozed charisma. We had an absolute blast entertaining purchasers.
Nevertheless, after I went to Berkeley for my MBA part-time (2003–2006), I used to be all of the sudden surrounded by largely tremendous nerds. Most labored in tech. About 65% had been engineers, and roughly half of these had come from India — most from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), the place the acceptance price is round 1%.
Consider IIT as MIT or Caltech on steroids. Graduating from there requires each excessive intelligence and starvation. They had been scary good. These qualities now gasoline most of the leaders working America’s largest tech companies — Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, YouTube, and extra.
The Nerds Have Taken Over
Now that I’m a father, I see the “revenge of the nerds” all over the place. At my children’ faculties, most dad and mom are engineers, executives, knowledge scientists, docs, cash managers, or entrepreneurs — alumni of IIT, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, and the Ivies.
You don’t see most of the “cool children” from highschool right here within the San Francisco Bay Space tech scene who performed varsity sports activities and dated round. Those that coasted on attraction or athletic potential had their run. It’s the disciplined drawback solvers who constructed the programs the remainder of us depend upon. They’re the captains now.
As an investor, I additionally wish to put as a lot cash as potential into firms run by tremendous nerds and crammed with the neatest staff. Positive, it might be good if most of these firms employed Individuals. DEI can be fantastic to a sure prolong given some people merely don’t get the identical alternatives.
However in terms of constructing and investing in nice companies, potential at all times trumps nationality or identity. And the truth is, America doesn’t have a monopoly on expertise or potential.
Prime U.S. Firms Hiring Staff On H-1B Visas
As capitalists, if CEOs can rent the neatest folks from around the globe for a fraction of what they’d pay an American, they are going to. For many leaders, income come earlier than patriotism. It’s enterprise first, at all times.
Beneath are a number of the high U.S. employers for H-1B visas. LCA stands for Labor Situation Utility, the shape firms should file with the U.S. Division of Labor (DOL) earlier than hiring or sponsoring an H-1B employee. These employers provide a number of the highest common salaries within the nation — and, not surprisingly, are among the many hardest locations to land a job.
And right here’s the factor: whereas Amazon laid off at the least 14,000 largely American staff in 2025, it concurrently elevated its variety of H-1B hires from the yr earlier than. If you happen to’re the CEO and pays a superb H-1B worker a median of $149,000 as a substitute of $350,000 for an equally succesful American employee, you’re going to make that commerce each time till the federal government tries to cease you.
Now, as a rational investor, are you actually going to vote towards decreasing prices and maximizing income? After all not. The overwhelming majority of shareholders will at all times assist profit-maximizing strikes in hopes of boosting their returns. Therefore, even in case you’re an American nerd totally able to competing with a talented overseas employee, you continue to may not get the job — or that promotion — merely since you value an excessive amount of.
You’ve received three choices: spend money on the very firms that reject you, already be rich sufficient that rejection solely bruises your ego, or be so well-liked and linked that somebody in energy decides to offer you a shot. In 2012, I simply investing in all of the tech firms that rejected me after leaving finance.
The Poker Desk Epiphany
That reality hit me once more at a tech poker night time final weekend.
After placing my children to mattress with my spouse, I confirmed up round 9 p.m. anticipating a relaxed sport – perhaps a couple of drinks and laughs. As an alternative, I walked into what felt like a graduate seminar on statistics and aggression. Roughly 70% had been overseas professionals working within the U.S. in excessive paying roles on non permanent visas.
To my left sat Akshay, a software program engineer who spent practically thirty minutes attempting to order espresso on an app though the desk was stocked with Purple Bull and snacks. Each couple of minutes, Arvind — the participant on my proper — would remind him, “Akshay, it’s on you.”
Ten instances. Possibly extra.
Akshay would nod, look at his playing cards, after which drift again to his telephone — evaluating costs, perhaps debugging code, or perhaps simply deep in thought. The entire thing was absurdly humorous and deeply symbolic. Complete focus, however in 17 totally different instructions, and utterly socially unaware of his poor poker etiquette.
In the meantime, the sport itself was intense. Solely $1/$1 blinds, however pots swelling into the hundreds. A room filled with analytical, aggressive minds — engineers who wager chances like they had been working machine-learning simulations.
I spotted I used to be on the unsuitable desk. I’d come to unwind; they’d come to optimize and take my cash with a vengeance.
The Hand That Saved Me
After two and a half hours, I used to be barely breaking even and pondering of calling it an evening. Then got here the hand.
I regarded down at Ace-Queen of diamonds. After a couple of limpers, I raised to $8. Three gamers referred to as. The flop: Ace of golf equipment, 3 of diamonds, 5 of diamonds. Candy! Prime pair, high kicker, and the nut-flush draw. What a dream.
The small blind — Sondar, one other engineer from India — led out for $25 submit flop. I easy referred to as. One other participant referred to as behind and one other folded.
The flip got here the 7 of hearts. Sondar checked. I made a worth wager of $25 to see the place my opponents had been at. The third participant folded. Then Sondar check-raised to $75 complete.
That transfer received my consideration. It smelled like two pair, perhaps a straight. I believed for 25 seconds, stared at him like an murderer for 5. He stared again calmly. I referred to as.
The river: 7 of diamonds. Bingo. Nut flush.
Sondar checked once more. I paused, requested him how a lot he had left behind, and he reply with $130. I slid out $115, leaving him a small cushion. My aim: make it too tempting to not name as a result of even when he misplaced, he’d nonetheless have three $5 chips and a chair to battle once more.
“Ugh, I hate that river,” he mentioned, displaying the desk 4-6 of golf equipment for a straight.
He stared on the board, then at me. Two full minutes of wiggling in his seat, typically, along with his arms raised up and arms behind his head. I didn’t transfer. However I liked each second of it as my very own coronary heart began beating faster.
Lastly, he pushed in his chips. Name.
I flipped over the flush. He groaned, nodded, and patted the felt — the common poker expression for “nicely performed, you fortunate bastard.”
Obsession Might Be Even Extra Highly effective Than Smarts
A few arms later, I cashed out for $680 after shopping for in for $350 and tossing $35 to the host for meals and drinks. I had survived the nerd gauntlet. Now it was time to squeeze in 5 hours of sleep earlier than pickleball at 7 a.m.
On the drive residence, I couldn’t cease pondering: this desk was America in microcosm. A bunch of good, aggressive, math-driven folks — all chasing an edge, all fueled by obsession. In the meantime, right here I used to be, attempting to battle whereas by no means taking calculus.
I’ll come throughout as laid-back, however I’m obsessed too. I’ve logged hundreds of poker hours and watch poker movies for enjoyable every day. Additional, I often wager 30X – 300X greater within the inventory market than my buy-in, so it is exhausting to push me round at a $1/$1 or perhaps a $5/$10 desk. That night time, luck, combined with a hidden obsession poker was my security web.
If you happen to get obsessive about one thing, you will ultimately get smarted sufficient to successfully compete towards your opponents. Generally you win, typically you lose. That is life. However at the least you might have a preventing probability to win.
Turning into an American Nerd
To succeed as we speak, it’s not sufficient to be charming, athletic, and even naturally good. That you must out-learn, out-analyze, and out-focus others.
In an interconnected world, you’re competing with sensible, hungry folks all over the place — a lot of whom deal with mastery the way in which Akshay handled that espresso order: with complete dedication, even when it’s inconvenient.
For many years, America has thrived by welcoming formidable, proficient immigrants from everywhere in the world. That openness is a part of what makes this nation so dynamic.
However as world competitors intensifies, these of us already right here can’t afford to coast. Nations with decrease per-capita incomes, like India and China, naturally produce people who find themselves pushed to grab each alternative they will discover. Once you’ve seen how exhausting life will be elsewhere, it’s simpler to understand — and maximize — what’s out there right here.
Over time, privileged Individuals danger taking prosperity as a right. We get snug. However the remainder of the world is learning, grinding tougher, and catching up quick. The one actual option to keep forward is to continue to learn, adapting, and obsessing over enchancment.
So if you wish to thrive in trendy America, you or your kids have to turn into an American nerd — curious, relentless, and deeply invested in your craft. As a result of whether or not it’s on the poker desk, within the workplace, or in life, the neatest and most disciplined gamers normally take the pot.
What do you suppose — is America dropping its mental edge? Have you ever seen sure professions or industries the place the “nerds” are clearly successful? And in case you’re a dad or mum, are you encouraging your children to embrace their interior nerd, or hoping they discover steadiness someplace in between?
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