I wasn’t all the time a private finance nerd, however I progressively turned one out of survival. That is my story — and my commentary 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 obtain monetary freedom sooner.
For context, I not view the phrase nerd pejoratively as I did in highschool, once I was inspired to play sports activities, exercise, discover a girlfriend, and do properly at school. As a dad or mum now, I’d be thrilled if my children became tremendous nerds. It may be the one means they’ll thrive and stay impartial in right this moment’s ultra-competitive world.
No girlfriend or boyfriend in center or highschool? Superior! Extra time to check and fewer threat of being a teenage dad or mum with a harder street 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 mates who’re additionally nerds? Fantastic. Problem one another to continue learning and rising. With loving dad and mom and perhaps a sibling, one good pal is actually all you want anyway.
Immediately, 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 prime college students from elite universities who come to make their fortunes. The competitors is relentless. Should you can’t sustain intellectually, it’s arduous to remain afloat.
After I was in public highschool in McLean, Virginia, I attempted to do properly. I’d heard from an older scholar again in Kuala Lumpur throughout center faculty that top faculty grades mattered, so I took that to coronary heart.
However irrespective of how arduous 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 have 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 making an attempt to be a nerd and targeted on tennis and enjoyable as an alternative.
And boy, did I’ve enjoyable, maybe an excessive amount of of it. I acquired into hassle for shoplifting, combating, and pulling dumb pranks. Fortunately, I nonetheless acquired into The School of William & Mary, an excellent faculty, however not elite. I knew my household could not comfortably afford sending me to a personal college, so I stayed in state.
With a second likelihood, I vowed to not mess issues up in faculty too.
My Fortunate Break
My large break got here from a mixture of luck, timing, and hustle. One Saturday, I acquired on a 6 a.m. constitution bus for a Wall Avenue recruiting occasion.
None of my classmates confirmed up, so after half-hour of ready, the driving 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 Avenue taught me that intelligence is simply desk stakes. Being sensible counts for perhaps 35%. The remaining is figure ethic, teamwork, appeal, and luck. Everybody is sensible – so the actual edge comes from being obsessive about studying and execution.
Enter the Tremendous Nerds
Engaged on Wall Avenue uncovered me to loads of tremendous nerds from prime colleges. However what shocked me was what number of of them have been additionally well-rounded, particularly when it got here to sports activities.
My fast 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.
Nonetheless, once I went to Berkeley for my MBA part-time (2003–2006), I used to be instantly surrounded by principally tremendous nerds. Most labored in tech. About 65% have been engineers, and roughly half of these had come from India — most from the Indian Institutes of Expertise (IIT), the place the acceptance fee is round 1%.
Consider IIT as MIT or Caltech on steroids. Graduating from there requires each excessive intelligence and starvation. They have been scary sensible. 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” in every single place. At my children’ colleges, most dad and mom are engineers, executives, information 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 appeal or athletic capability had their run. It’s the disciplined drawback solvers who constructed the methods the remainder of us depend upon. They’re the captains now.
As an investor, I additionally need to put as a lot cash as doable into corporations run by tremendous nerds and crammed with the neatest workers. Certain, it could be good if most of these corporations employed People. DEI can also be positive to a sure prolong given some of us merely don’t get the identical alternatives.
However with regards to constructing and investing in nice companies, capability all the time trumps nationality or identification. And the truth is, America doesn’t have a monopoly on expertise or capability.
Prime U.S. Firms Hiring Workers On H-1B Visas
As capitalists, if CEOs can rent the neatest individuals from world wide for a fraction of what they’d pay an American, they may. For many leaders, income come earlier than patriotism. It’s enterprise first, all the time.
Under are a number of the prime U.S. employers for H-1B visas. LCA stands for Labor Situation Utility, the shape corporations 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 no less than 14,000 principally American workers in 2025, it concurrently elevated its variety of H-1B hires from the 12 months earlier than. Should you’re the CEO and pays a superb H-1B worker a median of $149,000 as an alternative 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 in opposition to lowering prices and maximizing income? After all not. The overwhelming majority of shareholders will all the time help profit-maximizing strikes in hopes of boosting their returns. Therefore, even when you’re an American nerd absolutely able to competing with a talented international employee, you continue to won’t get the job — or that promotion — merely since you value an excessive amount of.
You’ve acquired three choices: put money into the very corporations that reject you, already be rich sufficient that rejection solely bruises your ego, or be so well-liked and related that somebody in energy decides to provide you a shot. In 2012, I simply investing in all of the tech corporations that rejected me after leaving finance.
The Poker Desk Epiphany
That reality hit me once more at a tech poker evening final weekend.
After placing my children to mattress with my spouse, I confirmed up round 9 p.m. anticipating a relaxed sport – perhaps a number of drinks and laughs. As an alternative, I walked into what felt like a graduate seminar on statistics and aggression. Roughly 70% have been international professionals working within the U.S. in excessive paying roles on momentary visas.
To my left sat Akshay, a software program engineer who spent practically thirty minutes making an attempt to order espresso on an app regardless that 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. Perhaps 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. Whole 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 stuffed with analytical, aggressive minds — engineers who guess chances like they have been working machine-learning simulations.
I spotted I used to be on the mistaken 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 considering of calling it an evening. Then got here the hand.
I appeared down at Ace-Queen of diamonds. After a number 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, prime 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 guess of $25 to see the place my opponents have been at. The third participant folded. Then Sondar check-raised to $75 complete.
That transfer acquired 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 purpose: 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 stated, 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, together with his arms raised up and palms behind his head. I didn’t transfer. However I beloved 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 “properly performed, you fortunate bastard.”
Obsession Might Be Even Extra Highly effective Than Smarts
A few palms 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 house, I couldn’t cease considering: this desk was America in microcosm. A bunch of sensible, aggressive, math-driven individuals — all chasing an edge, all fueled by obsession. In the meantime, right here I used to be, making an attempt 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 each day. Additional, I frequently guess 30X – 300X larger within the inventory market than my buy-in, so it is arduous to push me round at a $1/$1 or perhaps a $5/$10 desk. That evening, luck, blended with a hidden obsession poker was my security web.
Should you get obsessive about one thing, you will ultimately get smarted sufficient to successfully compete in opposition to your opponents. Typically you win, typically you lose. That is life. However no less than you’ve a combating likelihood to win.
Turning into an American Nerd
To succeed right this moment, it’s not sufficient to be charming, athletic, and even naturally sensible. You could out-learn, out-analyze, and out-focus others.
In an interconnected world, you’re competing with good, hungry individuals in every single place — a lot of whom deal with mastery the best way Akshay handled that espresso order: with complete dedication, even when it’s inconvenient.
For many years, America has thrived by welcoming bold, gifted immigrants from everywhere in the world. That openness is a part of what makes this nation so dynamic.
However as international 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’ll discover. Once you’ve seen how arduous life may be elsewhere, it’s simpler to understand — and maximize — what’s accessible right here.
Over time, privileged People threat taking prosperity as a right. We get comfy. However the remainder of the world is learning, grinding more durable, and catching up quick. The one actual approach to keep forward is to continue learning, adapting, and obsessing over enchancment.
So if you wish to thrive in fashionable America, you or your kids must 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 assume — is America dropping its mental edge? Have you ever observed sure professions or industries the place the “nerds” are clearly successful? And when you’re a dad or mum, are you encouraging your children to embrace their internal nerd, or hoping they discover steadiness someplace in between?
Subscribe To Monetary Samurai
Decide up a duplicate of my USA TODAY nationwide bestseller, Millionaire Milestones: Easy Steps to Seven Figures. I’ve distilled over 30 years of monetary expertise that can assist you construct extra wealth than 94% of the inhabitants—and break away sooner.
Pay attention and subscribe to The Monetary Samurai podcast on Apple or Spotify. I interview specialists of their respective fields and talk about a number of the most fascinating matters on this website. Your shares, scores, and critiques are appreciated.
To expedite your journey to monetary freedom, be part of over 60,000 others and subscribe to the free Monetary Samurai e-newsletter. You may also get my posts in your e-mail inbox as quickly as they arrive out by signing up right here. Every thing is written primarily based on firsthand expertise and experience.
