PASS!!!

We got the news early this morning that Jonathan passed his third and final CFA exam.  He was able to pass each exam the first time without much (ok, any) previous experience.  Amazing!!!
It took a lot of dedication, hard work and perserverance.  We are so incredibly proud of him.

Daddy's Update:  This designation was almost certainly the hardest academic thing I have done in my life and I wasn't sure I could do it.  When I started, I was terrified.  I hadn't done math for the better part of 20 years(!); I didn't know anything at all about finance or accounting; and I hadn't ever taken on anything academically or professionally that I felt I could fail.

In university, I mostly gamed the system: Taking classes with professors who were known to be softer graders; taking a bunch of beginner and intermediate level Romance language courses (the similarity between them made it pretty easy to get an A); taking more difficult courses in the summer at other universities so they would only transfer in as a Pass and not affect my previous GPA.  All this led to a contradiction:  I had a really good GPA but had never really proven myself at all.   In the American university system, you could pretty much get a decent GPA without doing very much at all.  I certainly didn't read half of the assigned readings and never studying anything before the night before the test or began a term paper more than 48 hours before it was due.  I think the system has so much grade inflation that it is pretty difficult to get less than a C+ and that is *supposed* to be average.  I felt like a fraud.  Even my masters was pretty easy to walk - you had to work hard, but not TOO hard and certainly there was very little chance of someone failing if they put in the minimum effort.  

Over the years, I really felt deep inside like I probably wasn't very smart at all and that these pieces of paper were evidence of a rigged system rather than any ability.  I was terrified to try anything difficult because i didn't want to fail and reveal this miniature fraud I'd perpetrated so far.  I'd based so much of my self confidence on this fraud, I wasn't sure what I would do if I really tried hard at something and fell short.

This was the test.  The CFA is about as rigourous as it gets.  You spend 6-7 months studying almost every night, doing countless practice questions, learning hundreds of formulas at each level and then apply it all in a very public setting on the exam.  Because of your hibernation and the importance to your job, everybody knows you are taking the exams and so everybody will know whether you pass or fail.  This was the first time I had done something truly difficult and way out of my comfort zone (loads of post-grad math) in a subject I'd never touched before in a setting where I couldn't just cram - I had to actually work hard for perhaps the first time in my life and keep it up for a long time.

So from this, I learned that all the cliches are true:  I feel like taking a big risk on myself paid off enormously.  I feel like I *know* something for the first time in my life.  I feel like I have some expertise for the first time - knowledge that will stick around for a while.  I have no fear of any maths or formulas I see anymore.  I am swift with a financial calculator.  I understand my job a heck of a lot better and I feel like I imagine athletes feel - where years of training got my mental muscles to a state where all they want to do is run.  And I am pretty darn sure I would feel this way if I had failed a couple of the levels (since that is a par for the course) since the journey was well worth it for the outcome.  Kids:  Qui ne risque rien, gagne rein!  Get off your bum and push yourself as far as you can go - otherwise you'll always wonder how far you could go.  We will back you a thousand percent.