P&I’s inaugural class of Influential Women in Institutional Investing shared what advice they’d give to their younger self, if they could go back in time.
What follows are some of the top answers:
Annie Chor Joyce, Amundi U.S.: “You don’t — and shouldn’t — say yes to everything. Your time is precious, use it wisely.”
Christine Phillpotts, Ariel Investments: “I would tell myself what one of my former bosses told me, which really still resonates with me to this day, which is: ‘Christine, don’t let best be the enemy of better.’ And that really resonated with me at the time because, you know, I like to say that I’m a recovering perfectionist.”
Jane Greenfield, Vanguard Group: “Be careful not to get in your own way ... there are some seriously powerful women out there, and seriously powerful women at Vanguard, but I think sometimes we can get in our way and make assumptions that, if you actually have those conversations, you realize are incorrect,” she said. “There were times when I started to make assumptions that I couldn’t do something, or I shouldn’t do something, or I shouldn’t speak up. ... I think there’s times, regardless of gender, where we can get in our own way, and I would coach myself early and often not to let that happen.”
Nicolette DiMaggio, Shelton Capital Management, said she’d tell herself to stay curious. “Your curiosity is going to lead to some great opportunities, and it’s going to open up a lot of doors.”
Jennifer DeLong, AllianceBernstein, would say “to have more confidence in myself and my abilities … more faith that it will all work out and you will look back and feel really proud of the things you’ve done.”
Daphne Dufresne, GenNx360 Capital Partners, said she would advise her younger self to be bolder and to take more risks. “I tell that to younger women all the time.”
Stephanie Pierce, BNY Mellon Investment Management, has two pieces of advice. First: “Know your craft, be excellent at your craft. Be as great as you can be at that first thing, because that becomes your calling card, your credibility for anything else you’re going to do.” And secondly, “with every meeting, get the next meeting. Never turn down a meeting.”
Robin Diamonte, RTX Corp., said she wishes she would have told herself to start “paying it forward and promoting women” earlier in her career. “And I’m gay, so I would have maybe supported the LGBT community and women younger in my career. It’s so important for the people that are underrepresented to pull other people with them.”
Tess Gruenstein, Bailard: “Have patience. Growth is not linear, you can’t plan for it, and a lot of times that’s extremely positive. I thought at 29 I needed to have it all figured out. And how untrue that was! Balance isn’t a day-by-day thing. It happens over the course of time.’’
Andrea Lisher, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, would tell herself to stop making so many future plans. “I put so much pressure on myself. When I was in college, I decided the year I was going to get married, the year that I was going to have kids, and I decided I was going to stop working when I had my kids. And you know, nothing happens like that in life. I put so much undue pressure on myself. And I probably didn’t enjoy my 20s as a professional as much as I could have. I didn’t take the overseas assignments because they weren’t in my plan and I had too much to accomplish before I had kids and quit my job ... so much of this is the journey, right? And so much of it is letting yourself figure it out.”
Ruby Muñoz Dang, Garcia Hamilton & Associates: “Tell her not to be afraid. You know, to take chances, that rocking the boat is not always a bad thing. I think, as it relates to our culture, we were taught status quo, you never want to rock the boat, right? And now I know that, you need to use your voice, you need to point out things that need attention or things that aren’t fair. So I think I would tell my younger self to never be afraid to point things out that are not right, to use your voice to speak up, and to take chances.”
Sarah Samuels, NEPC, is a big believer in what she calls “30 seconds of bravery,” which she learned about nearly a decade into her career. “If there’s something that you’d like to do, but you’re too scared to do it — think about asking for a promotion, asking for a raise. So it’s something big in your personal life even, that it makes you sweat to think about doing it. … Just do it for 30 seconds. It can’t hurt that bad. Only so much pain can happen in 30 seconds if you do that hard thing. And I promise you it’ll change your life.”
Kathy Sutherland, GoldenTree Asset Management: “I’d say, ‘Be ready to make adjustments. Always be getting better. You’ll do some things wrong, but be constantly getting better.’ And I tell people that presenting your ideas is just as important as the idea itself. Start early because you’ll only get better.”
Erin Arvedlund, Hazel Bradford, Courtney Degen and Erin Chan Ding contributed to this story.
