From top academia to boiler room cold calling

What initially felt like a professional setback in the financial brokerage turned out to be another valuable learning experience. I found myself in a high-pressure environment where selling and closing deals were crucial. At this stage, all I knew thanks to past experience was selling and performing to reach a target – I never tried anything else! While this sounds exciting (and it was), this was essentially a boiler room. After several months, I was promoted and had the chance to work directly under the owner, a veteran in the financial industry and sales. I gained extensive knowledge about motivating a sales team and mastering the art of closing deals. However, I was frustrated by the many inefficiencies in the company’s operations. Along with two other employees with similar views, and thanks to our naivety and youth, we set a deadline for ourselves to leave the company and start our own.