Think out of the box

 " ...... those that matter the most are not those you see everyday at work"

 I am "inferior" only because this helps me to stay grounded and cool headed. We had our annual Research Away Day today and this year, the theme is for all of us to showcase our research speciality. We took turn to have our 5 minutes presentation and briefly present what we do. It was an eye-opener to see AV, AA and YS all were aiming quite high with some 4* journals in their pipeline. However, I am glad that LF (i.e., our boss) like my presentation. She was claiming that "oh Kai, that was so lovely" when I explained to those attended that my simple research strategy was to keep an "equally weighted" research portfolio. I was laughing all because she sounded so funny as well. I like LF I have to say.

Though I find the away day quite a fruitful event, in that I get to know what others do, I cannot help but felt a little "unsettled" for a while in that, I felt threatened that I might lose some competition a bit just simply because it appears AV, AA and YS seems to hit the so-called "mainstream" research in finance, while not so much of my case, that was the impression I gathered from chatting with WF. I then took a step back and thought what's the main driver in one's research. It's passion I am sure that drive all of us. It's hard if it is lacking of that, you just lose the will to do anything. Honestly, you do feel envy about others getting into 4* journal, but perhaps that is because it is about their "strategies" too? Then the next question is, what then is the best strategy or the most sustainable one. I guess, we win some and we lose some in the process. What matters most is we get what we want and we attained the outcome originally intended, implying that it worth our efforts invested and times spent. It's a battlefield out there, and you want to stay ahead of the game. Think out of the box, perhaps those that matter most are not those you see everyday at work. :D