By Moses Lee
(Originally Published on December 2, 2002 in the Monroe Street Journal, the Newspaper of the Ross School of Business)

I haven't written for the MSJ in ages. The last article I wrote was in December 2001 when I concluded my term as the MSJ BBA Editor-in-Chief. After I finished that very fruitful and extremely enjoyable tenure, I thought I would never write another article in the MSJ. "I imparted everything I could possible impart upon UMBS. I completely poured myself out into the MSJ and the community; nothing else remains," I thought foolishly to myself.

However, time is a gift from God that I cherish very greatly. It is a tool that brings great insight on events in the past and sheds light on situations in the present. But perhaps most importantly, it is a tool that allows one to view the future with much more transparency. As I look back on my tenure as the Editor-in-Chief of the MSJ, I realize that many of the articles that I wrote were simply hogwash -- especially those editorials and articles that I wrote concerning investment banking. Let's rewind the tape to early 2001.

A little bit more than a year ago-- in my youthful foolishness -- I thought I was a mature and wise young man who somehow figured out life. I was an arrogant and prideful BBA2 who had everything in the world lined up. The summer before my final year in the BBA program, I had successfully completed an internship at one of Wall Street's finest and had returned to Ann Arbor having bagged two offers from competing investment banks. In one of the early articles of the new school year, I wrote in the MSJ that banking had been a fulfilling experience and I was ready to head to Wall Street to make a difference in the world. I'm not sure why I wrote such fluff. Perhaps it was because I was brainwashed. Or perhaps I knew that the investment banks were recruiting on campus in early October and I didn't want to offend them. Or maybe I simply rationalized in my head that banking was indeed the best job in the world.

In October 2001, I eventually signed with one of the investment banks and then deferred the offer to go to the MAcc program. (For those of you who don't know, a MAcc is a Masters of Accounting.) Smart move on my part. The summer after I graduated from undergrad with my BBA, I started to have second thoughts about jumping into the Wall Street whirlwind. Why did I want to go to Wall Street so badly? Money? Respect? Prestige? What about family, friends and faith? The three most important parts of my life.

Time can definitely sober a person up. When I thought about it, was it worth it to give up my passions, joys and happiness so that I could spend countless number of hours flipping through pitch books, scouring through Primark for 10-Ks, number crunching on Excel and making sure that coffee was fresh and hot for the next meeting? At the time I accepted the offer, I rationalized away the pain and the many horror stories from the summer internship, thinking to myself that this was "simply part of the job." When my sanity returned, I realized that I was being stripped of life.

A few examples from my summer internship that I never wrote about last year:

* My associate set me down one day and told me the following: "This job takes sacrifice. Today I'm 33 years old, I don't have a girl friend, my only friends are my relatives and I don't have a life. But guess what. I have a $250K salary and I can go to any bar in town and just wave my credit card in the air and get whatever I want. Join me." I was genuinely moved by his pep talk at the time. What was I thinking?

* I sat in on a meeting with a CEO from a major chemical company and the entire time he kept referring to me as "the numbers guy." I had clearly introduced myself to the CEO and my name was in the book that he was looking at. Yet he didn't bother to call me by my first name. At the time, I didn't care what he called me. He could have called me "Mr. Squirrel" for all I cared. I was so enveloped by the banking world that human courtesy didn't mean anything to me.

* I stayed in the office for almost two days straight and rationalized the torture away by saying to myself, "this is how people go from good to great."

* One day I looked in the mirror and saw a horrible sight. My hair was starting to fro, the ring around the collar of my shirt has turned to a dark brown color, my tie was soiled with soy sauce and the soles of my shoes were flapping around. I stood there and said, "You are the man, you banker you!"

Before this school year, I made a bold move and declined the lucrative investment banking offer. I simply emailed the recruiter and told her that I would not be able to take the offer for a host of reasons: (1) I can't see myself wasting away my life in the office when there are so many other things I can be doing with my time, (2) I'm not money hungry and, (3) I want to stay in Ann Arbor and build up my church. (Okay, I used a bit more tact in the actual email.) Number three was the most important factor in my decision. In the future I want to be really involved in planting churches all around the world. I figure that my education in business will help me. In response to my email, the recruiter wrote back to me the following: "In life, family and relationships are what matters the most - so good for you!"

A few nights ago I had the opportunity to give a presentation to a group of twenty to thirty or so freshmen on the following topic: What is a business school education? I started off by telling them, "If you want to go to the business school simply to make lots of money or to get a respectable job, I suggest that you do not apply to the business school. However, if you want to make your passion / dream a reality, then a business school education may be a good tool to help you get there." This is my position on a business education, and I believe it with all my heart.

In the future, I want to utilize my time and resources to help grow the local church and plant more churches around the state, nation and world. I believe with all my heart that the local church is the only organization that can transform the world. This is my passion. This is my purpose. This is my pursuit. I only have one life to live...and I will live every day to the fullest.