CPPIB (Canada Pension Plan Investment Banking)'s Private Equity CEO Mark Wiseman came to speak in my ECO352 class last week. Close to the end of his Q & A session, Professor Satchu said, "I am surprised none of you seized this opportunity. Who wants to make a sales pitch about yourself?" I did nothing. First of all, I signed with another company for a full time position already, so I hesitated a bit. Second, CPPIB has significantly raised its bar for hiring new undergrads , and Mr. Wiseman did not seem interested in any student of the class. And third, the case fact (released in Harvard Business School in May 2009) stated that they have "overstaffed" in operations in order to train people from within, so it did not seem to me that CPPIB would be in need of entry level people.

Today, right before the mid term, Professor Satchu brought up this question. 90% of us will become ordinary people who will never have an opportunity again to be in the same room with a significant figure such as Mr. Wiseman. Why wasn't there a student who raises up his/her hand and says, "Mr. Wiseman, I would like to tell you why I want to work for you."

Frankly, I perceived it as highly aggressive to stand up in the middle of a Q & A discussion and sell yourself to a key note speaker in front of 30 other people. But, alternatively, why not? Would my classmates think I am totally a dork? Probably yes. So what? Would I do a satisfying job that I would never regret about? Maybe yes maybe no. But even if I screw it up, Mr. Wiseman would not remember me anyways. Hopefully he could say something that hurts my feelings but helps me to figure out what is wrong.

I raised up my hand and said to Professor Satchu, "CPPIB did not hire any student from University of Toronto this year. It did not even hire the best student of this class from last year." Professor Satchu asked back, "So what? The best student from my last year's class does not speak English well enough." I said, "I was a bit discouraged. I feel that Mr. Wiseman may not be interested in us at all."

"You are such an idio.." Professor Satchu almost finished saying the word "idiot" but stopped. "CPPIB hired two students from my class last year. You know it is true. You have this piece of information. You also have another piece of information saying that it did not hire any students this year. Given the two completely different pieces of information, someone can see an opportunity, but you only see the downside."

I knew this. I often take things negatively. For example, I have killed numerous business plans and cannot find any that makes me satisfied. Bicycle rental? No. Dealing with the government entails too many risks in terms of funding. Immigrant consulting? No. There are a large number of non-profit organizations that provide similar services for free. How am I going to charge money and make a profit? No for this. No for that. No. No. No. And by the end, I have not come up with any idea yet. Because I only see the problems, and cannot see the opportunity. For instance, people in Toronto are more and more concerned with healthy life style. Recent bicycle marathon fundraiser events also pushed this trend. More people are riding bicycle on the streets. Ottawa already has the bicycle rental business, but in Toronto it is absent. This is an opportunity. Why did I decline it so easily? I ought to learn from it.

After I started writing my exam, Professor Satchu came to my desk, and said to me, "Ying, you have to be able to see the opportunities. If you only see the downside, you can't get anything done."

The question is, is being pessimistic born or learned? How to change? I have no idea, but I will make experiments. I will see by changing perspectives, whether it will lead to better outcome or not.