Insider Finance - Business - Burnout at BlackRock

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May 23, 2023

Hello, Insiders. Shona Ghosh, UK deputy executive editor, here. Many children born to immigrant parents will know how much they can value education, a high-status job, and the trappings that come with it. It’s a way to show that the family has ascended the social ladder in an unfamiliar country.

Khe Hy, born to Cambodian and French parents, was no different. By 29, he was earning $1 million a year at BlackRock. But wealth brought alopecia and burnout — and a look in the mirror during a friend’s wedding brought the realization he had to quit. Why one of BlackRock’s youngest managing directors chose another path.

In today’s edition:

If DeSantis drags down Disney, he could bring central Florida with it.
The Federal programs that could be at risk if the US defaults on its debt.
A scientist said he discovered a hidden Bible chapter.

— Shona Ghosh

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THE BIG STORY

Burnout at BlackRock

Robyn Phelps/Insider

What would it take for you to quit a seven-figure job?

74-hour workweeks, perhaps? By 31, Khe Hy was a managing director at BlackRock — the youngest in the firm’s history. But by the end of his first decade on Wall Street, he was buckling under the pressure and sky-high expectations.

For Khe, his game plan had always been simple: if he earned enough money, he would gain status, and if he gained status, he would no longer feel like an outsider. Success, he assumed, would bring happiness.

However, he soon came to learn that the values by which he was living were not his own. At 33, his hair started falling out due to stress-related alopecia. Then, Khe became a father and his life snapped into perspective.

He decided to leave BlackRock and the security of his seven-figure salary. "I realized the riskier thing is my kid watching their dad be checked out and doing something just for money," Khe told the writer Simone Stolzoff.

Now, he surfs every day, never misses a family dinner, and always puts his daughters to bed.

READ THE FULL STORY HERE

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Joe Raedle/Getty Images and AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

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This edition was curated by Shona Ghosh, and edited by Hallam Bullock, Bob Bryan, Jack Sommers, Diamond Naga Siu, and J.R. Stacey. Get in touch: insidertoday@insider.com.

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Insider Finance - Business - Burnout at BlackRock

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