Thread by Daniel Saedi

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Why I left the world’s largest hedge fund to build a city:
After 5 years, I left Bridgewater Associates, a $160BN hedge fund.
Growing up reading the WSJ everyday, opening my first investment account in July 2008 and trading through the financial crisis, it was always my dream to work at a global hedge fund.
In March of 2009, while still in 8th grade, I reasoned that the Fed’s announcement of Quantitative easing would be massive for Stocks and Gold. I went long on both. @damccormick13 and I ended up winning a stock trading competition based on that thesis.
Years later, my financial peers at Berkeley were concerned with landing a prestigious investment banking or consulting gig to go into VC.
I spent my first two years figuring out how I could break into public markets, particularly Bridgewater.

@RayDalio was my personal hero, and I picked up my copy of Principles and made it my mission to get to Westport CT.
Two years went by-- nothing. Cold Linkedin, applications. Nothing. It seemed like I was destined for the same path as every other finance-oriented student at Berkeley.
One day, by destiny, one of my engineering friends said BW reached out and wasn’t interested.

He sent my resume back instead and the rest was history.
Five of the most formative years of my life, learning from the best in the world like @BobEUnlimited (how to not be overconfident), @paul_podolsky (how to communicate complex financial situations as stories), and most importantly, Ray on how to think from first principles.
After a few years of hard work, I had what I sought, but fulfillment never came.
I woke up every day without the sense of purpose I thought I should have.

I figured I was depressed and tried to make changes in my life, but nothing was working.
I didn’t want to face the hard truth: My passion for playing the game of investing no longer lit the fire within me.
When you lose your purpose, you lose everything with it.
The moment I realized this, I left BW to find purpose.

I spent the next two months talking to my smartest friends, @_charlienoyes , @SoroushG_ , @saedmyster, @ShaneBarratt, and one theme emerged:

Money alone wasn’t going to make me happy. I needed to double down on impact.
I was only going to be happy when I felt like I left my mark on this world, contributing to the arc of human history.
That’s not to say that I wasn’t doing that through investing, generating returns for global savers and countries, but I wasn’t doing what I felt should be my legacy.
I found Praxis by chance — I met @drydenwtbrown at a dinner in Soho, joined immediately as a member, started helping out with financing strategy, and joined FT when I realized it was my calling.
Today’s cities are atomized and poorly run.

New cities are deeply needed, and their swift construction requires the novel financing structures that I love building and have the unique skillset for.
@PraxisSociety, I've been building our novel demand aggregation and financing toolkit, giving people the opportunity to leverage their collective value to enjoy more purposeful lives with the people they truly care about.
Our value proposition is simple:

Creating the best life experience for our future residents through community, design, and collective wealth creation.
There are many other areas where specialists can become pioneers and create a more vital future for humanity:

Sign up to learn more at praxissociety.org.
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