Living in the Grey on Wall Street!

[Image: Well + Good]

We love this example of an investment banker blending her personal passions with her professional work to live in the grey.

Aarti Kapoor works at Moelis & Company and created a unique opportunity to focus on the wellness industry - something most Wall Street banks ignore.

This specialty came about for Aarti because of her own personal interest in boutique fitness. Once these classes became part of her personal routine, she began to see how she could fold her new passion into her work, “I quit my gym membership and started to empty my pockets to take the classes. And I noticed it was the same with friends and colleagues. It wasn’t just a ‘me phenomenon,’ it was a cultural phenomenon.”

This observation led her to notice strategic partnerships among the boutique fitness brands that gave her confidence that the healthy lifestyle sector wasn’t just a retail trend, but also a huge opportunity.

When approaching her bosses, Aarti knew her audience - one of the firm’s managing partners was a boutique fitness devotee, which helped - and she spoke to them in their language, using numbers and facts to make her case (did you know? - fitness is a $45 billion industry in the U.S. and wellness is a $2 trillion business globally).

The heads of Moelis were supportive of her eagerness to focus on fitness and wellness. “Moelis is very much ahead of the curve in covering this industry,” Aarti says. “I am lucky to work in an innovative culture.”

Now, Aarti is obligated by her job, to stay up-to-date on emerging fitness trends, which is her passion anyway! On a recent work trip to Los Angeles, she found herself “researching” three workouts a day at the top studios. Now that she’s brought passion from her personal life into her work life, she will no doubt perform her work tasks with extra vigor. And, she’s living in the grey!

Click here for to read about a nurse who lives in the grey.