// However, you have to admit that your ”hard working career builder” statement was designed to somehow liken this character to someone who actually labors for

// However, you have to admit that your ”hard working career builder” statement was designed to somehow liken this character to someone who actually labors for their money. I have to ask…why not work hard building a different career? The thing you are assuming / missing is that for many of us working in finance is well connected to meaningful impact on the world. To give you a very simple example - one of my typical clients a few jobs back were state teachers and police retirement funds. The folks who run those funds directly impact the quality of life in retirement of these civic employees - and the entire financial industry (brokers, vendors, etc) exist to cater to them. So, the fund manager works to deliver best returns for the retirees. The broker works to provide the manager with superior execution. The trading platform vendor works to provide the broker with reliability and efficiency this requires, etc. The "deeper" into finance you are, the more you recognize the connection between things like farming, energy generations, business formation, etc being enabled through our work. So yeah plenty of guys chose finance because it's a good way to take care of their family AND they see meaning in their work.