High finance often appears like a secret club—one with unwritten rules, heritage pipelines, and a ranking system that looks almost impossible to get into if you are not of a very particular type. However, I don’t think that the few are the only ones who can have access to the opportunities. I believe that power belongs to one who has discipline, ceaseless curiosity, and is willing to learn more quickly than their environment. I believe that through enough consistency, any person can be able to open doors which were never made for him. RylanHQ is my proof of the opposite.
This blog is more than just a site. It is an artist’s vision, a tactical instrument, and a biographical record of my personal and professional development journey from a college dorm in Baton Rouge to a boardroom in New York City one day. I’m creating this channel not only to keep up with what I’m learning but also to record the mentality, habits, and discipline which it takes to get into Wall Street from a non-target school like LSU.
My finance and entrepreneurial spirit came much earlier than most people would expect. At the tender age of ten, I already had a clear picture that I would be working in a bank. Numbers, money, and how the decisions influence the entire markets have always been the things that attracted me. When I was a little older, I managed to convince my mom to allow me to use her Robinhood account. I didn’t really make a profit—in fact, I made more mistakes than anything else—but those early defeats brought me valuable lessons on risk, emotion, and patience, which I still possess today.
By the time I was in high school, my inquisitiveness had transformed into action. I opened my first dropshipping Shopify store and, in the end, I racked up sales of more than $20,000. The amount may not sound very significant to experienced entrepreneurs, but for a high school student who is just starting and building everything from the ground up, it was a very big deal. It demonstrated to me what could be achieved if you are resourceful and at the same time have an insatiable hunger for learning. Through it, I learned marketing, customer psychology, logistics, and above all, the feeling of owning something that is truly yours. Since then, I have established another store—the one which I am presently working hard to grow so as to be able to open my first warehouse and launch fully branded products while still completing my bachelor’s degree in finance at Louisiana State University.
After several months, I had a realization that I needed a place where I could arrange my thoughts, analyze the markets in a more deliberate manner, and be accountable to myself for the work that I am doing as I aspire for a career in investment banking. Finance is very challenging, too fast for a casual approach, and highly competitive. If I am to be different from the rest of the students coming from LSU, where the usual Wall Street pipelines are not that prominent, then I must have a system. I require a framework that will be instrumental in sharpening my thinking and as a diary for my progress. This is the reason why RylanHQ came into existence.
Writing is an activity that makes your thinking precise. It requires the writer to be clear, logical, and honest. This blog is a place where I will explain the concepts through which I am learning—be it classes, books, real-world deals, or even the markets. It is a place where I take the concepts from my mind and challenge them until they become new understandings. It is also a place where I monitor the doing, the non-doing, and the getting better. Some postings will be very technical and may include subjects such as valuations, financial modeling, or macroeconomic trends. However, others may be more introspective in nature and talk about the emotional and psychological sides of recruiting, school balancing, business-building, and goal-keeping.
At RylanHQ, you will be able to read a blend of market commentary, deal breakdowns, investment strategies, and personal reflections. Complex works will be done in this place to bring difficult ideas to the easy level – not by weakening them, but by explaining them in a way that allows the reader to understand. Usually, finance topics are for those already working in the industry. My writing will address the two groups: the students who want to get in and the professionals who wonder what the next generation looks like.
Moreover, I am not writing from the viewpoint of an individual who has “made it,” and therefore I am not writing like that. Instead, I am writing like someone who is doing the work right now. I am a student who is still learning, experimenting, and asking questions. I am a person who is bound to the hard work – networking, studying, building, failing, trying again – because I know what I want, and I also know that the way will not be straightforward. Being at LSU instead of an Ivy League target school gives me a different perspective. My way is not the usual one, but that is the exact reason why I want to share it. I want to prove that your background is not what sets your limit. It is your consistency that does.
Additionally, my entrepreneurial way of thinking influences how I consider finance as well. I am not just studying the companies – I am actually starting them. I am the one who looks to see what happens behind the curtain: the margins, the supply chains, the customer acquisition struggles. By mixing this with my love of markets, I get a viewpoint that is rarely found in mainstream finance content.
This blog is the first step of the journey which I hope will be much longer. I really plan in the years to come to show and tell my learning in the school, the teachings that come from the markets, and the demands of the real world for someone who has a wish to go up in this industry. If you are a student with similar goals, maybe my journey will speak to you. In case you are a finance professional already, maybe this blog will take you back to your starting point or give you an insight into how ambitious students from non-target schools think about getting in.
Whatever the case, this is the very first time that I am leaving Baton Rouge and going to New York City. And I appreciate the fact that you are here right at the beginning.
RylanHQ - Finance, Markets, and Strategy Insights from a Student Perspective 