Tips For Success From Self-Made Billionaire Henry Swieca

A fascinating speaker on entrepreneur success was at Columbia Business School recently, self-made billionaire Henry Swieca, who according to Forbes Magazine is worth$1.2 billion dollars. Swieca spent two hours speaking to students about some of his tips for success – and the students couldn’t get enough.

The humble, soft-spoken man spoke about the power of hard-work and discipline, and taking changes. As he says, as a young man he spent many hours playing basketball, and working hard and was unclear on his future even after he graduated from a State University of New York school.

Then Swieca recognized a potential career in the stock market, via observing his uncle who was an investor. He invested nearly all of his money in Warner Communications, and within two years, the monies doubled. He then went to Columbia Business School and took his first job at Merrill Lynch vowing to outwork anyone else in the company. And indeed, he did where he learned a ton.

Then, with his best-friend from childhood, in Upper Manhattan, he started the Dubin and Swieca Group at E. F. Hutton with business partner Glenn Dubin, where they pioneered pioneer the integration of traditional securities and derivative investment strategies. In 1992, Dubin and Swieca started Highbridge Capital Management, which they eventually sold to JP Morgan Chase. In 2011, Swieca started Talpion Fund Management.

Swieca says there is no clear path to success – “Checking boxes and following a set career path was never my style, and it’s much harder to do today, Look at your skills and what’s ahead for the market, then match what you’re good at with the opportunities that are out there.” And no matter what, work hard and don’t take any shortcuts.

Wise words to listen to from Henry Swieca.