While many high school students look for jobs as tutors or Jamba Juice employees, Singh prefers to work as a financial investor and manager. Finance, he stresses, is his single biggest passion. Even though Singh does not need the money that comes with his job, he values his work. For the past four years, Singh has been experimenting with his own finances and, after one and a half years, he started working with the finances of others, including those of his parents and six friends, a few of whom go to MVHS.
“My dad gave him money to start out with, and then he started investing and eventually my dad just let him handle his entire portfolio,” Alok’s brother sophomore Amit Singh said. “He was better than my dad, and he gave good returns … so [the money] is in good hands.”
Though Alok’s occupation may seem unconventional, business teacher Carl Schmidt sees nothing wrong with the turn of events.
“Some people out there want to have a common definition of [what] a kid should be doing, and I guess different cultures impose different definitions,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt praises Alok for the type of business he engages in, and points out that many outstanding entrepreneurs in the world began when they were very young as well. He encourages others to do the same.
Alok envisions a future career in the field of finance, and real world work experience has taught him much about work relationships and himself. Alok has had his share of frustrations on the job like dealing with the expectations of his employers, but discovering and allowing others to see his passion for investing has been the single most important thing Singh has learned from his job experience.
“As far as I’m concerned, job experience is far more useful than anything you learn in school,” Alok said. “You can always teach someone more but you can’t give them passion. They have to figure that out for themselves.”
That is exactly why Schmidt believes Alok’s young age does not matter in his work.
“I wish him well doing [his job],” Schmidt said. “if he has the interest in it, there’s no reason why he can’t do as well as anyone else. The fact that it’s different? So what? What’s to say a young woman can’t come out to be a movie star when she’s ten? What’s to say a young woman can’t come out to be a financial analyst when she’s fourteen? Nothing prevents that.”
I never saw an advantage to, unless I were a school of fish being preyed upon by a shark, being in a group. Go against the group, don’t follow the herd. It’s ridiculous.”
Amit agrees.
“If you’re good at [something] you can do anything you want,” Amit said. “There’s no real age limit on investing or anything else. If you like it just go for it.”
