I have two passions in life, one is financial modelling and the other is music. I made the first one my profession and I always listen to music while working on spreadsheets. Recently I got interested in Djing and started exploring it. To my surprise I found some similarities between them.
Here are the things I discovered so far:
- File management: Anyone working on financial models knows that a model goes through a ton of revisions and different model versions will be circulated to different stakeholders. Not having a proper system for naming different model versions is going to end up in a nightmare(check out my recent post where I explain the file naming convention I use). It’s the same thing with DJs. They also have large music libraries and they are very creative in organising their music libraries.
- Shortcuts: Anyone working extensively with Excel uses shortcuts. Myself I I can’t say I’m a shortcut junky, but knowing a few of them makes my life easier and here are my favorite shortcuts.
DJs also use keyboard shortcuts which allows them to control the virtual mixer.
- Learning by doing: I learned most of the things I know about financial modeling while working on real projects. Taking a course is great but you are still working on hypothetical assumptions. The real stuff happens when you are in a project meeting and you are asked to run a scenario and give the result live during the meeting. That’s when you can showcase your financial modelling skills. It’s the same thing with DJs. they can produce hits in their garage but the real thing happens when they have an audience in live events.
- Innovation: There are always new things happening in any field. But I feel like there’s a lot of room for improvement in both financial modeling and DJing. Already some of the softwares like Djay Pro are using artificial intelligence to mix songs together. Innovation in financial modeling is the improvements in models like the standards that were introduced years ago and now is widely used among experts. Also tools like power BI are great additions when it comes to visualisation. For me the real recent innovation in the world of project finance modeling is the methodology developed by Edward Bodmer called parallel model. With two additional sheets in your model you can solve the problem with circular reference and it also helps to do a complete audit of the financial model. I have nominated Ed in the upcoming financial modelling innovation award. This event is organized by Kenneth Whitelaw-Jones another innovator in the field of financial modeling . If you want to learn more about the award, check it out here.
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Whatever you are into, enjoy the groove even if what you have is the sound of your keyboard stroke.
