As a teenager in Mexico with only $200 in his pocket, Horacio Péna’s stepped onto on a bus to the U.S..
Through grit and perseverance, he later became the youngest partner ever at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PcW), one of the world’s leading consulting and accounting firms.
He’s now an internationally renowned transfer pricing expert, a top economic advisor to some of the world’s largest and fastest-growing multinational companies, and a tax principal and senior economist based in New York City, the headquarter of PcW.
The Dream of Becoming an Economist
After immigrating to the United States, Horacio attended Stony Brook University in New York, where he triple-majored in economics, political science, and history. He completed his undergraduate degree in only three years. He then attended Yale University for his graduate degree at the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Living His Dream
After graduating from Yale, Horacio accepted a job in Washington DC to work as an economist for a big consulting firm focusing on innovation. He worked with many international agencies to privatize industries in countries like Estonia and Lithuanian Slovenia.
Many years of being a trusted advisor and innovation and digitization leader gave Horacio the experience he needed to move to New York and start his consulting group, where he’s helped numerous companies learn to successfully do international business worldwide.
The CID Theory
Horacio follows what he calls his CID Theory, meaning Consumption, Investment, and Distractions:
- Declare your life and decide what’s going to make you successful, unique, and happy
- Be conscious about what’s distracting you, being brutally honest with yourself
- Get a mentoring coach to help you develop your vision
- Focus on formulating and executing the plan
- Stay open to future change in the next reinvention
Horacio’s Lessons to Live By
You must be willing to go through the next thing, like the pandemic, to the next transition. No one knows what the next curve ball will be, so we must be ready to pivot and reinvent ourselves all over again.
1) Don’t believe everything you hear
2) Don’t be afraid to challenge the rules that sometimes have been made to exclude you
3) Don’t get tied up in the parade. Take time to look at your life in a global manner
4) You have to be a master at your trait before you can innovate
5) It’s all about grit. At the end of the day, grit is a far more explanatory power than success than intellect, discipline, emotional intelligence, IQ, or training
Resources:
Angela Duckworth – Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
