Wunderkinds, by definition, are rare. A synonym for child prodigy, a “wunderkind” is someone who succeeds in a competitive or highly difficult field or profession at an early age. For this episode of The Catalyst, I interviewed the woman who was the youngest SVP at Edelman and is now one of a handful of Black C-Suite executives on Wall Street. Who is this wunderkind? None other than Arielle Patrick, Chief Communications Officer at Ariel Investments.

One of my greatest lessons from my first year in investment banking is the necessity of trust within relationships, so I was in deep resonance with Arielle when she spoke of the importance of cultivating relationships from a foundation of value as opposed to a lens of transaction. Focusing on what we can give to others, as opposed to what they can give to us is really what leads to unmatched success. Achieving this success is simply the outcome of consistently demonstrating, and giving, value which Arielle credits as one of the reasons she made it into the C-Suite in under 10 years—eight to be exact.

With her professional success, Arielle is perfectly positioned to bestow advice to the next generation of talented young women; and her foremost advice is to be the most prepared person in the room. “Preparedness is the best armor. It really does protect you.” The act of being prepared, which comes down to anticipating questions and doing deep research alongside reviewing notes before any meeting or presentation, are skills Arielle honed as a Classics major at Princeton. Echoing Arielle, one of the best skillsets I gained from my Romance languages & Literatures degree from Harvard College is the ability to do deep research, analyze esoteric documents, and distill this information into a deliverable that is easy to read. Although I have since graduated and no longer spend 12 hours on the 6th-floor stacks in Widener, my working days as a banker remain similar both in length and activity.

With this interview, I had in mind young women like myself who are ambitious, starting out their careers and are seeking inspiration on their journeys. In Arielle, I find inspiration that the success I am working towards is indeed possible. Throughout our conversation, we spoke about our humanities training being helpful background for our careers in financial services, the importance of giving value in relationships, and what young, professional women should think about when considering motherhood. We also spoke of Arielle’s passion for art collecting, which relates to the ethos that has marked her entire career: relationships over transactions.

I invite you to listen in on this conversation with Arielle, which can be listened to by playing the audio player below as well as on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. If you enjoyed the conversation with Arielle, let me know! I would love to hear from you, Changemakers, so share your comments below on this post or on The Catalyst’s Instagram.