The banker who moved to a ‘small company’: how good can life beyond your comfort zone be?

People with dreams keep moving

To its employees, Huarong Finance is a company ‘you never want to leave once you join’:

 

Drawn by its culture and reputation, these dreamers grow quickly in the professional, friendly environment carefully created by founder York and his team. They receive rewards that match their efforts and have every opportunity to realise their potential. Could you bear to leave a company like that?

 

Beyond work, there are mountains and seas

 

Working hard and enjoying sport with the Huarong team

 

Yet compared with his younger colleagues born in the 80s and 90s, who have often spent seven, eight, nine or even ten years at Huarong Finance, Toby Shi, their ‘big brother’ born in the 70s, is still very much a newcomer.

 

Born in 1979, Toby protests that being grouped with people born in the 70s is ‘unfair, unfair’. But when he joined Huarong Finance in 2019, he had indeed reached the age traditionally associated with clarity and confidence. Choosing to change direction at 40 was like dropping a small stone into the still lake of his life, sending out great ripples:

 

Before 40, Toby was the very definition of the exemplary child other parents held up as a model. Many Chinese parents hoped their own children would follow his seemingly perfect path. He studied economics and finance in Wellington, subjects that genuinely interested him, and loved books about personal finance and investment. After graduating, he joined ANZ and stayed for 10 years, becoming thoroughly familiar with retail banking, business banking and product operations, and rising beyond the workplace ‘glass ceiling’. His managers and colleagues saw him as someone who let his abilities do the talking: highly capable, yet quiet and unassuming, a colleague everyone enjoyed working with. Only Toby knew that he was unwilling to settle for a life whose entire course he could already see.

 

 

Quiet people often have a powerful volcano erupting within. Sport was Toby's outlet for resisting repetitive work and an uneventful life. He was an accomplished swimmer, runner and cyclist, and a newcomer to surfing. Beyond sport, Toby loved adventure, overcoming obstacles and taking on challenges. The feeling of being a frog slowly boiled in warm water grew increasingly unbearable. The first step towards change was to find the courage to leave his comfort zone:

 

Leaving a senior management position at a major Fortune Global Five Hundred bank to become a mortgage adviser at a small company with just twenty or thirty people seemed inconceivable to most. Yet this was the carefully considered choice Toby made at 40, despite considerable pressure and doubt from others.

 

Why choose a lending company? Everyone asked Toby.

 

‘For one thing, this industry is full of both challenges and pressure. We cannot rely on large machines or hire others to run things for us. We mainly depend on our own human resources: our knowledge, experience and energy. That gives us the opportunity to realise our full potential. For another, I think this industry meets an essential need. Whatever industry my clients work in, and whether or not they like financial figures, they still need to manage their finances or arrange funding to buy a home. That is where my value as a mortgage adviser comes in. I can handle matters clients are unfamiliar with, or have no interest in, and give them appropriate financial advice. Whenever I help a client secure finance and buy a property they love, the happiness and satisfaction are real. Helping others succeed also brings fulfilment to my own life.’ Toby's answer was heartfelt.

 

There are plenty of lending companies. Why choose Huarong Finance?

 

‘Huarong Finance is a well-established mortgage company in Auckland, and its owner York is a well-known Chinese entrepreneur. You could say I came to the interview because of that reputation. During the interview, I discovered how much York valued professionalism. The company's culture of putting clients first and serving them professionally was also closely aligned with my own values. The people and culture were the key reasons I decided to change jobs at my “advanced age” and choose Huarong Finance.’

 

2021 Christmas fun with the team

 

Real life begins at the edge of your comfort zone

Stepping outside your comfort zone is never easy.

 

Deciding to step out is only the first step of a long journey. Many people have made that leap, only to struggle with the changes and challenges beyond the familiar. Defeated soon after leaving, they return to the comfortable life they have known for so long, repeatedly trapping themselves within boundaries of their own making.

 

Toby's attempt to escape his comfort zone was far from smooth. Instead, struggle defined his first year at Huarong Finance, and at one point he even considered giving up:

 

‘Only after leaving the bank did I discover the “real world”. Clients have a wide range of financing needs that no single bank or financial institution can cover. When you work at a bank, you only need to know that bank's information. As a mortgage adviser, you need to keep 10–20 times as much product knowledge and current policy information from different banks and non-bank financial institutions in your head, then tailor solutions to each client's circumstances.’ Toby may now know every policy and product inside out, but back then he nearly drowned in that sea of knowledge.

 

Alongside intensive learning, mortgage advisers need excellent communication skills to quickly build trust with clients and fully understand their finances. They must maintain good relationships with lenders and understand both their stated and unstated criteria. Every loan requires repeated communication and coordination with both the client and lender to help secure approval and the most reasonable rate available at the time. This was another major challenge for Toby, who was known for being a man of few words.

 

‘I need a short break. Now is not the time to work.’ ‘This situation isn't worth getting angry over.’ ‘I need to follow up on this client's documents again.’ At work, Emma, who sat opposite Toby, often noticed him murmuring with his eyes closed. He recharged through these mantra-like reminders, ‘encouraging myself to keep going and stay calm, then moving forward again once I've finished’.

 

Meditation can happen anywhere

 

For Toby, meditation was his personal secret to managing pressure and ultimately persevering. To his colleagues, ‘From meditation to surfing, from struggling to taking everything in his stride, Toby has the most endearingly unexpected sides of anyone at Huarong.’ The lovable Toby saw nothing unusual about these contrasts: ‘That's because I'm an Aquarius!’

 

Once he had truly settled into his new role, Toby found that Huarong Finance gave him an ever-expanding stage. A wider choice of products meant he could solve more practical problems for clients, while his previous banking experience became his greatest asset and a powerful tool for helping them.

 

Toby's client Mr L had been with his bank for many years, but could not borrow enough to buy the desirable central Auckland home on a full section that he had planned to purchase. After carefully analysing Mr L's circumstances, Toby discovered that the original bank had not adequately recognised his business income, limiting his borrowing:

 

‘Having previously worked as a business manager at a major bank, I could see from the client's financial statements that the business had reasonable, predictable earning potential. Its weakness was its short trading history, but the client's own experience and industry connections could make a persuasive case to the bank. After gathering evidence from various sources about future business income, we submitted a fresh application to another major bank. The client secured pre-approval and bought a home he was happy with.’

Toby giving a lesson with care

 

Keep moving, keep progressing

Today, Toby is increasingly at ease as a mortgage adviser, but he no longer feels like a frog being slowly boiled. On the contrary, from starting with straightforward family home loans to arranging finance for major developments and construction, and even helping with clients' asset management and planning, every day at Huarong Finance brings a new starting point.

 

Early last year, Toby's developer client Mr T had a site on the North Shore where he planned to build 8 townhouses and needed a construction loan of NZ$5,000,000. The client's circumstances were sound. Based on previous experience, once all council approvals had been obtained and the foundations completed, the project could be finished within 1 year. Most construction loan offers were also for 12 months. However, mindful of the effects of Covid-19 in recent years, Toby anticipated that construction might take longer. After negotiating with the finance company, he secured a 18-month offer for the client. Events unfolded just as Toby had predicted: the pandemic brought several waves of lockdowns and severe building-material shortages. His foresight greatly reduced the client's pressure to renew the loan and saved considerable costs.

 

Plaxo Annual gathering 

 

Another of Toby's developer clients, Ms S, also benefited greatly from working with him. When they met, she had just completed a large townhouse development financed through a one-year short-term construction loan from a finance company. She no longer wanted to keep paying high interest costs. She could sell the completed homes to repay the loan, but that would mean a larger tax bill.

 

After gaining a full understanding of her income and assets, Toby proposed refinancing the existing finance-company loan with a second-tier lender. New Zealand was still in a low-interest-rate environment, and the strong rental income from Ms S's newly built townhouses could comfortably service her loan and generate positive cash flow. She could also avoid a substantial tax bill from selling the new homes. Once the plan was agreed, Toby spent considerable time helping her prepare the extensive documentation and applied to several financial institutions to maximise the chances of success. After more than two months of sustained effort, he secured a 30-year loan before the finance-company loan expired, enabling Ms S to retain all the new properties for the long term. To date, she has not only saved on tax but also enjoyed healthy capital growth across the properties.

 

‘Over these years, Huarong Finance has given me an excellent platform to keep building my knowledge and connections, and to work hard and progress alongside everyone.’ Toby modestly credits the company, team and colleagues for his achievements.

To colleagues who have grown closer to him, this laid-back favourite is no longer the aloof, quiet figure who once seemed a little difficult to approach. He has become a source of happiness, constantly delivering memorable lines and making everyone laugh. They envy his Achilles tendons, jokingly said to be five times longer than normal, and his athletic talent. His ‘wild dance’ at the annual gathering remains a favourite topic of conversation:

 

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Looking back on his three years at Huarong Finance, Toby, who has changed greatly but remains a man of few words, offered this reflection:‘I'm happy in the Huarong team’These 9 Chinese characters summed it up. At Huarong, he has not only found personal fulfilment but also made many friends; he has gained renewed energy and gathered many happy memories.