As a non-religious person, I also don’t subscribe to this line of thinking, but I’d never accuse or demean a 22 year old from Memphis, TN of being disingenuous about it. She’s a Christian and her faith guides many decisions in her life, including this one. That’s extremely normal for millions of Americans, even if I don’t relate.
I also don’t think she’s asking for sympathy, more just explaining her though process and decision. Whether she owes us that, or there’s an audience for that news that it needed a whole writeup is another question entirely, but clearly she felt the need to get her thoughts out and let the golfing world know what she was thinking.
I don’t think she’s being disingenuous. I just think it’s an utterly ridiculous way to live life. If she doesn’t want to pursue a pro golf career and feels like she’s missed out on loads of stuff in life, then absolutely go do what you gotta do. I just can’t fathom why god needs to come into the equation at all.
But, like you said, it’s “normal” for millions and millions of people to think that something/someone external must be driving their thought process, so
I don’t think I have to explain to anyone in the NLU universe that I am neither religious nor am I a fan of private equity. But I’m not sure why that would matter? This is Rachel’s story. This is what led her to this decision. Wouldn’t it be more insulting if I was like “Ya know what? All that God stuff, that’s dumb. I’m not running that.”
Rachel became a super relevant figure to our audience with Week in the Life, one of the things we’re most proud of. I think it makes perfect sense for her to share the news with our audience first, which is something she wanted to do.
Everyone’s religious leanings are their own. And not every private equity person is doing it because they want to divide a workforce in half and evict people from their homes. I have a long track record of being pretty far left on both these issues, but that doesn’t have anything to do with how Rachel should feel about them.
Fortunately, you don’t have to fathom it. Only she does. Because it’s about her life, not yours. Let’s step off the block and let the 22 year old do what she thinks she needs to in order to be happy.
Religious feelings aside, I enjoyed reading it and glad she picked NLU to share it first. She’s clearly a very driven and successful young woman who made the most of her college years even with the tough injury breaks. I’d wish her the best of luck going forward.
I was looking forward to reading it and was happy to see it on NLU for a few reasons:
as @KVV said after a week of I’ve followed her and many of the Stanford women’s team. So from that angle this audience may make it the most relevant in the golf community
she’s a big deal as an am in this sport and if a football or basketball player of a similar caliber decided to do this, it would be news
in the olden times this would have probably ran in golfweek or something along those lines. The access to Rachel and “getting” this announcement further establishes NLU as not just a podcast or YouTube series but a (the) legitimate golf news source. Dont get me wrong there have been other topics they crushed and were early on, like the Delaware meeting etc, this just further establishes that… at least for this reader.
Has been alluded to by @Barry_Goldberg, but “going into private equity” is such a broad statement it’s meaningless in judging the type of person she is or will be. Also, she’s an intern - her contribution to the downfall of society will be so close to zero it’s not even worth talking about.
Kudos to her for what must have been an incredibly difficult decision and to NLU for publishing the story. I was trying to explain NLU to my girlfriend over the weekend and she was asking questions about women within the company, on the refuge, etc. and in addition to discussing that I said NLU has become one of the best coverers (not sure that’s a word) of women’s golf that’s out there. Great to see this reinforce that sentiment.
Really great article, and the fact that it’s so different from other things written on the site makes it special.
Instead of bemoaning her religion and internship choice, it’s worth celebrating a young woman who thought she was destined for something, reached the pinnacle, endured some terrible depression and managed to come out the other side at peace with herself. An inspiring story.
yeah I’ve got some takes on how some aspects of her “career” have been covered that we can take to another thread, but cmon guys are we really faulting someone for having their priorities in life change between the ages of 18 and 22?
Fair points. And yes you’re right of course, her reasoning shouldn’t deter an article being published. Her reasons are her reasons.
Maybe my utter lack of understanding of “faith” and that people need to believe in the idea of someone driving their thoughts is something I need to work on, I suppose.
I guess I should have left it at “I didn’t really enjoy the article”
That’s definitely the vibe I got, and I’m curious if she ever will, it was left very open ended. Obviously not really my business or really any of us, just curious and would be cool to see happen down the road eventually
One perspective on private equity and her internship. I spent 30+ years in Fortune 500 leadership, and did lots of things that created shareholder valve in the 80’s and 90’s but might have been considered “soulless” - consolidating plants, outsourcing to Asia, virtualizing supply chains. It was relatively stressless because for the most part I didn’t have deal with on the ground impacts on the people involved. I spent 15 years in PE afterwards (now retired) and in the smaller companies that I was involved in I had to deal with the personal impacts of my decisions. And I got to see the owners of these private business that they grown from infancy get rewarded for their efforts. I saw management teams get real rewards for their efforts. And in some small number of cases, I saw it not work out but the PE firms (i.e. their investors, mostly public employees pension funds) and the lenders lost the money while the business continued. PE is no worse and maybe better than the stock market in providing capital to smaller businesses. At least in PE, the employees can personally know the investors.
I also managed a number of young people who joined my PE firm - she is going to work really hard and see a lot of different businesses. Experience that took me years to obtain in a traditional business environment. For a young person with seemingly such a well grounded attitude, she will come out ready to do a lot of different and socially valuable things (including driving business value that employees people).
NLU should be proud of Week In The Life, 419k views and counting. Likewise, NLU and Nest members should be just as proud that she chose this platform to make this announcement. I’m sure she would have had options.
My wife is very religious. I am not…at all. I respect her and she respects me. We’ve been married for 23 years. Ms. Heck can be whatever she chooses. As @KVV said, it’s her story. If she’s happy, I’m happy for her. I don’t need to validate myself by requiring others share my own beliefs.
Having two daughters of my own, Mr. Heck’s “I don’t know what I’m doing. I just want to be next to you” comment melted me!
What will hopefully be my last religion comment on here
It’s very important to recognize the distinction between religion and faith.
Organized religion has done a lot of bad and I’m not a regular attendee (something I struggle with guilt over). But it is not always intertwined with faith.
My daughter is 15. She could care less about golf (though occasionally will come with me to the driving range to hit a few balls with the PW I bought her (she’s left handed) so she can also grab lunch with me at the club.
There’s not a sports context I would use this with my daughter - but I still feel it completely. She’s right in the wheelhouse where me saying this out loud would almost certainly still get an eyeroll, but also a smile as she’d get it.
I’m honestly getting a little emotional again thinking about it. What a succint, beautiful statementt from a father to a daughter.
