华尔街顶级投资公司资深基金经理为什么改行卖快餐

    杰雷米•巴内特最近辞掉了在太平洋投资管理公司（PIMCO）的工作。此前，他已经在这家位于纽波特比奇的投资公司当了好几年的不动产组合基金经理。这种事在华尔街司空见惯。不过，巴内特辞职的不同寻常之处在于，他并不是为了另一份金融方面的工作才选择离开。他离职是为了经营一辆快餐车【彭博社（Bloomberg）首先对此事进行了报道）】。

    巴内特刚刚结束了在太平洋投资管理公司最后一天的工作，就在昨天《财富》和他进行了一番交流。下文是经过整理的采访记录：

    为什么会选择经营快餐车？

    我第一次萌生这样的想法是在一年前。当时我是这样想的：加利福尼亚拥有这么多不同类型的快餐类食品，譬如墨西哥菜、中餐或意大利菜等等，但肯定找不到与法国菜相关的快餐美食。其实在法国，以香脆三明治和中东食物作为卖点的街头美食氛围非常浓厚。为什么我们的街头没有出现这一类的美食呢？对此我觉得有些不可思议，以此为契机做些什么事情也许是非常不错的想法。于是，一回到家我就将这样的创业念头告诉了我的妻子。

    她的反应怎么样？

    其实，回到家以后我并没有直接告诉她说我想辞掉现在的工作。我只是将这样的想法当成了值得追求的目标，反倒是我的妻子成了真正开始实施这个想法的人，她还雇佣了一位厨师来帮忙。三个星期之前，我们在长滩的一家酒吧里推出了第一辆弹出式快餐车，而且经营得非常成功。于是我对餐车项目更加有信心了，我希望能帮助它发展壮大。

    所以你辞掉了工作。你在太平洋投资管理公司的同事对此有什么看法？

    早在辞职的六个月之前，同事们就知道我一直在做一个快餐车项目。有几位同事甚至在我的摊子上吃过香脆三明治，他们对这个项目很感兴趣，而且他们也知道我非常中意这个项目。不过很显然，最终我的离职还是引发了不小的震动。老实说，我选择辞职的部分原因在于我在本职工作上的投入越来越少了。

    餐车是属于你个人的吗？你会负责烹饪吗？

    暂时还没有。我们希望能在三个月之内启动、开始正常运作。我预计到那时我和我的妻子就会参与进来，也许还会再增加一个人手。我的职责不是负责烹饪就是负责点菜服务。到时候包括称谓在内的一切服务都是法国式。

    你如何选择营业地点呢？需要办理特定场地许可证吗？

    每个郡都需要健康许可，所以我们要在橘子郡和洛杉矶郡各办一张证件。营业地点的选择取决于每座城市和房产业主的规章制度。例如，橘子郡的房地产基本上都是属于欧文公司（Irvine Company），允许餐车在它地产建筑周围的区域经营。太平洋投资管理公司大楼的外面每周一都会停着三辆快餐车，我希望将来其中的一个经营位置能够属于我。

    有没有一些经验或者教训可以从过去金融职场借鉴到现在的快餐车经营上？

    虽然资产管理和创业是完全不同的概念，但我妻子和我都是管理者开始做起的。因此，我们懂得在每一天营业结束时都会产生现金流，妥善利用好这些现金流是最重要的事情。另外，固定成本、可变成本和定价也是我们再熟悉不过的概念了。不过，我不确定其他快餐车的经营者是否也知道这些概念。（财富中文网）

    译者：徐黄兆

    Jeremie Banet recently quit his job at PIMCO, the Newport Beach investment firm where he had spent several years as a portfolio manager for real assets. Happens all the time on Wall Street. What made Banet unusual, however, was that he wasn’t leaving for another finance job. Instead, he quit to open a food truck (as first reported by Bloomberg).

    Fortune spoke yesterday with Banet, just after he had finished up his final day of work with PIMCO. What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation:

    Why a food truck?

    The idea first came a year ago and the reasoning was that California has so many different types of fast-food — Mexican, Chinese, Italian, etc. — but there is absolutely nothing that covers French, even though there is a big street food culture in France with croques monsieur and Middle Eastern food. So I thought it was weird that we didn’t have that sort of thing, and that it would be a great idea to start something around it. So I came home and told my wife about the idea.

    What was her reaction?

    Well, I didn’t come home and say I’m quitting my job. I just brought it up as something worth pursuing, so she’s actually the one who really began working on it and hired a chef to help. We had our first pop-up three weeks ago in a wine bar in Long Beach and it worked really well. So I gained a bit more confidence in the project and felt that I wanted to really help move it along.

    So you quit your job. What did your PIMCO colleagues say?

    The PIMCO people knew for about the last six months that I’d been working on a food truck project. A few of them even tried the croques at my place and were excited by it and knew that I was excited by it. But obviously when I resigned there was a pretty big shock. To be fair, part of the reason I chose to resign was that I was less and less into my job.

    Do you own the truck? Will you be behind the grill?

    No, not yet. We hope to be up and running within three or four months. I expect it will be me and my wife and maybe a third person. So either I’ll be behind the grill or taking orders. It will be called Monsieur Madame.

    How do you pick a spot? Do you need site-specific permits?

    Well, you need health permits for each county so we’ll get one in Orange and LA counties. To get a spot really depends on the rules of each city and property owner. For example, The Irvine Company basically owns Orange County and allows trucks around its buildings. Every Monday there are three trucks parked outside of PIMCO and I hope one of them is going to be mine.

    Are there any lessons or experiences that translate from your old finance career to your new food truck career?

    Managing assets and starting a business are very different, but both my wife and I started as controllers. So we understand that, at the end of each day, there are cash flows and if you don’t get them right nothing else matters. So we understand fixed costs and variable costs and pricing. I don’t know if everyone running a food truck really knows those things.