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# You Can't Argue With Excellence
- URL: https://www.churnispeaks.com/notes/cant-argue-with-excellence/
- Published: 2025-11-20T17:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-20T17:00:00.000Z
- Description: They gave me the hardest portfolio to see if I would fail. I learned capital markets by reading code.
- Author: Churni Bhattacharya
- Tags: Leadership, #note, #Import 2026-09-25 22:45

Early in my career, I worked at Citibank's IT team with primarily Japanese teammates. When I got promoted, a few people questioned the decision. I was a woman and that too, a foreigner!

My manager tried to settle it by saying, "Let's give her the hardest portfolio. If it doesn't work out, we'll make a change."

That portfolio was capital markets. I had no clue what it even meant!

So, I learned it using the most fool-proof way - reading code

Did I have any pressure being a foreigner or a woman? I really never thought about it then, or ever in my life. Because my philosophy then and now has always been the same: you can't argue with excellence.

It does not matter what others are doing. Just show up every day, keep learning, have fun and do your best.

*First posted on LinkedIn, November 20, 2025.*