I have received some requests for people who are interested in general subjects and may not have a really strong background in project finance or corporate finance. For example,
Hi Ed
this email may never reach you but michael scott and wayne gretzky jointly agree that you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. So this is me taking my shot. ..you seem to know your stuff too well.
Now I need to learn project finance; if not enough to build a model from scratch then at least enough to understand one. but I’m lost
Challenges-
– I have no finance background academically
– I’m an engineering grad
But be as it may, I am now working in a clean energy company particularly on green hydrogen.
So I somehow got my hands on your book ( which by the way why is it so hard and pricey to find in India?)
But pretty soon i’ve realised my current knowledge of finance does not cover pre requisites to understand your stuff.
I would hate to not learn anything so please tell me what can I learn or do to reach the level for which your book is intended. Except an MBA.
I would really do anything except that; because hell that’s pricey and will need me to leave my job but if you tell me that’s the only way out I may consider.
Troubled,
I take this and other comments very seriously and I am going to make videos that address the comments (I like the comment about Wayne Gretzky very much; I played a lot of ice hockey when I was young, but you don’t want to waste time about this). As I old man I want very much to allow you to follow the website and the videos for this kind of question. I also must say that as I have taught classes (not in university) since 1994, I am afraid that I am having problems putting myself in the place of somebody who is new to everything. So in this first part of the guide I will make suggestions as where to start and and what to do if you are serious about learning. Later on this page I will make similar suggestions as to where you can go for different kind of subjects such as renewable energy, more advanced project finance, basic modelling for interview exams, advanced modelling, electricity merchant projects, advanced project finance, renewable energy credit analysis, corporate finance and valuation and other subjects.
I am very sorry about the cost of the book; I think my new book is much less boring and you can download the manuscript below (which is not finished and I may die before I finish it). In this book I start with the definition of finance, the definition of an investment, all sorts of problems with financial analysis and may other issues.
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From comments such as these I have tried to change my teaching approach. I now stop and ask questions to make sure that people are understanding the subjects. I have began adding questions so that you can you can test yourself. If this works and you can answer questions at each stage I will give you some kind of badge.
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Where to Go If You Have No Background and You Want to Learn Project Finance
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I suggest you first go the section of my website on courses. Underneath the course menu you will find a menu on corporate finance. There you can find a course on foundations of project finance. My suggestion is to open the power point slides and then the associated documents to understand project finance. I will make a video on this course and include questions to make sure you understand the concepts. The link to this page is below.
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If you want to learn basic modelling, I suggest you then go to the page that explains how to build a model from scratch. I am also in the process of adding quizzes and questions to this section to make sure that you understand the fundamentals of a project finance model. The link to this page that starts with timelines, input structuring, financial model organisation is include with a couple of videos and simple financial model examples.
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After you have practiced some of the basic equations and the instructions, you can move to specific subjects such as hydrogen modelling. I will let you look for this yourself.
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Where to Go if You Need to Study for an Interview Exam
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