You might have heard this piece of career advice before as a strategy for success: “Think outside the box.” But you’ve probably never heard it from someone who chases down leopards in her spare time. Somehow you expect it to mean a little more coming from someone like that. Perhaps it’s even a challenge to be daring rather than just creative.

For Sri Lankan native Saranga Ranasinghe, CFA, daring is probably the right word. She spends all of her spare time in wildlife preserves tracking beasts all over the jungle just to get a good look. That’s definitely outside of the box for most financial professionals.

And that attitude spills over into her work as vice president at Amba Research in Colombo. Ranasinghe tells the five analysts who report to her, “Don’t follow everybody else.”

Her firm, Amba Research, provides investment research support services to the global capital markets industry. Ranasinghe focuses on equity and fixed-income research for an investment bank on Wall Street.

Although Ranasinghe may be adventurous when it comes to exploration and research, she never loses sight of practical matters. She also believes in being prudent. She counsels her staff, “Be very particular when making decisions because, after all, you’re playing with someone else’s money.”

The CFA Program falls into that practical category as well for her. “The CFA Program is a challenge, but it’s a great investment.” She sees it as a sure route to opportunities. “CFA basically opens doors. It’s highly recognized all over.”

That global recognition allows her to work from her hometown in Sri Lanka for Wall Street analysts, something that a local or regional designation would not make possible. After all, Ranasinghe, like most, wants to live close to her family.

In fact, the family business is what started her on the road to finance. Her mother opened a bakery when Ranasinghe was small, and everyone in the family pitched in to help. As the business expanded, keeping the books became Ranasinghe’s job. With each increase in the number of ovens, Ranasinghe became more interested in what was going on in the financial markets. After high school, she left her island home to study in the United States, looking for as much exposure as possible to global markets. While there, she studied international business and management of information systems at the University of Wisconsin.

Her first job outside of the family business was handling the books for a physiotherapist who was developing software that could record patient movements to improve their treatment plans. His practice was pushing the boundaries of technology, and Ranasinghe enjoyed helping him with his budgeting and running forecasts for pricing options.

After graduating, Ranasinghe returned to Sri Lanka and the family business, but doing the books for an industrial bakery wasn’t what she had in mind for the long term. She learned of a growing firm, Amba, and when an opportunity to join the firm became available, she took it.

At that point, a colleague who worked in the treasury department told her about the CFA Program, a requirement for his position. When he told her what he was studying, she found it really interesting and wanted to know about financial statement analysis and fixed-income investments too. Ranasinghe finished the program in only one and a half years because she was thoroughly fascinated.

Now, she encourages those considering the CFA Program by telling them how useful she found the curriculum to be. “It’s a lot of knowledge, but you can use it for a long time.”

In fact, her firm keeps a copy of the CFA curriculum in its library for staff reference. She says that those who are enrolled in the CFA Program bring in their own books because demand for the library copies is so high.

“We use most of it in our work,” she says.

So, what’s next for this enterprising young professional?

“I plan to set up my own business exporting Sri Lankan products abroad and spend a lot of time sitting under a coconut tree.”