Back in the old days, I’d come to work on New Year’s eve and hand out bottles of Moet to my fellow co-workers, sort of like a drunken Santa Claus. We’d buy two cases and just go nuts. The office was usually a graveyard, as most brokers were out copping 8 balls, instead of paying attention to the market. Brokers are an interesting animal, both smart and dumb at the same time. Most of them are properly educated, regardless of the firm. However, there is something about commission only work that turns people into imbeciles. People always covet what they do not own. So, when someone sees a big producer taking down 250k per month, they want to emulate that and behave in a way that is not productive, ironically, to their clients.
I stopped taking clients a long time ago, as I do not want to live the life of servitude for total jackasses. I know it’s counter-intuitive, declining new business and all; but I have my own money and no longer feel it is necessary to slave over hot hard drives for some asshole in Kentucky.
Money is not something that was always easy to come by for me, so do not misconstrue who you are speaking to. I remember eating crackerjacks for dinner and orange juice with cereal for breakfast, ’cause the milk was sour. So don’t come here with your fucking sob stories, bitching about how poor you are now. Actually, it’s a funny thing, looking back now. No matter how hard my life was, with regards to money being scarce, I always knew I’d be “rich as fuck” one day. When I was starting out in the business, I went months without a check, while the wife and new born baby waited long, hard hours for me at home, in our pathetic basement apartment, locating in dumbfuck Brooklyn. I worked from 8am to 11pm, most of the time. It was either “hustle hard,” or die. An interesting choice, one that I feel everyone should have to endure at least once. Borrowing money was not an option, since my family is your typical American middle class. So, like so many others in my position, credit cards became a respite.
Fast forward a few years, and I was 50-75k in debt, fucked by banks.
What changed for me was the day that I started working for my clients and not for myself, if you know what I mean. People are not stupid. They know when someone is disingenuous about their actions. I built my business strong, from the ground up, on trust. People trust you when you are honest and do things that exhibit honour [sic] and virtue. Luckily for me, I’ve always been interested in the stock market, since the age of 10. So I knew how to pick stocks and had a knack for banking coin. Before I knew what hit me, I was out of debt and tripling my money in dot com stocks.
Shortly after the dot come collapse hit, a new crisis hit me, one that humbles me to this day. However, instead of telling you that now, I will leave it for another day.
LOTTO TICKET UPDATE: MY SCEI IS A WINNER!!
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