Lucky in Life
Luck is an important ingredient in success. I was thinking about this today while listening to Danny Meyer with Tim Ferris. Meyer was talking about all of the different things that had to happen to get him to where he is today. The funny thing about success is you never know which moment in time will shape the rest of your life.
People love to talk about their bad luck. “Watch. As soon as I buy this stock, it will go down.” Or, “Just my luck. I bet on the Bulls to win by five and they won by four.”
Things like this don’t move the needle. They’re fun to talk about, or I guess complain about, but they’re trivial.
While almost nobody has trivial luck, almost every successful person I’ve ever met has been lucky when the stakes are high. Not lucky in the sense that their success wasn’t earned, but just fortunate that they were in the right place at the right time, and usually several times.
Nobody is luckier than me. I didn’t take my education seriously. I got kicked out of college twice. I had no resume to speak of.
I always had internal confidence, but I wasn’t able to project it. I needed somebody to take a chance on me, but I never was able to convince anyone I was worth taking a chance on. Until I met Josh. I’ve told that story many times before, so I won’t rehash it here, but I’ll share some other crazy stories that ultimately led me to where I am today. I am a great example of this fantastic image below.
When I finally graduated college, a year and a half late, the financial system was experiencing a full-blown meltdown. People with incredible pedigrees were out of work. What chance did I have? I got a job at one of the few places that would hire anyone with a pulse. An insurance agency. Trying to sell a product people don’t want to people who don’t know you is a hell of a way to develop a thick skin. Thirty rejections a day for a year left me with some pretty serious battle scars.
I was lost. I mean, really lost. 23 years old, no income, no prospects, nothing. I couldn’t sleep. My eyelid was twitching for months because of the stress. It didn’t help that my mother was slowly dying. I was in a bad place.
And then one day I got an email that would change my life. I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s how life works. You never know which line is going to lead to the next line that eventually leads you on the path you were looking for but couldn’t find.
My father knew someone who was an advisor at Wells Fargo. The gentleman agreed to meet and took a liking to me. From there, every day he would send me notes from David Rosenberg, Jeremy Grantham, Jeff Saut, and John Hussman. These were the guys you read in the crisis and I owe all of them a ton of gratitude. They planted the bug. I didn’t know anything about economics or the market or behavioral finance or any of that stuff and they showed me a world I didn’t know existed. I was hooked.
He would send me emails every day and I read them all. Eventually, I left the insurance company to go all in on this. My job was to learn as much as I could, sit for the CFA, and somehow someway find my way into the industry.
Here’s an email I sent to him in 2010:
The Grantham piece was excellent. July will be my last month at the insurance agency, I am miserable. There is no salary and my rent to work there (yes rent) is just becoming unaffordable. I am going to try and get temp finance work in the meantime, will keep you posted.On Monday I had lunch with a hedge fund guy who was nice enough to meet with me through a connection. He gave me some valuable advice, and told me that once I really narrow in on exactly what it is I want to do, he would meet with me again and try to make 1 or 2 introductions. I am also still waiting to hear back from my sister’s friend at Oppenheimer. I am exhausting all possible connections, and my father is also doing the best he can to introduce me to some people as well. It sure is funny how life works out, I can say without a doubt that meeting with you has changed my life, and I know I will have a successful career. By sharing so much with me, I have found a passion that I am very excited about. I will let you know what transpires. Thanks for everything.
