Off Topic: Steve, happy birthday #29! Nice to know in all those years you haven't strayed too far from the farm (g). BTW, is "Louise Messina" on the CSGI thread any relation?
Like AV, I, too, remember way-back-when, just before my 29th birthday. I, too, had no wife, no job, no money, not even a place to live. I used to pick through the dumpster in the back of the local grocery store for fresh scraps. Showering meant sneaking into the local automatic car wash at rush hour and pretending to clean smudges off people's windshields. Recreation meant pushing a shopping cart around looking for bottles and cans. I used to borrow my clothing from Salvation Army collection bins.
Finally, right after my 29th birthday, down to my last penny and living under the State Street Bridge in New Haven, CT, I got my first big break. I was asked to manage a small hedge fund for technology stocks. Granted it was only $5 million, and granted I wasn't able to margin as much of the portfolio as I would have liked, but it was a start.
Well, with a combination of hard work, some luck, and the knowledge I wasn't using my own money, I invested in MSFT, INTC and many others, en-route to accumulating tens of millions of dollars for the account. I had money, power, prestige. I spent millions on wine, women, and song. My lavish powder parties were the talk of the town. Everyone wanted to be my friend.
Then I turned 30.
I looked in the mirror and didn't recognize what I saw. I wasn't the Wall Street type. Heck, I grew up in Kansas on a farm where I used to milk cows every morning and slaughter cattle every afternoon after walking the five miles back from school. That was the life I enjoyed. That was the real me. So I moved my wife and twin boys to upstate NY and started over -- again.
Well, the barn burned down and a bunch of other stuff happened, but suffice to say it was those years between 29 and 30 that really made me what I am today: someone who spends too damn much time on SI writing frivolous fictional messages as a break from the stark, unforgiving realism of programming.
If I can help just one 29 year old out there avoid the same mistakes I made, then it will all be worth it.
And that wisdom, my friend Steve, is my birthday gift to you. Again, Happy Birthday!
- Jeff |
