Is it a home or just a place to live? Was it just a job or a solid career? Was love an action or just a word?
There are days in life that I failed, days when I got beat, days when I didn’t meet expectations and days that I sabotaged myself.
That doesn’t mean that I have failed in life. That doesn’t mean that I’m not successful and I don’t need to lower my expectations to define my success.
Monday morning I will watch the Queens funeral and Monday afternoon I will attend a wake for a dear friends father. Both of them ended up in the same place. Both of them died leaving a successful legacy.
I sat at a breakfast table with my dad when I first started on the trading floor. I was a runner for Index Futures. I told him I was going to make a ton of money trading soybeans and treasury bonds. I will drive a brand new car and he will get a new Cadillac. I’ll have a beautiful house and a gorgeous wife.
My dad didn’t know who the Talking Heads were, but he wiped the egg from his mouth and closely quoted David Byrne.
“Oh yeah son… how will you get there?
My dad had a pretty good idea back then in the diner how successful his son would turn out.
“Let me tell you something Moose. All those people standing on your trading floor are blue collar people! All of them!”
He was right and all those blue collar jobs are gone.
I don’t have a beautiful house, but I’ve made a comfortable home. I drive a twenty five year old truck that gets me to where I’m going. The beautiful wife was an illusion that gave me three beautiful children.
And the job? I never made the millions trading beans and bonds, but I outlasted 98% of the people that tried. I sandwiched a wonderful career between Index Futures and Futures International.
So on the day I go to the place where Don Shepley, Mickey Ryan and her majesty, The Queen are staying…. I’ll have defined my success.
I worked my dick off, used my heart with full capacity and found warmth where I hung my coat and laid my head.
It’s Monte Cristo Day… the best ones are always found at the counter of a busy diner.
It’s the last weekend of summer so go do summer stuff before the cold dark days of winter set in and all the traffic detours are gone.
And yeah, you learned this week that my mom called me Pumpkinhead and my Oldman called me Moose… the rest of you can stick with Shep, Jumbo or Secret Lover.
