I have more respect for the person who reads books about great places than the chump that takes a selfie in front of them.
Let me explain that more clearly before Chalkheads start getting pissed off.
I knew a kid down on the trading floor that made a shit ton of money. He was an example of a trader that barely graduated from Saint Basils' Catholic high school, but grasped the concept of buying low and selling high.
He was as dumb as a box of rocks and couldn’t hold a quality conversation, but he had balls of steel in the trading pit. He had a stellar career that gave him the opportunity to travel the world.
This guy never read a book or challenged himself to learn about the world around him. He went to China to get drunk. He went to Singapore to get laid. He went to Pamplona and got smashed by a bull. He went to London and got kicked out of the pub. He went to Paris for a picture of himself drinking a Budweiser in front of the Eiffel Tower.
Someone asked him if he had gone to the Louvre and he had no clue what that was.
This is an example of a clown that had an opportunity that daydreamers dream about every day.
I’m probably never going to see the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe or the Louvre. I will never listen to Django Reinhardt songs at a French cafe with a gorgeous French broad.
I do have a fire lit under my ass that gets me up every day though.
My Eiffel Tower is my family. My running with the bulls is a trading office in Oakbrook. I will never hear Gypsy jazz music in April at Café de Flore, but I did see Junior Wells on Maxwell Street on a warm Saturday in July.
Don’t have a fear of missing out.
Fuck the bucket list.
Get over to the library, the forest preserve. Go down to the Lakefront or up the Chicago River. Spend a Saturday afternoon in Chinatown or an evening at the Green Mill.
Keep it simple, put down the bucket and grab the Zippo.
Who do you want to have dinner with?
The guy that went to Gettysburg to say he saw it or the guy who studied about Gettysburg and can write a book about it?
Never ever FOMO (Fear of Missing out)
