Roll With It

Roll With It

As I write, I am sitting in the Miami airport at the gate, waiting to board a flight to Charleston so I can go home and rest my weary head. But the flight attendant is AWOL, and they can’t find another flight attendant. Currently, the flight is delayed about an hour, but I’ve been in much worse situations—flights delayed for two, three, or four hours, or canceled, leaving me stranded. This is pretty small beer in terms of inconveniences.

In situations like these, I try to keep perspective. There are very few situations where a travel delay results in a true emergency. Really, the only two times that has happened in the last ten years was a ganked-up Spirit flight to LaGuardia from Myrtle Beach that caused me to miss a conference speaking gig. The second was a massive snowstorm in Charlotte that almost prevented me from getting to a speaking gig in Calgary. Both times were stressful, and only in the case of the missed speaking gig were there consequences, but it’s probably for the best that I missed that gig, because my presentation was going to be profoundly stupid.

Everything is going to be okay. And even if it’s not okay, it’s still going to be okay.

I don’t stress about much. And the reason is that I only stress about things that are within my control, and when you think about it, there is very little that is within your control. It cracks me up that people stress about politics. I know some people who get consumed by politics, and pour out their rage on social media. They are profoundly unhappy about things that are completely out of their control. Same with this flight. I do not have the power to produce a flight attendant out of thin air. There is nothing I can do. If the flight gets canceled, I will probably have to get a gross room at an airport hotel, and try again the next day, which will suck, but it will also be fine.

It is always fine.

We tend to believe that we are omnipotent, that we can make stocks go up or down, that we can change the weather, or other people’s driving habits, or the waitress who disappears instead of bringing you your check. The universe of things that are within your control is very, very small. Look, if I thought getting stressed out would help, I would do it. But it never does. It only results in these phone videos of customers screaming obscenities at a hapless airline employee. It also results in the six most asshole words ever spoken: “Don’t you know who I am?”  I’m an investment banker, I’m a consultant, I’m so-and-so, I deserve special treatment ahead of all these other people because I’m so important. Never play that card.

You have probably heard of the serenity prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”  It’s taken me about 15 years to fully comprehend the meaning of that prayer. There are not too many situations in which you have the ability to change your travel plans. But sometimes there are. If your flight gets canceled, make sure you are the first person to call the help desk or go to customer service so you can get immediately rebooked ahead of all other mooks. That is within your control. Arguing with the gate agent isn’t going to make a flight attendant magically appear.

Many of the readers of this newsletter work in the financial industry, and we have an inflated sense of importance when it comes to the stock market. If we buy a stock, and it doesn’t go up, we think it is our fault. We think that it was an error in judgment, that our analysis was flawed. Or we assign blame—the trade would have worked out if it wasn’t for XYZ exogenous event. The answer here is that stocks go up or down for all kinds of reasons. Sellers are selling with more urgency, or buyers are buying with more urgency. It’s completely out of your control. You do the work, you put on the trade, and the result is not up to you. You have to get out of the results business. Instead, focus on the process. If the process is good, and repeatable, everything will work out in the long run. And if it doesn’t?  That’s fine, too!

With my newsletter (not this newsletter, my other newsletter, The Daily Dirtnap), that’s exactly what I do. I have always been of the belief that if I put in the work, and put out a good product, then things will work out in the long run, subject to fluctuations and cycles. I can’t make people sign up for the newsletter. I can’t force them to. I can do promotions, I can do videos, I can cajole people on Twitter, but ultimately, it’s not up to me. If someone else has more success than me, that’s fine—good for them!  There are lots of guys out there who I think are complete doofuses who make more money than me. I am not in the results business. I am not in charge of what they make, and I am not even in charge of what I make. Do the work, and everything will work out, and if it doesn’t, do something else!

An outside observer might call this “zen,” whatever that means. Where did I learn it?  Years and years of trying to be spiritually healthy. Look, in 2007, I made $60 million trading and got paid $850,000. The guy sitting behind me made $0 trading and got paid $4 million. This only offends you if you believe that there should be some nexus between performance and compensation. If you work at a bank and you believe this, then you are very naïve. I got tied up in knots about that for months, and made myself miserable. Let me say that again: I made myself miserable. Lehman Brothers didn’t make me miserable, I did. Or more precisely, I allowed Lehman Brothers to make me miserable. You can choose your reaction to any situation. It is a choice that we make. Ultimately, that made my decision—if Lehman paid me more money, I probably wouldn’t have left. I had the courage to change the things I could.

Am I going to go hungry?  No. Am I going to lose my house?  No. Am I going to lose my cats?  No. Everything else is gravy. Spiritual fitness doesn’t mean that you don’t care, or that you stop doing the work—au contraire, you work harder than ever. But if things don’t work out, you don’t internalize it. It’s not a failure. The only failure is when you don’t try as hard as you should. I have been guilty of that sometimes, too.

Wall Street is a giant fucking Ferris wheel of randomness. Some people are good. Some people are lucky. Some people deserve it. Some people don’t. We are not in charge. If God wanted you to have $20 million, you would have $20 million. Maybe you will, someday. We can’t predict the future.

Go fuck yourself,

Jared

Music Recommendation: Fur Coat – Hurricane feat. Running Pine (Tim Green Remix). One of my all-time favorites. Listen to that breakdown.

P.S. We’re Gonna Get Those Bastards will always be free. Feel free to forward to as many people as you like.