You look around at your peers and they are all taking the wrong drugs getting no where in life.
You’re only seventeen.
“I’m going to fix my life.” You mean it.
You tell your friends “I’m going to gain 10 pounds of raw muscle this year and lose my belly”. “Hahaha!” your friendzszs say.
Its been a year.
You look in the mirror, you benched 175 this year, you got down to 10% body fat, you walk on the beach one day in the summer and you notice that even these older broads are checking you out. You got a little bit more confidence. What else can I do?
It’s results day for college admissions. You didn’t get into that Ivy your mom told you to get into. You didn’t even get into a target school. Your friends come back and tell you it’s not possible to get into Investment Banking now, you’re not smart enough.
You’re stressed, but you believe in yourself. You lost all that muscle you built up because you’re working three finance jobs in college to make sure you can have a chance when you start cold calling those banks in 3 years. You’re getting no where. No one wants you in their office. You keep on grinding it out.
You get one hit from a boutique bank for an internship. You get the job. Maybe improvement isn’t linear. Maybe you’re friends were wrong. Maybe you can hack it.
You work 100 hour weeks. You thought 100 hours a week was easy, its not. That’s what you’ve been told to believe.You get the offer. You realize a lot of what you knew about finance was a myth. You saw a double jump in confidence and now you think you can hit those weights again because you earned a stripe in the war of life. You got a little bit more confidence. What else can I do?
You land a more prestigious job at a higher ranked bank in M&A because of your work experience. Everyone around you has that ivy league education. You’re dirt to them. You don’t care. The market is firing, deals are going and you’re the only one working 100+ hours a week and hasn’t complained once. Time passes. They tell you, “we think you’re going to be an associate you don’t need that MBA“. You got a little bit more confidence. What else can I do?
Your ego is getting a little too big. You’ve got a couple girlfriends who know you can’t commit. But you have that confidence still. You even kept the majority of that muscle.
You get into a fight at a club, you slipped up. Your arm is broken. You’re struggling at work but its fine. Seven months elapse, a large recession. You’re laid off. No one wants that young associate. Your girlfriends leave you in a blink.
You look at your life, all those hours are now worthless… so you think. No one is hiring. You’re broken down. You remember how you got that first job and think to yourself. I’ve been here before. I’ve seen this before.
You pound the phones, your ex-employer still loves you, eventually you get one interview. You nail it. It’s at a less prestigious firm but at least you’re still an associate. Time to get back to work.
Time elapses you’ve survived. They offer you a promotion. You accept. You recovered. You got a little bit more confidence. What else can I do?
Some time goes by. You’ve been doing better and better. Your body is returning to normal because you know only losers quit. You’re back to that weight room. You’re at a new high, you don’t even tell girls what you do for a living because you learned your lesson last time.
You decide to take a ski trip. When you’re coming down that hill you realize you took that speed up too high, you break your leg. You’re in the hospital again. I’ve been here before. I’ve seen this before.
You get through those airport security lines. You’re weaker than ever. Your superior lets you know “you know maybe we’ll promote you soon”. You can’t tell if he’s a lying stealing cheating banker. But you do know one thing. You got a little bit more confidence. What else can I do?
You’re getting read to sleep for more than 8 hours for the first time in years. As you’re drifting off to sleep you realize every time you recover you become a better man. I’ve been here before. I’ve seen this before.
I hope I get fired. You pass out.
