The Way of the Wall Street Warrior

CHAPTER 30The Afterlife: Now What?

The first time I got an inkling that I wasn't exactly in the Mother Teresa of professions was at a roadshow. These are in-person meetings where a company's management pitches itself to investors. Bankers attend these meetings primarily as chaperones, but investors generally don't like them in these meetings because even though they know we've coached management, they're hoping they can get the real skinny on the business by catching management with their pants down. I was in a meeting where one investor asked my CEO client, “Why are you hanging around with scum like him?” as he nodded in my direction. He added that I represented the worst of humankind, then paused. After some contemplation, he pointed his stubby finger at me and said, “Actually, he's a notch above pedophile.”

It was early in my career and even if I believed I was doing God's work, there were many people who thought that being a Wall Street banker wasn't exactly an honorable profession. I could make the same argument for almost every profession except for those that actually save lives or souls. But despite my moral justification, it did make me wonder how long I wanted to stay just a gnat's hair above pedophile? Eventually, I'd need to answer the question, “What comes next?”

A very successful entrepreneur, who started multiple companies, once told me there are no such things as bad services or products, just bad distribution. In many respects, he's right. With almost eight ...