Legend has it that in 1923, a meeting of America’s most powerful men took place at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. Attending the meeting were the following nine financiers and power brokers:
the president of America’s largest steel company,
the president of America’s largest utility company,
the president of America’s largest gas company,
the president of the New York Stock Exchange,
the president of the Bank of International Settlements,
the nation’s greatest wheat speculator,
the nation’s greatest bear and speculator on Wall Street,
the head of the world’s greatest monopoly
a member of President Harding’s cabinet.
It was said to have been both a celebration of their success as well as an opportunity to plan their future exploits and dominance. These were the captains of their respective industries and some of the most successful businessmen of the era.
But how did things turn out for these distinguished gentlemen? Within 25 years, all of these great men had met a horrific end to their careers or their lives:
The president of the largest steel company,Charles Schwab, died a bankrupt man; the president of the largest utility company, Samuel Insull, died penniless; the president of the largest gas company, Howard Hobson, suffered a mental breakdown, ending up in an insane asylum; the president of the New York Stock Exchange, Richard Whitney, had just been released from prison; the bank president, Leon Fraser, had taken his own life; the wheat speculator, Arthur Cutten, died penniless; the head of the world’s greatest monopoly, Ivar Krueger the “match king”, also had taken his life; and the member of President Harding’s cabinet, Albert Fall, had just been given a pardon from prison so that he could die at home.
And as for the Wall Street Bear, Jesse Lauriston Livermore, famous speculator in the stock and commodities markets, his end is perhaps the most tragic of all. A week after Thanksgiving in 1940, Jesse walked into the Sherry-Netherland Hotel in New York, had two drinks at the bar while scribbling something in his notebook, then proceeded to the cloak room where he sat on a stool and shot himself in the head. He was 62 and left behind $5 million, down from the $100 million fortune he had amassed just ten years earlier.
And the note he had scribbled?
“My dear Nina: Can’t help it. Things have been bad with me. I am tired of fighting. Can’t carry on any longer. This is the only way out. I am unworthy of your love. I am a failure. I am truly sorry, but this is the only way out for me. Love Laurie”
There are three major lessons we can take from this parable:
1. Those who are on top now are not certain to finish in that position and are not guaranteed everlasting success or happiness.
2. Be careful whom you choose to idolize.
3. The life of a professional speculator is an unpleasant one, filled with highs and lows but ultimately unsatisfying and, in all probability, mentally ruinous. Look no further than the example of history’s greatest speculator for proof of this.
Title
[…]Here is a great Weblog You may Come across Fascinating that we Encourage You[…]
The Absent Game
In between me and my husband we’ve owned much more MP3 gamers through the years than I can count, which include Sansas, iRivers, iPods (common & touch), the Ibiza Rhapsody, etc. But, the last few a long time I’ve settled down to one line of players.
Thorn of Girl
Excellent data can be uncovered on this world wide web blog site.
Title
[…]The details talked about inside the article are a few of the best out there […]
Title
[…]just beneath, are various totally not related sites to ours, nonetheless, they may be certainly worth going over[…]
Title
[…]Every when in a even though we pick out blogs that we read. Listed below would be the latest websites that we pick out […]
Title
[…]just beneath, are a lot of entirely not connected websites to ours, nonetheless, they may be certainly worth going over[…]
Title
[…]very few sites that transpire to be detailed beneath, from our point of view are undoubtedly well worth checking out[…]
Title
[…]Here is a good Weblog You might Locate Exciting that we Encourage You[…]
Title
[…]Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine some unrelated data, nonetheless definitely worth taking a appear, whoa did a single understand about Mid East has got more problerms too […]
Title
[…]although web sites we backlink to below are considerably not associated to ours, we feel they’re truly really worth a go via, so have a look[…]
Title
[…]we came across a cool web-site that you may well delight in. Take a search for those who want[…]
Title
[…]please take a look at the sites we stick to, such as this a single, because it represents our picks through the web[…]
Title
[…]here are some hyperlinks to web pages that we link to for the reason that we consider they’re really worth visiting[…]
Title
[…]just beneath, are various entirely not related sites to ours, however, they may be surely worth going over[…]