Money Makes People Do Strange Things. (9 minutes)

0:02and have the ability to grow are in business fields where there's no cap on how much they can make. That's when I decided to leave the computer business and explore other opportunities. with the owners. And I definitely did not want to be an owner of a store like that, so I left. I ran into an old high school buddy, and he told me, "Listen, you should go into the car business." I said, "Okay, fine. Let me go into the car business." So I go meet somebody in the car business, and I have a meeting with the owner. And he said, "Oh, come in, come in." I told him, "Wait a second. You know, I'm young. I'm 18 years old, and I have a ponytail. Wait, before I spend any time here." Do you mind telling me how much your top guy makes? The guy was taken aback. He's like 50 or 60 years old. He sees this little kid asking, "How much does the top guy make?" He says, "Maybe like $150,000." I said, "Okay, thank you. I'm not interested."

1:15I said, "What? What do you mean you're not interested?" He said, "No, I'm already making a little over $100,000 and I've only been there for a year. If your top guy is making $150,000, that means he's been there for at least five years. For me to wait five years for another $50,000 is a waste of my time. Call it big-headed, naive, or what you want. Ambitious." So then this friend told me, "I think you're crazy, but if you want, you can get into the business I'm in, but you're definitely not going to make the money that you're making now." I said, "What do you do?" He says, "I'm a stockbroker. The guys that work in my office, my bosses, make a lot of money. They make real money. But it takes a while." I said, "OK, introduce me to them. I always liked business. I heard a little bit about the stock market. I invested a few dollars into it. Why not?" I went into this office, much like if anyone has ever watched the movie "Boiler Room." It was filled with a bunch of crooks stealing money from people. That was the kind of office I stepped into. Unaware of all the stealing and shady activities taking place, I walked in and noticed that everyone was young, mostly in their mid-twenties to early thirties. There were Ferraris, Porsches, and various types of brand new cars in the parking lot. Everyone was wearing brand new suits that cost at least a thousand dollars.

2:28I said, "Okay, I'm making money, but these guys are really doing it. So I asked the guy, 'What do I do?' He says, 'Listen, you make some calls to prospect people. You don't make any actual sales. You have to study for a test, and then you start working.' I said, 'Okay, how much money do I make?' He says, 'You make $250 a week. You make $1,000 a month, which is pretty much what I was making in a few days.' I said, 'Okay, no problem.'" Can I start tomorrow? He said, "Yeah, sure." Okay. So I started working. This place was in Staten Island, New York. A month into it, I started noticing that things were a little strange in this office. I wasn't making any sales. I was just learning or asking people if they were interested in hearing from my firm or getting a package from the firm. But a month into it, We had to start work early. We had to start work at 8 o'clock in the morning on the dot and leave at 8 o'clock at night with, I think, about a half-hour break a day. Long schedule, tough schedule, but you can manage. So one day at 7:58 in the morning, I'm reading the Wall Street Journal because I'm starting to learn about this business. I got into it, and my boss gets into the office very angry, and he looks at me in the office. He goes, "What are you doing? Get on the phone." I have a little bit of self-respect. I don't like it when people yell at me. So I told him, "Okay, relax. It's 7:58." So him with his Italian hothead, "Relax, you relax, get out of here, you're fired, go home."

3:52I have a little bit of self-respect. I don't like when people yell at me. So I told him, okay, relax. It's 7:58. So he, with his Italian hothead, says, "Relax? You relax. Get out of here. You're fired. Go home." I said, "Are you sure?" He was all pumped up and, you know, all gassed up. And I'm talking, "Are you sure?" I'm very calm and collected, not understanding why he's so angry at 7:58 in the morning. He said, "Yeah, get out." I said, "Okay, fine." I leave. See, the Yetzer Hara works in this lecture also. I forgot to turn on the iPad. It's okay. So... I leave the office. Maybe about an hour later, my friend calls me. He says, "Listen, he said you can come back." I said, "I'll never work for him again. I don't work for people that talk to me like that." A few days later, I find another job at another brokerage firm in the city. It's a small firm, and the guy there is very ambitious, very hungry.

5:07is very ambitious, very hungry, and in a much smaller office with only a few people. The first office had at least 100 people, while this place only has maybe three or four. However, he's very ambitious, very bold, and very arrogant. He also happens to be a friend of my brother's, so I begin working for him. Within a few months, I start training other people, and on the side, I'm spending as much time as I possibly can learning about this business. I worked for him for the next year and a half to two years. After two years, I realized that he's the only one actually making money. I'm only making, at best, maybe $1,200 a month, while he's buying Porsches, houses, jewelry for his family, and everything in between. It's just unbelievable, and I still could barely survive. So after a couple of years of doing this, I decide that it's time for me to leave. We get into a disagreement. I walk away and go back into the electronics business for a few more months. Then, the firm next door, which was actually a big firm, calls me and asks if I want to come back to the business. One of the guys there offers me a deal. He says, "Listen, if you come in, I'll be your partner. We'll split. You won't be a trainee. You'll actually be a real broker."

6:27and you won't work for me, you'll actually be a partner." I said, okay, that sounds good. Before that, I want to get my own licenses and so on. So I take my licenses, I pass the tests, and I start working somewhere around July of 2001, a couple of months before a very interesting event happened in the world—July or June of 2001, something like that. So anyway, I start working and within a few days, I realize that my so-called partner is a very lazy person. I'm showing up to the office at 7 o'clock in the morning. He shows up somewhere around 10:30 or 11:00. He leaves at 3:30 or 4:00, while I leave at 8:00 or 9:00. Quite a different schedule! After a month of working, our deal was that he was supposed to pay me $2,200 a month just as a draw until I actually start making money from commissions from all these clients that I'm bringing in. After a month passes, I tell him, okay, I need my money. And he tells me, no, no, I hold the first check in case you mess up. What a nice guy. So the owner of the branch doesn't say anything. The rest of the people in the office, who know this guy is not exactly the most honest person on earth, don't say anything. They're being politically correct. So another month passes.

7:53I said, okay, now you owe me $4,400. I've brought in 25 accounts, which is a lot considering. Pay me my money. And he gives me a check for $81.12, a personal check nonetheless. So I said, what's this? Lunch money? And he says to me, no, this is what we earned from the commissions. I'm like, this is not what we earned from the commissions. Just from the accounts that I brought in, we earned a few thousand dollars. He goes, no, but I had this expense and that expense and this expense and that expense. But it has nothing to do with our deal. He goes, what deal? I said, the deal that you told me to get me in here where you told me that you're going to pay me $2,200 just to walk in as a draw and I'll pay you back. Because we have a contract. I said, "What contract? No, you told me you're going to give it to me. What do you mean contract? I don't remember telling you anything like that." As you learn from the rest of the story, money makes people do strange things. If you ever want to get to know someone, put a lot of money in front of them, and they'll mutate into what they really are. When someone doesn't have money, they're usually nice unless they're very bitter.

9:09But when someone has a lot of money, suddenly gets rich quickly, they usually become a little bit different person than the person they were when they didn't have money.