Quote:
Originally Posted by strelnik
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To me, the biggest forces at work are: focus and ambition. many people don't focus, really focus and identify what they want in life, then figure out how to get it, understanding that the way things change may disrupt some of their plans.
I originally wanted to be a language teacher. I hooked up with a university that needed people to go overseas and test the feasibility of a foreign exchange program. I worked my butt off when there. 52 hours a week, spread over 6 days. Actually got a separate foreign degree.
I returned, finished school, got drafted. Instead of spending my time in the infantry as a draftee, I parlayed my original term of service into special duty, by talking all the government language exams and maxing them. I ended up doing quasi-diplomatic work. I used that later to get an appointment to do officer work and used the GI Bill to get an MA.
From there I went to business and emphasized the skills I had, and got hired "in case we have to deal with the French and the French Canadians." I parlayed that into an international business career and learned other languages and things got better over 25 years. I met guys inside the company who were average Joes like me, they helped me see how people saved money and so I was able to set aside for retirement.
I went back into the Army and government service for a while and they always need people who speak other languages and don't have a criminal record. That worked out ok, I met more average Joes and set aside more cash.
It's all about the focus. Here's an example.
My son got a sizeable inheritance as an insurance settlement when his mother died. He has run through the GI Bill benefits he received from me. And another 30% of the inheritance.
I sent him a note the other day that his lack of responding to investments which I told him about has cost him $ 14,000 of missed investmnent profit. If he goes broke, TS for him. He keeps telling me he's gonna do something, but I haven't see him come to me with a checkbook in hand to establish a brokerage account.
He could start increasing his income through investments or he could piddle it away and and be a burly hipster living in thje cool part of town, smoking hand-rolled cigarettes of custom tobacco.
As much as I hate to say it, being a father, it's his choice on what to focus on as he finishes the last few credits of his degree, which he has been procrastinating on.
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Great story, Strelnik! If attention is given to the task at hand, it can many times lead to a very worthwhile life of work history.
Depending on his age, he may just need some hands on guidance, or shown the way by doing, not just advising him. 26 years ago, I had dinner with a retired colleague of my Father's in Albuquerque, NM while on a business trip there. He and his Wife had accumulated a couple million dollas in stocks through prodigious saving, were in their late 60s, and were just starting their retirement. He related how his Father had taken him by the hand back in the 1930s to the stock broker's office to get him aware of it. About the illegal drug usage you hinted at? I don't think there's much you can do about that, especially if he's well into his 20s/30s. However, habits can be changed sometimes with a sudden turn in direction for the better.
09-19-2013, 03:24 PM
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