Kid Tetris

I had dinner with my dear friend The M&A Banker last week. He's fairly contemplative - he doesn't watch a lot of television, which probably helps that cause. But we were pondering how anti-social our jobs are, in that we are basically urchins or leeches or barnacles or whatever other small, kind of gross creature that latches onto other things, things that are stable or moving forward. But perhaps the worst sin is that we get young people interested in it, pulling them from happy, fulfilling lives of creating and doing.

Some men wrest a living on nature; this is called work.

Some men wrest a living on those who wrest a living on nature; this is called trade.

Some men wrest a living on those who wrest a living on those who wrest a living on nature. This is called finance

We talk about The Number once in a while. The Number that means you are done - you can leave, retire early, spend your days playing golf or sailing or whatever. Blessed with almost every opportunity one could imagine, people choose finance for the possibility that they will someday not have to do it.

I spent some time re-thinking my Number lately. Honestly - exactly how far away from the gutter am I? I could exit today and live, soaked in wine, for a decade in South America. Doing absolutely nothing. The Number is gauche, and the precise figure doesn't really matter, but it is worthwhile to think about what is enough. What you want, what you have, and what you actually need.

What is enough isn't really part of the vocabulary in our industry. And that it isn't says a lot about how far it has drifted from being an actual profession.

Several of my friends from school became priests. Or pastors, since they are all Lutheran. At the time, I rather envied their sense of direction and purpose and calling. Today I wonder more about locking up my worldview with my profession.