Week 4 – Day 22 on Wall Street

And so it starts…

Today was the first day of the 5 day intensive 8 hour course with another 4 hours of study time.  The guy teaching us is the founder of Knopman Financial Training.  He’s helped license over 80, 000 people for 30+ years with a very high pass rate for his classes.  Luckily, this guy doesn’t like being cold and got someone to turn up the temperature in the room to a toasty 67 degrees.  Lmao.

Also, I heard someone else got fired last Friday and someone might have gotten a warning about getting canned today.  LOL.  The CEO came on the PA this morning and talked about success and how people like Trump are not afraid to spend a lot of money to make a lot of money.  What’s the difference between him and some other real estate developer?  Confidence that the $2 billion he’s spending will be worth $5 billion later.  Spend money to make money.  “And I don’t mean going to a club and buying 10 bottles, because that to me is ridiculousness.”  Hahaha.

He talked about how he is also making investments and plans to take up four floors in our building.  When people are downsizing, we’re upsizing.  He described confidence and how you have to have it.  He described the difference between a $2000 suit and a $300 suit, and why he looks his best everyday.  Perception is everything.  Our firm is going to be featured in the movie Wall Street 2.  Oliver Stone researched 145 firms and picked us.  Why?  Because we have a special energy in this place.  Because we produce.

Out of nowhere, a beautiful blonde came in to attend the first class with us.  I think she might be taking the 7 as well to be a trader’s assistant or a broker’s assistant.  The business development head told us to not get distracted.  That’s another thing about this firm.  We hire beautiful assistants.   Again…perception is everything right?

The business development head told us we need to come into the firm to study instead of doing it at home.  This is so that we can be serious and really buckle down.  He said, “you have no idea how the real tests are going to be like.”  We’ll be taking a shitload of practice tests soon with hundreds and hundreds of questions.  We might feel discouraged at first and start doubting our ability to pass the test.  He wants us to spend every waking moment studying so we can get licensed as soon as possible.  The CEO wants us to stay until 10:30pm every night but we’re being let go at 8pm.  So…I guess I should feel gracious?

I’m into Week 4 and it’s a little overwhelming.  Not much time left.

Week 3 – Day 21 off Wall Street – Sunday!

Studied the book for a little bit today in preparation for this week’s physical and mental rape.

My father and I were at a store today and we ran into a next-door neighbor from the days of when I used to live in a 3br townhouse.  He’s a commodities broker for sugar.

I sent my watch in for a band adjustment, and I’ll get it back on Wednesday.  There’s a couple of things I want to get from JCrew…lets hope they have a sale soon or some sort of discount that applies to all merchandise.  Can’t blow too much money now but what can I say, I’m a big consumer.

Week 3 – Day 20 off Wall Street – Day Off

I have the day off this Saturday.  I haven’t been reading the book like I thought I would, but I’m about to start in an hour.

So I treated myself and just got this delivered to me today.  I need to make myself more flashy in my pinstripe suits.  This will do the job.

It features a mother of pearl patterned dial and it has 34 diamonds on the face.

Week 3 – Day 19 on Wall Street

Wall Street was very empty this morning.  Obviously everyone is sleeping or hungover except for a few crazy people like me.  For lunch, I went with a broker trainee to Georgio’s for pizza.  You walk down past the NYSE, The Setai, Bobby Vans Steakhouse, and Hermes, make a right at the first light and you’ll find a decent pizzeria.  Another person got shitcanned today, and a lot of trainees were shocked because it was this junior broker that they thought was doing well.  Some of the trainees smoked with him outside the building in the morning.  It’s like a revolving door at this firm, it just doesn’t seem like people last here very long.  Who’s it gonna be next week?

My friend’s cousin came up to the office today and we all went to Madison Ave/Midtown to check out places like Gucci, Bergdorf Goodman, Salvatore Ferragamo, and Dolce & Gabbana.  We were mostly looking at $300-$600 dress shirts from Turnbull & Asser and Charvet.  I didn’t buy anything.  There were tons of people out.  It’s Black Friday but these stores certainly don’t have discounts.

We made a quick pitstop at the Hilton in midtown, went all the way to the 44th floor, slipped into the executive lounge and basically ate the hors d’oeuvres for free even though we weren’t hotel guests.

Around 6pm, we went to DJ Reynolds for dinner to eat their $30 prime rib.  I have to say, it’s almost the same as Smith & Wollensky… yet at Smith & Wollensky, I paid like $60 for the steak and more than 2x more overall.  Now I’m with some family for a post-Thanksgiving function.  Not a bad day.

Week 3 – Day 18 – HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope today, tomorrow (Black Friday), Saturday, and Sunday will be excellent for everyone.

I’ll be waking up in about 5-6 hours, and I’ll probably be seeing a lot of people out and about lined up for the insane shopping tomorrow.

Holidays used to be so much more festive when I was a kid in the 90s.  Now it’s just eh.

Week 3 – Day 17 on Wall Street

On 4.5 hours of sleep this morning, I rolled into the lobby in a grey pinstripe suit with my Ray Bans looking pretty clutch.  I have to say that wearing these power suits really helps motivate me and it gives me a lot of confidence when I walk around.  It’s psychologically important to feel like a million bucks.  If you dress like shit, you’re going to feel like shit.  If you feel like shit at this job, you’re not going to last long.  There’s 12 of us right now.  Highly unlikely that we’ll all make it.

The training room is actually probably in the high 50’s or about 60 degrees.  I know I said 65 but the room is colder than the temperature outside.  I’m surprised I haven’t gotten sick.  Today I got out early at 4pm because it’s Thanksgiving Eve.  No Black Friday for me because I have to go into work on Friday, although I’ll probably go look around after work.  No such thing as vacation here until you’re a big producer.

The work hours compared to compensation right now is extremely disproportionate, but that will change after I work my fucking ass off.  I mean really work my ass off.  People think they work hard, but if I may be so bold to say, many of them have no clue what hard work really means.

I’m naturally a lazy person, but I have a high tolerance for pain and I’ve taken on a lot of jobs with little to zero compensation.  I’ve put in a lot of time and effort only to go nowhere in a LOT of things.  There’s so many times where I just wanted to give up on everything.  Now I’m pretty good at just moving forward and not looking back.

Week 3 – Day 16 on Wall Street

Got home at 10:30pm once again…I have to goto sleep soon so that I’m able to study tomorrow for another 12 hours straight.

They have us wound up pretty tight.  One of us got sent home today because he didn’t bring his nametag.  Haha.  Don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.  I mean, he gets to go back to sleep and study whenever he wants.

The training room that we study in is kept at 65 degrees or less so that we don’t fall asleep.  It works because it’s extremely uncomfortable, but sometimes I end up having 20 second blackouts where I think I’m looking at a page, but I’m actually sleeping with my eyes open.  There are four security cameras, one in each corner of the room monitoring us.  There are mics so they can hear what we’re talking about.  We basically have to study our fucking asses off this week.  The managing director told us that “you have to study until your heads hit the fucking table.”  He wasn’t being mean, he was being serious.  They’re trying to get us licensed as quickly as possible and we don’t have a lot of time to study and pass this test.  There’s only one shot to pass it.  There’s no retaking it at this firm.

The book is like 700 pages long with 17 chapters.  It’s not exactly a fun read.  Imagine cramming something that should take several months to learn in one week.  I have to finish this book by next week and at least semi-understand most of it.  There’s a five day intensive course next week where we go over everything for 10+ hours everyday.

Last night when I got back home, I immediately went to the supermarket to buy snacks and a case of Rockstar Energy.  The shit is starting to hit the fan.

 

Week 3 – Day 15 on Wall Street

Got home late tonight at around 10:30pm.  I need to goto sleep soon and be ready for tomorrow.  My personal life is pretty much gone, but they did say “tell your friends and family you won’t see them for a month or two.”  Basically, anyone who’s not with you is against you.

We were in the training classroom all day today from 7:30am to 8:30pm.  Yes, you have to go into the office to study.  You can’t study at home.  On top of that, I don’t think we get paid during this study period.

A new group of trainees started today.  They had to remember the same pitch as me, and present it to a guy who’s now my senior broker.  As expected, these guys started shitting their pants when it came time to actually do the pitch.  People think it’s easy to remember a few lines on a piece of paper, but when you’re being drilled by senior brokers, it’s different.

Occasionally, I feel like I might snap and have a physical/mental/emotional breakdown because there’s all this stuff I will have to sacrifice in my life.  Then as I walk through Manhattan and I see homeless people and the average Joe, I remember that I’ve been presented with an opportunity that few will get.  You have to go through hell to get to heaven.  I forget sometimes.

Week 2 – Day 14 off Wall Street – Sunday!

Forgot to post for Sunday so here it is.

I basically didn’t do anything but relax and look for things to buy.

The End.

Week 2 – Day 13 on Wall Street

Didn’t go into Wall St today but I did have to go into Manhattan to do some research.

I got back yesterday at 3:45am in the fucking morning, and I almost died while driving because I was so tired.  I was supposed to be in Manhattan at 10am today, but instead I got there at 1:45pm.  I walked around Herald Square and there were tons of people out shopping and enjoying their lives.  I have to put that on hold for a while.

Nothing really special today.  I have absolutely no motivation to go be social with people right now.  On the bright side, tomorrow is Sunday.