During the summer of 1981, with the smell of chocolate in the air, I became the assistant manager in the games division of Hersheypark in Pennsylvania. My specialty within the chocolate-themed amusement park was running the water balloon race. You know the game —squirt water into a plastic clown’s mouth to blow up a balloon. The first one to pop their balloon won a bright yellow plush stuffed banana. I wanted to trade all that in for a management position. Looking back on it now is quite amusing. I was an 18-year-old kid attempting to manage other 18-year olds. Picture Doogie [...]
From 1995 through 2000, Wall Street was flooded with an army of twenty-somethings eager to prove that the Internet was the new frontier for business. The ubiquitous image of the Internet guru with a shaven head, a pierced ear, and a goatee, dressed from head to toe in black, was harshly juxtaposed against the New York Stock Exchange traders dressed in conservative suits and the daily power tie. Two completely different cultures were coming together for the very first time. Creative types were taking over Wall Street, and I was one of them. Awkward moments [...]