| What do you imagine will make you happy, free and | | | | the life you always dreamed about. Wouldn't you? |
| satisfied? Will it be something as simple as surviving | | | | Or, perhaps, you'd still have a dream. Cohen certainly |
| the week and getting to the weekend? Will it be | | | | does. In the article, he expresses his dream this way: |
| that week long vacation you've been dreaming | | | | "I've been to the top of the mountain and there's |
| about? Will it be a promotion at work or a pay | | | | not much there. My dream is to liberate myself." |
| increase? How about a new home? Are you imagining | | | | He's still not "liberated?" You would think that Cohen |
| that retirement will give you the time to write your | | | | would be plenty "liberated" but, clearly, he doesn't |
| novel? Or are you thinking that if you sacrifice now | | | | experience himself as a free man. |
| to have "enough money" in the future, all will be well? | | | | In fact, he can never be free. He is shackled to |
| It's a common human tendency to think that, while | | | | himself. We all are. |
| the "here and now" may not make us happy, the | | | | If you ever say, "Someday I will..." or "If only I |
| "there and then" certainly will. If this is true for you, | | | | could..." or "When I get to..." you're experiencing some |
| consider the case of Steve Cohen, the subject of a | | | | of these same shackles. Some people have been |
| July 2010 Vanity Fair Magazine article ("What's Eating | | | | shackled this way their entire lives. |
| Steve Cohen"). | | | | Remember when we imagined that our first date, |
| After attending the University of Pennsylvania, Cohen | | | | first job, first apartment, first house, first marriage, |
| got a job at an old and prestigious brokerage firm | | | | first anything would make us happy only to find we |
| called Gruntal & Co where he discovered his talent | | | | weren't quite as liberated as we had hoped? |
| for picking stocks. When he was in his mid 20s, he | | | | Remember when we thought that a raise in our |
| was earning "5 million dollars in a so-so year, 10 million | | | | allowance as a child, and our pay or our bonuses as |
| dollars in a good one." | | | | adults would make us happy only to discover that |
| Today, at the age of 56, Cohen is the founder and | | | | the extra money was never quite enough? |
| CEO of SAC Capital Investors, a 12 billion dollar hedge | | | | Nothing will make us happy, not even being the 36th |
| fund with 800 employees. He lives in a 30-room | | | | wealthiest person in America, unless we choose to |
| mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut that has its own | | | | be so. |
| basketball court and two-hole golf course. He is | | | | As Jillian Lauren puts it in the June 27th, 2010 New |
| worth at least 6.4 billion dollars and, according to | | | | York Times ("Finding Marriage Without Losing A |
| Forbes Magazine, is the 36th wealthiest American. | | | | Self"), "...what it took for me to change wasn't one |
| Imagine yourself in Cohen's position. Materially, you | | | | big vow made at the climactic moment, but a series |
| have everything you could every want. You could | | | | of small and consistent daily decisions..." |
| walk away from work and do whatever you choose. | | | | We must choose to be happy now and now and |
| Your children and grandchildren would have enough | | | | now. If we don't, now turns into never and |
| money to live the life of their dreams. You'd be living | | | | "liberation" remains as elusive as ever. |