BART SCHANEMAN

I just don’t understand it. How do these people think everything in the world today wasn’t gotten by work? I made my money by doing what I was told I needed to do growing up–work hard, live clean, and do right by others. [The old man pauses to set his glasses down on the glass-topped end table next to his chair.] Take my son for instance–we didn’t exactly start in the same place, growing up he had next to nothing, I had nothing–but we’ve been doing the same thing for just about the same amount of time. When you’re talking about about me being 85 and him being 64, there’s not all that much difference. We’ve been in the same line of work, the same trade for at least 40 years, and what does he have? What does he have to show for his work? Almost nothing. Anyone can have children, that’s nothing. But to take what’s out there for yourself, to find ways to outsmart your fellow man–that takes work. Work and brains. And it doesn’t require a great amount of intelligence to work for someone else, to let someone do all the thinking for you. It’s easy to break your back swinging a hammer or work nights in a kitchen washing dishes. None of that takes a mind. You need ambition. You need drive to succeed in this world. The thing about money is that it’s everyone’s–it belongs to no one–and it’s yours for the taking. But you have to want to it. Most people either don’t want it or don’t know how to get it. [He calls to the kitchen: Ester! Can you bring me out a diet soda? And bring a Coke out for our guest.] A good woman is important, too. It’s important to find a good woman, get married, and for God’s sake keep it in your pants. I don’t know how many guys I’ve seen out there ruin everything out chasing women. You need a woman who doesn’t nag at you, who does a few things for herself, and, and I guess this is important for everyone, knows how to make herself happy. Someone with their own built-in happiness is going to be a lot stronger, have a lot more ways to keep herself entertained, that way you can focus on doing what you need to do, get done what you need to get done. Ester there [he nods out toward the kitchen and it is a dignified, respectful nod] she lets me work long hours. She lets me stay up at night in my self-imposed fits of insomnia, working out business problems, thinking about our future. And she never complains. Without her I’d be lost. And you can’t drink. You can’t gamble. Now there’s a few of them out there that drink and take big risks with their money, but for every one of them you hear about that’s a socialite and an alcoholic and a successful risk-taker, there are dozens just like them in the gutter. No. You have to play, not exactly by the rules, but play with the rules. Within the framework of the system there are ways to get ahead. By working long into the night, by trying new angles, by teaching yourself how to see the trends before they see you. You have to be aware. You have to keep your ear to the ground. I know you’re young, and you probably think you’re going to do a hell of a lot more than I did with your life–and I hope you do–but I also hope you realize that I’ve seen a lot of men and a lot of lives in my time and I can say with confidence that I would stack my achievements and the amount of work I’ve done up against theirs any time. And I’m still alive. There is still more to do.